DC Metro Final Cut Pros

So what is FLUT?

FLUT is the brainchild of Graeme.

The “F” in FLUT stands for “floating point”.

If you haven’t clipped RAW, you haven’t clipped any ISO. Move your mid grey anywhere you want without fear of clipping.

FLUT includes another new color science. That’s right. Number 3. Better than number 2, which was better than the original.

FLUT includes a new color space- REDcolor (more accurate than before)

FLUT includes a new gamma- REDgamma (more info from RAW than before)

Since an r3d is RAW, you can re-grade any old footage with the new color science.

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FLUT works with the Mysterium sensor. It works better with Mysterium-X sensor.

FLUT Science

1. New Color Space.
More accurate color science and a new color space called REDcolor. Remember that Color Space is not baked in to RAW. This will be the option to CameraRGB or REC 709. I pick REDcolor every time now. But all are more accurate.

2. New Gamma.
REDgamma. It is a gamma that uses more information from RAW than REC 709 or REDspace. It matches your meter. It looks fantastic. The standard REDgamma is fairly flat and ready to grade. REDfilm is a gamma that emulates scanned film… for those traditionalists.

3. Old Legacy.
REDspace, as a color space or as a gamma, plus all the old “other gammas” will be included in REDCINE-X for legacy use. But you can grade your old footage with REDcolor and REDgamma… that is the power of RAW.

4. FLUT.
Graeme’s baby. This one will be shown and explained at RED Day. You are going to love this. Money back guarantee… oh, forgot. It’s free.

In REDCINE-X, you set Color Space (REDcolor). Set Gamma (REDgamma). Set or check your White Balance. Adjust the FLUT Control. Grade. Easy.

REDCINE-X has several new features that you will appreciate… like Shadow Control. Plus… a few new big surprises.

“FLUT™ is a name we are giving to a new set of image processing features in post and in camera. As Jim mentions, along with it comes new histograms, new false color, and new camera settings. The work done on FLUT™ has helped to enable these functions in camera.

But let’s talk about how FLUT™ works with image processing, and how specifically it deals with the concept of “gain”.

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Gain is a necessary part of image processing and it’s simplest to think of it as the most basic way to brighten an image. Traditionally, gain in camera was done in the analogue domain. The downside to this is that as the image is gained up, it causes bright highlights to clip, and indeed it will loose one stop of highlights to clipping for every stop of gain applied. Originally in our camera and software, we applied gain (under the controls ISO and exposure) in a way that worked just as analogue gain does.


Although it sounds simple enough to just adjust the gain so that it does not clip the highlights, like a traditional video “knee”, the devil is always in the details. Instead of a gamma option, which is what a traditional knee is, it was decided to build the smooth roll-off and non-clipping gain properties into a complete system, which much more suits the RAW development nature of working with the R3D files.


This means that while all RAW development controls benefit from the underlying FLUT™ math, the main controls that directly effect it are ISO and the new FLUT™ Control. ISO and FLUT™ Control work together and produce exactly the same results, but FLUT™ control is calibrated in stops and has a fine degree of control, whereas ISO is labeled in traditional units and 1/3 stops. They work together, so if you gain up on ISO and back down the same amount on FLUT™, they cancel each other out. If you gain up on ISO and add more gain on FLUT™, you can get an awful lot of gain. You can use ISO, or you can use FLUT™ and get to exactly the same point. You can roughly gain up the image with ISO and fine-tune with FLUT™ control. The choice is yours. I love FLUT™ control as it’s in stops, and to me, that’s a more natural way of thinking than the ISO numbers.


Sometimes, however, you may wish to have absolutely linear gain and clip those highlights, so “exposure” control works just as it did before – it’s pure linear gain and it will hard clip. However, because FLUT™ is an underlying system – all is not lost…


Take the user curve controls for example, they’ll allow you to “pull back” a highlight you’ve forced to clip through use of the “exposure” control. Or the new Lift/Gamma/Gain controls will also allow you to do the same and pull back highlights you’ve clipped earlier in the image processing chain.


So, to put it all together simply:

FLUT™ is an underlying technology, designed to help you avoid clipping unnecessarily.
It works primarily through ISO and FLUT™ Control, but helps all RAW development controls.
Exposure works just as it’s always done if you need it.
The ISO and FLUT™ controls work together – think of them as “better gain.”

“The wonderful thing about REDCODE RAW is that when color science improves… you can go back and old footage becomes NEW.

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Jim Jannard – RED Leader

With the advances made with the RED camera sensors, color science, codecs and the like, we can all learn from the fundamental science of what’s happening with all things digital and the impacts to digital cinema.  Take a look at a series of videos we posted from Panavision in 2008 by searching on the keyword: PANAVISION and take a look at the 7 part series: DEMYSTIFYING DIGITAL CAMERA SPECIFICATIONS.

You will quickly find out that we are just scratching the surface of what we consumers see as HD (720/1080P) as the high end market pushes beyond 4K to 5K and up.

One of our DCFCPUG sponsor companies’ founder, Graeme Nattress [yes, the same guy who makes those impressive plug-ins at NATTRESS], is heavily involved in the color science work at RED.

Graeme Nattress is behind the FLUT, Image Processing, Colour Science and Demosaic Algorithms and RED4K delivery at RED.








Being a Computer Science major with a minor in Computer Studies, I love his tag line:

Science enables stories. Stories drive Science.

While he is the public face of the mad science work going on, there are other smart guys working with him pushing the limits of resolution to all time highs.  Keep up the good work Graeme and the team at RED!


Keep your eye on the Mysterium sensor:

4520 X 2540 pixels… DATA TO BURN. At the heart of RED lives the 12-megapixel Mysterium™ CMOS sensor, Super 35mm sized, with unparalleled fidelity and flexibility.

It combines low noise with superior charge capacity for dynamic range and color fidelity that allows you to finally have a no excuse digital imaging alternative to shooting 35mm film.


DIGITAL SUPER 35MM

Record 2540 progressive at up to 30 fps REDCODE RAW. With 4520 X 2540 pixels, Mysterium™ puts pure digital Ultra-High Def in the palm of your hand.

RED ONE™ and REDCINE™ also support down-sampling to 1080p and 720p for in-field monitoring and compatibility with non-linear editors.

You get the same breathtaking field of view and selective focus found on film cameras. Mysterium™ boasts a greater than 66db Signal to Noise Ratio thanks to its large 29 sq. micron pixels. And 12,065,000 pixels deliver resolution that can only be called Ultra High Definition.


How does 4K compare to 35MM Film?

Most 35 mm film outs that have gone through a scanning process have been scanned at 2K, or one quarter the resolution of 4K. Only extremely high content VFX work is generally scanned as high as 4K. Viewers that see RED footage for the first time either describe the quality as 65 mm film or “grainless 35”.  More pragmatically, it is the elimination of the cost of film and processing that make the RED ONE so economically attractive, in addition to its extraordinary quality.





What are the Advantages of Shooting DIGITAL vs. FILM?

Beyond the obvious advantage of cost savings with the elimination of film and processing, both consumable products, it is the benefit of being able to watch dailies immediately, in real time, that make shooting digital such a superior experience. In adding the extraordinarily high quality of 4K capture and at such an affordable price, RED has tipped the scales for the industry.

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Follow us as we learn from the pioneers at RED, Canon, Nikon, etc in bringing digital science and resolution to yield real options to shooting on film.  Just like our Larry Jordan FCP Tips, we will have similar words of wisdom from the team at RED.

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Head on over to SHOT ON RED and get excited!

Enjoy the ride!


Rod – DCFCPUG Leader

We had a member refer a problem to us to see if we could help solve the problem.

Here is the issue:
Paulette,
There is a FCP usergroup that helped others for all kinds of FCP
issues. Give them a shout. I’ve copied Rodney the main group leader
just in case he is familiar with the issue or knows someone who could
help.
Here is their URL: http://www.dcfcpug.org/
Good Luck
Char

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 2:57 AM, paulette moore wrote:
I’m having a strange Final Cut Pro problem. 3 tapes – all will play in the
deck monitor. When I try to digitize – none appear in the preview monitor
of Final Cut – yet I see time code in the preview monitor.

I tried changing out firewire, decks, computers. no luck. Other tapes (not
shot on same camera) DO play and CAN be digitized. Changed the deck settings
to hdv, then back to dv. Still no luck

When I try to digitize straight from the camera – FC does not recognize the
camera. This is not my system. It seems like a tape issue? Camera settings?
Any thoughts? the tapes were shot on a sony v1u.
Thanks for your feedback.

–
Paulette Moore
StoryDoula Blog: http://storydoula.wordpress.com/
www.paulettefilms.com
Skype: paulettefilms

The Blu-ray Disc Association on Thursday released the final specifications of the Blu-ray 3D specification, paving the way for 3D players to be at least talked about at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

The spec will be released “shortly,” the association said, “with the technical information and guidelines necessary to develop, announce and bring products to market pursuant to their own internal planning cycles and timetables.”

The association also blessed the Sony PlayStation 3, stating that the console will be able to play back 3D discs in 3D. The BDA offered no further explanation of how the PS3 will accomplish this, although Sony said earlier this year that it would ship a BD-3D PlayStation 3.

In September, the BDA announced that it had set up a task group to work on the project, with the goal that even 3D-encoded discs could be played back on today’s 2D Blu-ray players. That is still the case.

“From a technological perspective, it is simply the best available platform for bringing 3D into the home,” said Benn Carr, chairman of the BDA 3D Task Force, in a statement. “The disc capacity and bit rates Blu-ray Disc provides enable us to deliver 3D in Full HD 1080p high definition resolution.”

The technology will bring 1080p content to each eye, almost certainly through the use of 120-Hz technology with offset 60-Hz fields. The BDA did not describe how the technology would work, although most require some form of 3D glasses. The BDA did tout BD-3D as display agnostic, working with LCD, plasma and other displays, and functioning regardless of whether the display itself has its own 3D technology or not.

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Courtesy ExtremeTech LabNotes (Mark Hachman)

It started with the RED 18-85 mm T zoom. RED Professional series lenses and accessories should begin rolling out in force the next few months in support of the RED ONE and in anticipation of Scarlet & EPIC.

Jarred will post a pic of the Prime lens set (1st). These are incredible. The bench testing is beyond our widest dreams. As you know, we have lots of lenses here for testing. These new primes outperform them all… especially wide open… and it isn’t close.

Matt is developing an all new accessory program that is equally incredible. “Everything will be machined and incorporates all we have learned over the past couple of years getting our feet wet in this industry”. If it says “Pro” on the box, it is.

So what is “Pro”?

1. All newly designed, machined accessories, including new base plates (15 mm, 15 mm offset and 19 mm), top and bottom mounts, BombEVF, dovetails, etc.

2. Lenses
18-85mm zoom T2.9
300mm T2.9
100mm T1.9
85mm T1.9
50mm T1.9
35mm T1.9
25mm T1.9

[Photo: Jarred Land - reduser.net]

Rod – DCFCPUG

Complimentary FREE FrameAlign and BackFocus Test Pattern charts

Courtesy of DSClabs…

Part 7: Single Sensor Cameras (continued)
Spectral response, Camera color balance: Daylight v. Tungsten, Digital Intermediate MTF comparison between Genesis and 5218, Bayer vs. RGB striped sensors.

This seven part series will be presented in three resolutions: 

480p

720p

1080p

Post a comment on your thoughts on this subject…

Permission granted: Panavision ( 2008 )