Matching BM Ursa Mini 4K and Sony a6500

[Martin Klabus]

So I will be shooting a short miniseries (as a cinematographer) within a few weeks.

The production will be using Blackmagic URSA Mini 4K as our A camera and Sony a6500 as our B-cam. Most of the scenes will be shot A-cam only - especially interiors with good lighting. Sony a6500 will be used as our lowlight camera, since there are some night exteriors that Ursa won't be able to handle. The a6500 will also be used as a rigging camera (car scenes, gimbal etc.). There are also some dialogue scenes that call for two camera setups. Canon EF lenses will be used on both cameras. We will be shooting flat 4K 24fps for the most part (ProRes 422 on Ursa and X-AVC S 4K 100M on Sony). The mood of the series is quite naturalistic, so no extreme color grading or special effects.

Is there anybody with any experience using Ursa Mini 4K as an A-cam and Sony a6500 as a B-cam? I'm looking for some advice on how to match the two systems in-camera (picture profiles and such), in post and on how to successfully work with both systems on the same project. How easily do the two cameras match color-wise? Slog2 or Slog3 on Sony? How problematic is the difference between 8-bit and 10-bit color (do I absolutely need an external recorder for a6500?) and what to shoot the daytime 120fps slow-mo on?

Thanks a lot ?
Cheers, Martin

 

[Jay Young]

Having shot with both cameras, ACES will be your friend. 

[David Peterson]

On 10/19/2019 at 8:30 AM, Martin Klabus said:

How problematic is the difference between 8-bit and 10-bit color (do I absolutely need an external recorder for a6500?)

Any external recorder will not give you 10bit recordings from any Sony mirrorless camera