[Geoff Johnston]

Thank you all for your creative input. I’ve pinned down a general conclusion in this community regarding said topic.

Will try my luck now in other creative circles to see if I can get more specifics and technical feedback.

Best of luck!

[Geoff Johnston]

No doubt that a lot of work went into balancing every shot. Most likely there were a few color space conversions ie. the grade was done in a wide gamut for more flexibility.

The reason I asked is there was something about this image that set it apart from the rest. More specifically, I was watching the new Peter Jackson Beatles documentary which was shot on 16mm film, and this digital image looked very similar.

Aside from it being less vibrant, the Colorist did a brilliant job of emulating that 16mm look. So it may be down to a little creative LUT on the last node. which often times really does the trick.

[Geoff Johnston]

I had no clue about rentals being FedEx-ed, that’s amusing and disconcerting at the same time. No one offers delivery in my country, there’s always a camera tech that comes bundled with a cinema camera. Most of the time they just sit around staring at their phones, but unfortunately vendors are mostly very distrustful.

I appreciate you time, and I’m sure some aspiring cinematographers here will benefit from the the useful information in your post.

My question was, why is the Komodo retail price so much lower than the DSMC2.

The tech specs seem to be the same, according to the specifications RED has on their website.

So why are buyers saving so much money?

[Geoff Johnston]

This is interesting info about Blackmagic video assist, they can be good competition to Atomos if BM secures support from more cameras. Hopefully they can secure agreements with Canon and Sony.

Until then, Apple holds most of the run ‘n gun market with ProRes Raw.

[Geoff Johnston]

I was not expecting this, thank you so much for you efforts Simeon!

Let’s continue spreading the word far and wide, together we can make a difference!

[Geoff Johnston]

Resolve is still fairly new in the editing segment and it does lack many important features that Avid has had for years. Nothing beats Avid for video editing work especially for shared projects with multiple users. Blackmagic should stick to what they do best which is specifically color grading software.

[Geoff Johnston]

To be honest with you, I wouldn’t want to derail the point of this thing by getting into technical comparisons with BRAW, but as far as I know Panasonic, Sony and Canon all have a variety of cameras that output the signal not only from their dedicated video cameras but also their flagship mirrorless cameras. These gadgets take up a majority of the mid-range market if you count in the mirrorless devices.

BRAW is only supported by Blackmagic cameras.

I’m trying to reach out to Blackmagic Design as an independent creator who works with the best tools he can get for his job. I personally believe that Panasonic and Sony cameras give me the most cinematic image and Resolve is the most practical and intuitive NLE for my post production workflow. I have been using these tools in tandem for many years but this incompatibility may force me to switch to FilmLight or Autodesk.

[Geoff Johnston]

Thanks Jim, I’m using Looks for most of my projects. It’s a really great tool for color correction with a big library of presets and the useful HSL qualifiers.

Maybe I’ll find something else that will have the type of look I am specifically looking for.

[Geoff Johnston]

Well, I couldn’t figure out what was causing the problem, so I used a hell of a time consuming workaround. First I exported every shot that had the problem into a TIFF sequence, then I imported the TIFF sequences back into a nested sequence. The resulting TIFF images had a noticeable color offset compared to the original material, so I had to use masks and track mattes to replace every highlight in the shot. This included lots of keyframing to move the masks over the highlights. The result is a good H.264 video that looks exactly like the preview on my program monitor.

I would still like to find quicker solution to the problem, because I don’t want to do this manual patch up every time this problem occurs in the future.

[Geoff Johnston]

Thanks for your suggestion Duke, but unfortunately that didn’t work for me. The problem is consistent across all media players, so the saturation is embedded in the video file.