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Dynamic Range / Latitude
  • Do the different patches increase dynamic range of the GH2? If so - has it already been measured how many more stops a patch can do by comparison with the unhacked GH2?
  • 61 Replies sorted by
  • Only indirectly: you can pull up the dark areas more with the higher bitrates without getting annoying macro-block noise. But i'd say you won't gain more than one stop, maybe. After all, it's still 8 depth bits you record.
  • I know Chris is looking into film modes. Maybe in his research he'll find a way to load custom color profiles. A flat s-log like profile could extend the latitude a little.
  • I would die for a S-Log... the only thing I miss about my 7D is the latitude for post coloring
  • If I'm not mistaken the 7D has even less latitude than the unhacked GH2.
  • not in cinestyle picture profile... as a colorist the cinestyle profile is god in the DSLR world... as close to an s-log as it gets infcat it IS a LogC profile
  • the latitude of the GH2 even with driftwoods newest GOP1 doesnt get anywhere near a canon in cinestyle
  • I'd let driftwood answer this since he owns a 5DMKII and 7D
  • I have not used cinestyle yet, I got rid of my 7D before it came out. I was more referring to the stock camera.
  • @proaudio4 I too am a 7D, 5D, RED shooter, as a matter of fact my sundance film this year was shot all on 7D's... the cinestyle is at least 3 stops better than the GH2 even hacked and in nostalgic -2,-2,0,-2

    @brian202020 yeah you are correct then... the 7D blows in standard picture style
  • Are the new film modes hacks on gh1/gh2 in the works result in something to having like cinestyle look on 7d or 5d?
  • @PerryWilson can explain how is possible for cinestyle to increase the DR by 3 stops?


  • @sammy, for your first question IDK, i havent seen any new film modes yet... I wish I had. and yeah Technicolor designed a LogC style contrast curve, flattening it across the entire range... here is an example I did... self explanatory...
  • its not actually 3 stops, on the software side of it, it is actually apparent DR, and NLE's dont notice a difference
  • It also gives better latitude for grading which is what I do... here is two screen grabs from two of my films... with cinestyle I had the range to be able to crush the blacks on my own, instead of being stuck with them already crushed... this results in cleaner lows
    175771_2243692102327_1548861078_2403043_8145168_o.jpg
    1440 x 1800 - 118K
    289022_2243692582339_1548861078_2403044_2459793_o.jpg
    1440 x 1800 - 131K
  • @PerryWilson

    That's a nice grade. Once you get the hang filming on the GH2, let us know how it compares. thx
  • Thanks Perry.
    Those examples certainly look good.
  • @Hallvalla I will... and Ill be converting footage to Cineform 10bit 4:2:2 and the Canons wont know what happened
  • @PerryWilson
    You realize transcoding a 8bit 420 codec to a 10bit 422 codec doesn't make it better right?
  • it does when you run it through neat video, unsharp mash, sharpening, and a gaussain... heres a tuitorial


    also here is the difference in cineform and stock GH2 footage
    tell me which one has more latitude
  • I think you're both correct. You can't add what wasn't actually there in the first place.

    But, I use a modified version of the Robino Films workflow. My GH-2 footage comes out looking great. I can push the heck out of it without ANY noise artifacts. Been using Neat Video for the last four years... and never thought to use just Low frequency removal. I lose NO detail and the image is so robust.

    I'm convinced cameras like Sony f3s and Nikon DLSRs use some sort of "automatic" low frequency noise reduction in their cams. Sometimes it seems like a little too much (glossy looking images). Sort of like GH-2's sharpening....no matter how much we feel it's turned off at -2....the camera still adds it in there agiants our will. Pure speculation....I know. :-)
  • @PerryWilson
    From your second video (10:01):
    "I've gone thru the process of lowering the contrast and effectively up-sampling it to 10bit from 8bit. Now let's get this straight, we're not filling in any missing numbers we're just massaging the numbers a little so we can get more performance from them. Then a little bit of noise reduction as well to get rid of extraneous noise in the video files. It also does a bit of dithering which kind of helps to reducing the banding."

    He's talking about a workflow that definitely helps with 8bit files, but like he said your not actually filling in the missing numbers. Good work flow tho, I use a similar workflow.
  • no I know that, I know I cant add a 2 on that 4:2:0 lol but I can bring it as close as possible with those tools... the DR of the GH2 is no bueno when I place it with my RED footage(OBVIOUSLY) but I can still get it close
  • Now we just need some kind of uploadable s-log like color profile, and the GH2 will be even more amazing. Hopefully Chris comes thru with something good.
  • if we had an s-log or even a flat picture style this camera would be untouchable
  • better then RED for most of my work, just saying