[Technical drawing of VMC-BNCM1 timecode adaptor]

Can anyone please point me in the direction (or share with me) a technical drawing of the VMC-BNCM1 timecode adaptor for the FX3/FX30? Looking to create an accessory in CAD, so would be helpful to have original/official measurements to work with. Thanks!

[Using LUTs as FX6 Base Looks]

Regarding making one's own LUTs for FX6 Base Looks, on this guide by @alisterchapman it says:

"For the best results you will want to use 33x LUTs, and the LUT should be designed for full/data range In and with full/data range Out."

Is that correct?

Surely rec709 is typically legal/video levels, whilst slog3/sgamut3(.cine) is full/data levels? Typically, I would have thought that most LUTs will be bringing the image into the realms of rec709... so therefore surely they should be full/data in, but legal/video out?

Or is the the idea here to preserve superwhites to 109%... and in LUTCalc, that is referenced, isn't that done by turning the Hard Clip setting off or to "Unclipped"?

[VENICE .ART files]

To make 3D LUT's a manageable size 3D LUT's don't have an adjustment for every possible input and output value, if they did they would be massive. So, 3D LUT's divide the image into ranges, typically 33x Red 33x Green 33x Blue. Each of the 33x segments has the same correction value, so within an image there will be 33 steps between each correction. These steps can often show up within the output image as banding or odd sudden colour/brightness shifts. To prevent these steps in post production additional calculations are used to smooth out the steps by interpolating between each of the ranges within the LUT, but this needs a lot of processing power to do well. Especially if you not only interpolate within each colour input channel but also 3 dimensionally across all 3 output colours. In a camera there often isn't sufficient processing power to perform these interpolation processes so banding is seen on the cameras output.

The .art system was designed as an alternative to 3D LUTs for the original Venice camera so that you get a  transformation function similar to a 3D LUT but without introducing the commonly seen step/banding artefacts that were a result of the limited amount of interpolation available in the original Venice camera. In Venice 2 the LUT processing capabilities have been greatly improved so that normal 3D LUTs now have much better interpolation and banding is rare.

Good info, thanks!

So are the .art files more like 65x65x65 LUTs? And so are .art files now somewhat redundant in the Venice 2 then?

[XQD Driver]

I realise this is a total stab in the dark posting here... but is Sony ever going to release a new driver that will allows Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt 3 (over USB-C connector) XQD readers to work with Apple Silicon M1/M2 Mac computers?

For example, the Blackjet XQD reader, and the Sonnet Echo Express (when used with the QDA-EX1 adapter).

[VENICE .ART files]

Can anyone explain to me exactly what ART files are and how they differ to LUTs please?

I've obviously read the marketing material, but I've never used the ART workflow myself, and am curious to know more. What specifically are they, and why exactly are they better?

Thanks!

[Profile Photos]

Hi @alisterchapman and @IamOakley , you hit profile and then there is a square near your profile photo. Click that to create a new picture:) We want to see those faces!

I've just joined, @tanyallyon, and I can't seem to do this either. Any ideas?

[Hello!]

Oh, I have only just discovered that Sony have implemented this forum on the Sony Cine website.

Some of you may remember me from the old Sony Community Forum and the Sony F5/55 Facebook group, both of which I was very active on.

Weirdly, the old Sony Community Forum posts are still here: https://us.community.sony.com/s/topic/0TO4O000000NuCdWAK/cinema-professional?language=en_US

But confusing that everything is now split over two places... but hey ho!

Hello!

Nezih

[DIY Tripod Pan Handle for small cameras]

This is hilarious, but a really neat idea too!

Thing is though... I almost NEVER use the eye-piece EVF, because 80% of the time my camera is at a height where in order to see into the EVF I'd need to be stood on a box.

I wish the z280 had an optional loupe on the LCD.