Guy mastrion

This is extremely tricky but there is a method to help guide your judgement on set that involves setting up a measuring station, if you will, with a black flag, a small light and using a spot meter. Here's a link to a great post about the method from Jay Holben -I could not possibly explain it better. https://www.tvtechnology.com/opinions/using-a-light-meter-to-maintain-atmosphere Outside it is impossible.

Hi Georg, Congratulations on your project. I’ll share a few thoughts. You may have already moved past this decision: before selecting a camera, etc, consider the story itself and the budget to create that story. For instance, it is easy to gravitate to an Arri or Red camera but do you have the budget, not just for the camera but to support the camera throughout your film? Is it an action film? Will you be moving the camera a lot? Can you afford all the needed support to effectively move the camera? Are you delivering for TV, theatre release? Web? All of the above? Does the budget support a heavy data and post production work environment? Breaking down the script and identifying all the requirements of the story, having budget parameters will make it much easier to begin making choices. Even if all of your research is going to help define the budget it is best to start with a full understanding of the entire story and the directors approach and what the producer is feeling. Meaningful conversation is critical. The aspect ratio, vintage lenses…perhaps (can the budget support them?), LUT selection/creation, etc are all in support of what the director is trying to achieve in their telling of the story. The sample images are beautiful and you will achieve something very close to this look and it can be done with a variety of tools/cameras, lenses, LUTS, lighting, production design, crew selection…. once you understand what the entire story requires and the budget will support. It is easy to burn a lot of your personal time doing research and defining a package only to be told the budget will not support those choices. The right approach and conversations are collaborative. If you have not already done so, check out ShotDeck. It’s a great resource that can help you build an understanding of choices others have made to achieve similar looks and can be helpful informing your conversations and decisions. Forgive me if this seems elemental, just trying to be helpful. Congratulations once again on your project. It will be a lot of fun.

Hi Kumar, here is a link with more detail about the various gamma of the Varicam https://pro-av.panasonic.net/manual/html/VARICAM_LT(VQT5M58A-8(E))/chapter04_04_04.htm the gamma settings in the most basic sense are color spaces the camera will record the image; from V-log which is the most expansive dynamic range and is a recording format that requires additional work to complete the color grading either live on-set or in post.... to 709 which is considered standard broadcast color space in the U.S. and can be viewed right out of the camera. It has less dynamic range than v-log but if fast work flow is required and you are releasing right to broadcast or the web you can record files to this space. Varicam has options in between. Importantly the camera will preserve the original V-log footage, while also allowing recording to 709 or other. Additionally, you can apply 709 to the view finder and/or SDI out to a monitor if you have a need to show basic color on set. You can also load in a custom color profile or LUT. The V-log space will deliver a relatively flat look to the images so 709 is often applied to the monitors for quick reference. Much more specialized and sophisticated color can be applied via custom LUTs ( Look Up Tables) or via live grading during your shoot. the camera is essentially always recoding in v-log and will create the 709 files from the log footage. here is a link to a video that goes into great detail on the camera menus. It’s a few years old but you may find it informative. https://youtu.be/QluloJUu0H4 here is a deep look at gamma; https://poynton.ca/notes/colour_and_gamma/GammaFAQ.html I hope this is helpful.

Hi Kumar, Perhaps this will be helpful. https://pro-av.panasonic.net/manual/html/VARICAM_LT(VQT5M58A-8(E))/chapter04_04.htm I own a Varicam LT and find the camera amazing to work with in almost all regards. All cameras demand some flexibility and adaptation by the user but to me the Varicam is quite good. A very well-rounded tool. The work flow is very easy; the link above may help answer your question regarding multi-gamma. - Guy

That is pretty funny.

My morning coffee has found its way up my nose. Cheers

I pulled off something very similar a number of years ago - I rigged a small crappy digital camera with a "viewfinder screen" on the back to the top of a camera and then used the zoom function to best approximate what i was seeing in the view finder as a test/set-up to help guide framing. It worked out well enough.

Far from an expert on all the various camera options I was confronted with a slightly different challenge. Shoot doc style footage of performing arts and also narrative to create a series of TV spots. I had my heart and wallet set on an older Amira and even Alexa only to have a senior level client side person demand 4K. I came to discover one of the client’s had a “friend” slated for the job who guaranteed 4K and convinced client it was needed. I fought hard on the bid and won the business but needed to match the 4K bid. Broke my ARRI heart. After a great deal of research I went with the Panasonic Varicam LT. Image quality is just great, workflow is really well conceived, camera is well balanced on the shoulder and the Panasonic VF is fantastic. Stripped down to basics is fairly easy to hand-hold when needed or desired and the low-light capability makes it extremely versatile. Built in ND is a bonus. Camera has solid internal audio and enough external connection to make build out easy and highly functional without a lot of added crap. Varicam focus assist is almost always spot on... or maybe it’s my old eyes. I mostly work with primes so I am no help with zoom lens choice. I live in an owner-operator market... too far from rental houses to make renting a viable option for the duration and budget. I’m very happy with this camera and so far it has delivered flawlessly in every situation. In my self-confessed non-expert opinion it is hard to buy a bad camera today. In my search I nearly decided on everyone of them...perhaps I just exhausted myself but I’m happy where I landed. One mans hard fought opinion... I hope this is helpful. -G

It also depends how/where you want to use the drive. If you are backing up on location or backing up in the studio/editing suite and or archiving. I use Synology NAS in my studio to back-up footage and archive the work. I find a 1-2 TB SSD for back-up in the field and then use it on the desk-top to move the footage into the system -- this has proven to be a stable field back-up and also faster way to edit. Once in the studio ...we back-up the entire unedited project to the NAS as well as all the working project files we we cut on the SSD. I use a RAID 1 configuration for the NAS creating 2 back-ups, then back-up to Amazon Web Services from there to have a third off-site back-up. For super critical work I will also retain a backup to a single external hard drive and store it off-site.