SMPTE bars in camera?? Look different

[Gauntlet]

The color bars the camera generates in camera are not the standard SMPTE bars I am used to seeing. What kind of bars are these and how do you calibrate a monitor using them?

Thanks

 

[Gauntlet]

Anyone?

I've looked on the web and cannot find any reference to the type of bars the RED is generating. Im sure it's something quite simple but I can't figure out how to calibrate to these bars properly.

 

[Damon Meledones]

The color bars the camera generates in camera are not the standard SMPTE bars I am used to seeing. What kind of bars are these and how do you calibrate a monitor using them?

Thanks

These are the HD SMPTE bars, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPTE_color_bars, how you calibrate with them I'm not sure .

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Bars for setup

Bars for setup

Some traditional measurement tools, waveform monitors and the like, that use the RED preview output to judge the "signal" level and other obvious characteristics of that signal are being told a high fidelity fib.

There is more in the RAW.

A properly exposed image that is fully de-bayered and graded in RAW color space can easily provide far more image information to the colorist than what the monitor output can manage in real time on camera.

Its a tremendous video tap, props on the kickass EVF, not complaining, but it is not the whole story - and that is good news. The more time I spend manipulating RAW color r3d files in post the more I love this camera.

Call me a fanboy if you must, but there is so much "there" there. The image is robust, it can be danced around to suit the mood so elegantly. Add in the sweet NR accomplished in B16 that means I am not putting the hammer to as much of the bottom end as I did in B15 to take the edge off the noise presentation in some material.

I think it adds at least one useable stop, possibly more, particularly for 5600K footage. Measurements are great but I prefer to evaluate lots of clips with a wide variety of lighting conditions and exposure biases to form an opinion on useable latitude. Its just one guys opinion, but I have seen a great deal of Red Footy.

Flame me if you must but as long as I am sticking my neck out;

I have watched the first 15 builds vary from 9 to 10 stops. This is based on properties seen post RAW color correction pass.

With B16 it seems much easier to get that 10 stops on the table quick and with some footage I think there's more. YMMV.

 

[Gauntlet]

Some traditional measurement tools, waveform monitors and the like, that use the RED preview output to judge the "signal" level and other obvious characteristics of that signal are being told a high fidelity fib.

There is more in the RAW.

A properly exposed image that is fully de-bayered and graded in RAW color space can easily provide far more image information to the colorist than what the monitor output can manage in real time on camera.

Its a tremendous video tap, props on the kickass EVF, not complaining, but it is not the whole story - and that is good news. The more time I spend manipulating RAW color r3d files in post the more I love this camera.

Call me a fanboy if you must, but there is so much "there" there. The image is robust, it can be danced around to suit the mood so elegantly. Add in the sweet NR accomplished in B16 that means I am not putting the hammer to as much of the bottom end as I did in B15 to take the edge off the noise presentation in some material.

I think it adds at least one useable stop, possibly more, particularly for 5600K footage. Measurements are great but I prefer to evaluate lots of clips with a wide variety of lighting conditions and exposure biases to form an opinion on useable latitude. Its just one guys opinion, but I have seen a great deal of Red Footy.

Flame me if you must but as long as I am sticking my neck out;

I have watched the first 15 builds vary from 9 to 10 stops. This is based on properties seen post RAW color correction pass.

With B16 it seems much easier to get that 10 stops on the table quick and with some footage I think there's more. YMMV.

Thanks Blaire but Im just trying to figure out how to calibrate a monitor while looking at these HD SMPTE bars. Your points are valid and with build 16 all the more reason to make sure your monitors on set are properly calibrated. I can calibrate SD SMPTE bars no problem. On the HD bars I can find the pluge bar but thats about it. I can't find any instruction on the web for calibrating to HD bars. They are setup different and Im sure I'ts really simple if someone told me but I can't get an answer!!

 

[Gabicam]

It would also be nice for me to know how to calibrate my monitors using the HD SMPTE bars.

Is there a good brand new field monitor out in the market? Should I look for a HDSDI or and HDMI input monitor will be fine?

 

[Lyndel Crosley SOC]

You go to blue only, and adjust your hue or phase adjustment so that all blue (or black and white) areas match in intensity. You adjust your chroma level, so that the thin stripe that seperates the top color bars from the YIQ stuff on the bottom - the colors in the stripe match in intensity - so they look the same.

Get out of blue only, and look at the bars in color. If you turn up the brightness, you will see in the blacks on the lower right, two different levels of black. This is called PLUGE. You adjust your brightness by eye, so you can just barely see the "brighter" black signal, but not enough so that is disappears. This is called "blacker than black" - which you don't want - you dont' want to crush your details in the black.

The Contrast adjustment (which are the white levels) are purely subjective - the old rule was to increase the contrast while looking at the 100% white bar, until the "old CRT" would "smear" - of course, modern CRT's, and of course LCD's don't smear, so you turn it to whatever looks correct to you - this will be the brightest your monitor will get (where you set the contrast).

(Credits: web note by Bob Zelin on May 26, 2007 Http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/98/864961)Kept me from having to type all that.

 

[Gabicam]

nice explanation DragonEyes!