Fujifilm X T3 F Log High Contrast ProRes Ninja Flame – RW test

A VERY short Fujifilm XT-3 real-world contrast test.

I shot a few contrast-rich scenes with contrast ratios exceeding 10 stops in some occasions, to test the F-Log and sensor performance.

Very harsh, very bright directional light at 12:00 noon.

Exposed-to-the-right, trying to balance between retaining shadow detail and not blowing out the HLs too much.

Lens: Fuji 50mm F2 + B&W Polarizer filter
Recorded in Prores-HQ 10 bit 4:2:2 on the Ninja V
X-T3 settings used: DCI 4K, HDMI output, Boost mode, Sharpness and Noise Reduction dialed down, No temporal noise reduction, No peripheral light correction, F-log.

Edited and cropped to 2:1 aspect; no scaling. Minor color correction, only blacks, mids and highlights adjusted.

The X-T3 held out great! Watch the fine detail and the shadow detail. It’s phenomenal – our Panasonic GH5-S is no match for this camera; the Fuji it blows it out of the water!

The Ninja-V was NOT behaving as expected; it still needs some special treatment when used with the Fuji X-T3. E.g: if you end a recording via the camera, the Ninja will flash black and the kangaroo icon appears; after that, most of the time, the Ninja will stutter and you will have to remove and plugin the HDMI. Nothing that a firmware update can’t fix i guess.

The X-T3 performed as expected, only…. i have two stuck pixels that are very dim and only visible in the shadows. It is no big deal; these pixels are so small. You have to know where they are, and disappear if you lower the blacks on the F-Log image. This is a €1.450 camera, so no complaints here!

GH2 HDMI output recorded with Atomos NINJA

Ninja Graffiti by Martin Beek / http://www.marvelsfilm.com

Recorded at the annual Graffiti event in downtown Eindhoven (The Netherlands) using the Panasonic GH2 and Atomos Ninja digital recorder. The Ninja is a GREAT sub-1000 euro ProRes422(HQ) HDMI recorder from http://www.atomos.com .

I’ve used the GH2’s Smooth picture profile (all settings on -2 except for color saturation at -1) and Voigtlander Nokton 25mm/f0.95 lens with Fader ND filter. Aperture fixed at f2.8. Mixed 160 and 320 ISO.

Quality of the footage is stunning; it’s a pity that i had to convert it to H.264 to upload to YouTube, plus the extra compression crap that is added during YouTube’s conversion.

You can download the original hires/hi-Q input file (H.264, not the FCP ProRes444) from the Vimeo page at : http://vimeo.com/user6312268/gh2cleanhdmininja

Music: “Yeah Yeah” by “Bodyrox featuring Luciana”. Buy the music here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/yeah-yeah/id211458233

HDMI Ninja-recorder footage was deinterlaced, decrippled and converted to uncompressed 4:2:2 “fcp-ready” footage by using the free AviSynth and FFMpeg tools as described here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?237584-HDMI-Capture-Problem-SOLVED-AviSynth-RULES! and here: https://marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/gh2-hdmi-recording-avisynth-script-update/

Cheers!

High ISO Noise Reduction on Canon DSLR cameras explained

High ISO Noise Reduction is a new feature that’s appeared on recent EOS Digital SLRs.  As of early 2009, it’s a Custom Function choice in the EOS Rebel XS.

The new High ISO Noise Reduction feature gives a further option for users of recent EOS cameras to improve the quality of their images.

It has a noticeable impact on the level of visible noise in shots taken at higher ISO levels, and can even have a positive effect on an image at lower ISOs (if it’s subsequently lightened using image-editing software).  Especially if you shoot JPEG images (MB: and video), we strongly recommend trying the different settings to see the effect it will have on your images.  For RAW shooters, it can also make a noticeable difference in how Canon’s software processes your images — although with Digital Photo Professional software, you’re free to independently adjust chrominance and luminance noise reduction beyond the initial in-camera settings.  More than ever, today’s digital SLRs are capable of excellent pictures at ISOs that were unthinkable just a few years ago.

With Canon’s most recent digital SLRs, the High ISO Noise Reduction technology is an important reason why.

Read this very interesting and informative article by the Canon Digital Learning Center