Silly Black Shading issue (or my ignorance?)

[Petri Teittinen]

Hello gents,

I upgraded my Epic MX to 5.2.29 a moment ago, and had to do the dumb REDmote updating dance with my laptop again, even though RED has been aware of that issue for ages... but I digress.

Even though it wasn't specifically ordered on the instructions, I decided to do a black shade calibration. It had been a while since I last updated my Epic, so the partly re-designed GUI came as a bit of a surprise. I hope this issue is actually caused by my inexperience with the new GUI.

I first checked the default 24fps 1/48th factory black shading at shooting temps by letting the camera warm up and then setting FLUT to 8.00 - and it turned out to be quite badly off. Right side of the image had all kinds of extra artefacts on it, from vertical stripes to a magenta shade which got worse towards the right edge.

So I decided to black shade the 1/48th shutter speed first and save that as default calibration. I could have sworn Epic used to let me save a calibration to the "factory" slot, but on the 5.2.29 that appears to be impossible. In other words, I could save a 1/48th black shading only in the "User" slot. You know what that meant when I decided to do another black shading at 1/192 second shutter speed. Yup, that earlier calibration gets written over.

Of course I saved the 1/48th calibration to the SSD first, followed by the 1/192 once that was done, then copied both to my server for safekeeping. By the way, the noise on screen with FLUT 8.00 is now flawless at both shutter speeds.

But here's the silly part: as I can't use the Factory slot for anything, I'm down to a single calibration slot, the User one. This means that if I go from regular shutter speeds to faster ones for high frame rates, I need to load a calibration from the SSD.

Which takes 10-15 minutes!

If I had two calibration slots, one for 1/48 and other for 1/200, I could swap from normal to high fps shutter speeds in a few seconds. But now it takes 10-15 minutes. That's quite simply unacceptable.

I certainly hope there's something I've missed and have misunderstood the situation completely due to my boneheadedness.

 

[Todd Gilpin]

i'm pretty sure we've never been able to use the factory slot. It's always been one slot for black shading. The Dragon has more memory and allows for multiple black shades, but on MX it has always been one.

 

[David Battistella]

There has only ever been one factory and one user slot on EPIC MX.

I had an elaborate system in place with a 48gb SSD and all my various calibrations easy loaded from there. Replacing/reloading a calibration takes about ten seconds, redoing one from scratch takes 10-15 minutes.

battistella

 

[Terry VerHaar]

I agree with Todd that I don't think Epic/Scarlet MX have ever been able to write to factory slot. And, have always just held one BS in the camera. Only Dragon saves multiple BS
^ and David

 

[Petri Teittinen]

There has only ever been one factory and one user slot on EPIC MX.

I know. But like I mentioned, I could have sworn it was possible to save calibration to the Factory slot. But maybe my memory simply fails me.

I had an elaborate system in place with a 48gb SSD and all my various calibrations easy loaded from there. Replacing/reloading a calibration takes about ten seconds, redoing one from scratch takes 10-15 minutes.

The Shading Management screen shows the two calibrations in camera memory on the left hand side, and the ones on the SSD on the right hand side. When I highlight a calibration on the SSD and click on the arrow button pointing from right to left, Epic tells me the operation will replace the User calibration currently in camera memory. When I click OK, Epic takes 10-15 minutes to replace the internal calibration with the one on the SSD.

I would love to find out how the operation is done in 10 seconds.

 

[David Battistella]

Petri,

i think there is an "apply tempory" command in there on the MX that will allow you to temporarily apply the BS from the SSD. That is how it was done in previous builds and that is why it was quicker.

I know I swapped out calibrations from SSD quickly because I did it all the time. Maybe the FW has changed.

look for that apply temporarily command.

Battistella

 

[Petri Teittinen]

Petri,
i think there is an "apply tempory" command in there on the MX that will allow you to temporarily apply the BS from the SSD.

Found it! Indeed, there's a button labeled "Apply" which applies a calibration temporarily from SSD without actually writing it over the internal memory slot. The applied calibration is lost when camera is powered down.

Thank you David.

However... the feature doesn't seem to work like it should on this build. The shutter speed was set to 1/48th, I applied the 1/48 calibration and "T/E" were both green, like they should. Next I applied a 1/384 calibration done earlier tonight, but I did not change the camera shutter speed. "E" on the OSD should have changed color to show that calibration and shutter speed don't match... but it remained green.

When I was cursing and doing the 10-15 minute copying operations earlier, I noticed that using a calibration for 1/192 changed the color of "E" when shutter speed was set to 1/48. So a calibration for 1/384 should have most definitely changed the color of "E".

This clearly warrants more testing and experimentation.

 

[David Battistella]

Was your shutter angle the same?

If you dis not change you shutter angle (in degrees) then it would not have changed.

Happy Bday, BTW.

Battistella

 

[Petri Teittinen]

Was your shutter angle the same? If you dis not change you shutter angle (in degrees) then it would not have changed.

I've got the camera set up for seconds instead of degrees. And since it was at 1/48, loading a calibration for 1/192 or 1/384 should have changed the color of "E", AFAIK. At least that's how it performed earlier when I did the overwrite operation lasting 10-15 minutes.

Happy Bday, BTW.

Cheers David

 

[David Battistella]

I've got the camera set up for seconds instead of degrees. And since it was at 1/48, loading a calibration for 1/192 or 1/384 should have changed the color of "E", AFAIK. At least that's how it performed earlier when I did the overwrite operation lasting 10-15 minutes.
Cheers David

Use the drop down menu in the camera to check and see if you are actually moving the angle (in degrees) because you can move the angle (in seconds) but the angle can remain the same and this would result in the BS calibration being OK, because the ANGLE in DEGREEs did not move/change.

It's my Bday too. We have EXACTLY the same birthday.

Battistella

 

[Petri Teittinen]

Use the drop down menu in the camera to check and see if you are actually moving the angle (in degrees) because you can move the angle (in seconds) but the angle can remain the same and this would result in the BS calibration being OK, because the ANGLE in DEGREEs did not move/change.

I tested the applying again today, and guess what? This time it worked exactly as expected! The "E" changes colour when I load a calibration made for a different shutter speed than is currently set on the camera. I did everything the same way as before, and this time it worked. I guess my Epic needed a good night's sleep

It's my Bday too. We have EXACTLY the same birthday.

Heh, that's awesome - happy Bday to you too, David!

And thanks for taking the time to reply and offer advice as well!