[Kevin James]

Problem solved.
The DP had his camera set-up improperly.
He was using the “Film Like” setting. This shifted the gamma of the recorded footage.
This setting flattened out the image for Telecine color corrections.
The HDSI OUT compensated the gamma for previewing purposes.
What was really surprising was that none of his other clients mentioned it. That’s why I thought something was amiss at our facility. Now that the camera is set-up correctly ingest looks great.

Thanks

[Kevin James]

Yes color correction ‘repairs’ the footage. But I’d like to save the time and rendering overhead.

I’m wondering if there is a color management setting somewhere that’s at play.
I get the same result with System Prefs Monitor at 1.8 gamma and 2.2 gamma.

[Kevin James]

Thanks guys for your help.
I’ll try to explain a little more.
The transfered footage IS flat (waveform confirmed).
When the scene was lit in the field there is full range video.
When the scene is played in camera it is full range video (waveform confirmed).
When the footage is “Log and Transfer” to AVC Intra 100M or ProResHQ it is flat.
We have tested this on different systems here and the result is the same.

When I “Log and Capture“, from camera SDI out, to Mac Kona AJA SDI in, the footage looks great (waveform confirmed). It looks like what was monitored in the field and played back in camera.

There is a 10 IRE jump in the SDI “Captured” footage compared to the “Transfered” footage, with the blacks levels remaining consistent.

Any ideas?