Grading 422 10L recorded in STD profile?

I usually use my Olympus for recording client videos and have been pretty happy using C4k OM-Log. I purchased the S5 to take my video game up a notch.

I practiced a bit with 4k 422 10L v-log and I am overjoyed at the results! So I decided to use the S5 for the first time on a paid job this week.

I made a rookie mistake and recorded 4k 422 10L in STD* profile instead of v-log.

I'm trying to grade the footage now. I exported Apple Pro Res 422 and H.265 for editing in Davinci Resolve Free edition since it can't take the S5 files directly.

I'm not getting any more flexibility with the Apple ProRes 422 vs the H.256.

Is it too late? Is the STD* profile baked in and all the editing benefits of 422 10L gone?

If I buy the Pro Version of Davinci Resolve so I can edit the S5 files without converting first, will that improve the flexibility in post?

Thanks!

Rob Trek said:

I usually use my Olympus for recording client videos and have been pretty happy using C4k OM-Log. I purchased the S5 to take my video game up a notch.

I practiced a bit with 4k 422 10L v-log and I am overjoyed at the results! So I decided to use the S5 for the first time on a paid job this week.

I made a rookie mistake and recorded 4k 422 10L in STD* profile instead of v-log.

I'm trying to grade the footage now. I exported Apple Pro Res 422 and H.265 for editing in Davinci Resolve Free edition since it can't take the S5 files directly.

I'm not getting any more flexibility with the Apple ProRes 422 vs the H.256.

Is it too late? Is the STD* profile baked in and all the editing benefits of 422 10L gone?

If I buy the Pro Version of Davinci Resolve so I can edit the S5 files without converting first, will that improve the flexibility in post?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi Rob:

First, thanks for all your great videos on Olumpus cameras!!! I have learned a lot from them and they have given me a jump start on using my recently purchased E-M1 MK II.

When you shoot in standard profile, I am pretty sure that everything is pretty much "baked in," whether you are using the ProRes 4:2:2 or whether you are using the original h.265 files / mov / mp4 files.

You should be able to do a bit of grading, but the standard profile has about four or five stops less dynamic range (around 8 stops) than V-LOG (around 12.3 stops), so you won't be able to recover the blown highlights, for example.

You probably can push the colors "a bit" but you aren't going to be able to make serious color or luminance changes.

So no, upgrading to the paid version (Resolve Studio) isn't going to save you, as far as I know.

--
What Middle School Is Really Like:

Thanks! Not the answer I was hoping for.

Intuitively, I'd think all the data would still be there to pull from. Oh well. The video is still better than I would have gotten from the Olympus, but this was a very high dynamic range shoot and could have used the extra wiggle room.

Rob Trek said:

Thanks! Not the answer I was hoping for.

Intuitively, I'd think all the data would still be there to pull from. Oh well. The video is still better than I would have gotten from the Olympus, but this was a very high dynamic range shoot and could have used the extra wiggle room.

Click to expand...

This is a very non-technical generalization. Other people with more knowledge of the electronics will probably explain it more accurately. But here goes...

When you shoot in LOG, the data in the highlights is "squeezed" so that it fits into the data container (mostly the highlights). Then you have to "expand" the data by either a LUT or Color Space Transform, or by adding contrast and saturation. That's what allows you to "recover" highlights.

When you shoot in a "standard" profile, it doesn't try to squeeze data in. It just throws it away. So there is nothing to recover.