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Help processing Ikonoskop DNGs


Simon Lucas

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Lucky to have an Ikonoskop on loan but can't process the DNG footage. Going slightly mad trying to work up a simple workflow so I can just do some edits. My shots are all indoors with available light and gain turned up. They look great just opened up and tweaked a little in Photoshop.

 

I used to using AE for editing and it does a great and easy job on the DNGs but too slow to use. 4+ hours to render 8 mins.

 

So, trying to make Prores files:

 

DaVinci Lite does a great job on the DNGs but it practically melts my 2009 MacBook Pro's GPU (GT 9600MT) causing system shutdown

 

Speedgrade CS6 works fine on my Mac but the DNGS look awful, very dark, and red. Each clip needs special attention and once I have balanced the DNGS they then all have green shadows. The Speedgrade process seems too difficult for me. I read here about debayering but don't know if that is the problem or how to solve it. I also read that despite the Ikonoksop WB settings in SG6 it ignores all the camera metadata settings - which probably accounts for the darkness of the shots. Aside from that the SGcs6 output then seems to ignore all the grading applied (at the moment).

 

My only practical solution is to make tifs which at least AE can use happily.Obviously then I'd have to switch out these proxies at the end for a final graded high quality render:

 

1. import each shot folder into Lightroom and output as tifs into separate shot folders for use in AE. Laborious workflow.

2. Do the same with photoshop using the Adobe RaW interface to process each image in each folder. Still slow and a bit Laborious but workable.

 

What I'd really like is a solid and clear Speedgrade workflow that produces images as good as Photoshop/AE and can output all the clips as prores. Has anyone done this, please? I'm not clear how anyone without DaVinci can work with this footage in any practical sense. Is there a way? Thank-you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm working on a short film shot on the Ikeaskop now - I found the same thing AE transcode time's were unworkable and I had 2 high spec power Mac's to throw at it.

 

In the end we used resolve to do the transcodes, the full version not the light version. From what I remember it worked fine and was vastly quicker then AE. I will ask my editor if he had to do anything special. But as far as I was aware the workflow of using resolve to make pro-rez proxies and reconfirming the DNG in resolve worked ok. The main resolve problems we had were due to clashes with OS - it can be picky. So it can be made to work - if I find out any other tips I'll report back.

 

We are still battling through the grade and trying to fix some of the cameras quirks - such as the way it segments the sensor into 4 quadrants with different black levels. Personally I would be wary about using the Ikon again for import projects - the workflow is quite clunky and we got quite a few ugly image artefacts - such as vertical flairs that stop abruptly at the centre of the screen and strange green artefacts on high contrast scenes.

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Phil, I know my post/question was long, but if you had read it you'd quickly see that I know it can be done in Da Vinci Resolve. I think it is known that that is the best and easiest solution, but I cannot use it on my MacBook Pro. Let me repeat, DaVinci Resolve melts my GPU. So I need a non-Resolve solution, please.

 

Also, I'm not particularly interested in bashing the Swedish-designed/built Ikonoskop. I like it. It was/is a fine camera. I like the quality of what comes out of it. ;)

Edited by Simon Lucas
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Phil – sorry if my reply was a bit blunt...

 

At least your response made me go back to DaVinci and try again. This time I reduced the output fps to 1. I then queued up my clips, got one rendered but then it bombed my machine again.

 

I have found that if I render the clips one by one at 1fps I can keep the CPU temp. to under 96 C. I also reduced the quality to proxy which may have helped. And that way I have managed to output three clips tonight without it bombing. So, at least I will be able to get my clips down to prores and be able do an edit. Feel much more positive after what seems like hours and days of trial and error!

 

And Resolve does a good default job on reading the Cinema DNGs - so it is a huge step forward after my attempts with SG.

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