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X5R Footage looks dark

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Jun 4, 2015
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Hi guys,
I just got my Inspire Raw,
did some test shots with the camera, on the Ipad the footage looks ok,
in Adobe Camera RAW the footage looks a little under exposed but when i import into Resolve it looks dark and needs quite some gain to get it exposed correctly.
Judging from the scopes i see in Resolve i should have exposed at least 3 stops higher, but the shots looked correctly exposed on the Ipad (sadly the zebra function is not working when recording LOG).

is this normal or am i missing something?

i will post the screen dumps so you guys can see what i'm talking about.
I am running FW_V01.08.01.40 and Go app ver. 2.8.2
 

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  • Ipad screendump 1.PNG
    Ipad screendump 1.PNG
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    Ipad screendump 2.PNG
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  • Camera RAW.jpg
    Camera RAW.jpg
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  • DaVinci gain and lift applied.jpg
    DaVinci gain and lift applied.jpg
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  • DaVinci RAW settings.jpg
    DaVinci RAW settings.jpg
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  • DaVinci scopes.jpg
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Last edited:
Hi guys,
I just got my Inspire Raw,
did some test shots with the camera, on the Ipad the footage looks ok,
in Adobe Camera RAW the footage looks a little under exposed but when i import into Resolve it looks dark and needs quite some gain to get it exposed correctly.
Judging from the scopes i see in Resolve i should have exposed at least 3 stops higher, but the shots looked correctly exposed on the Ipad (sadly the zebra function is not working when recording LOG).

is this normal or am i missing something?

i will posted the screen dumps so you guys can see what i'm talking about.
I am running FW_V01.08.01.40 and Go app ver. 2.8.2

The GO histogram is virtually useless with the X5R unfortunately. I've got the same issue in terms of general underexposure.
 
The GO histogram is virtually useless with the X5R unfortunately. I've got the same issue in terms of general underexposure.
Hi Damoncopter, thanks for the fast reply,
ok i understand, what is your workaround then, overexpose 2/3 stops?
 
Yes this is a tricky one to get right. I'm struggling to nail exactly the right spot to be on the histogram to get my footage exposed correctly.
 
A relief to hear others struggling with the same problem o_O,
i am conducting a test right now:
i set up a shot thru my window exposed with one stop increments, every time i go up a stop i am creating a screen dump from the Ipad, i have zebra turned on (strangely the zebra works now even in D-log...).
i will compare the Ipad screen dumps with the Raw DNGs from the x5r.

I will keep you posted.
 
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very weird, the test shots i did just now were all ok, exposure was spot on!
In the update history on the Ipad i saw the Go app got an update this night, maybe this has something to do with it???
 
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This is how it looks now: matching exposure of Ipad screen with Resolve, happy!
(sorry for the bad focusing)
 

Attachments

  • Ipad screen dump.PNG
    Ipad screen dump.PNG
    3.7 MB · Views: 41
  • Resolve Gain and lift aplied.jpg
    Resolve Gain and lift aplied.jpg
    2.2 MB · Views: 39
  • Resolve.jpg
    Resolve.jpg
    2 MB · Views: 36
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Indeed, keep me posted if you are experiencing different (or the same) results.
would be glad to know if this a permanent fix.
 
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I have notice the same when importing into resolve. However I would not compensate in camera. Shoot at the correct exposure. Remember raw basically means the captured footage look is not baked in camera as opposed to an h264 coded clip. Also raw does not mean uncompressed. They are two different things.
Before the human eye is capable of making sense of a raw frame, you need to go through debaying. A fancy term to describe the process of translating electrical impulses from the sensor to something readable. This operation happened when importing in Cine Lite. Then Cine Lite applies a LUT or look up table to the footage (I assume you use D-Log, if not there is not much of a point to shoot raw imho) because it is coming in flat. You can see the flat version from a setting on the right side of the app. This is the footage you captured in camera. Again you need to expose properly in camera.
When you export as a DNG sequence (as you should) the app unfortunately export the LUT with it. But your original footage is intact. All you need to do is to remove the LUT in Resolve or any other program to get the original footage.
I think the reason it comes a little dark in Resolve is because of the way Resolve reads what the footage should look like. You can change the clip exposure in Resolve without damaging your footage.
Sorry long explanation to tell you to expose correctly in camera.
 
Hi Cactuswest, thanks for the update,
i understand i need to exposure correctly in camera, the problem was that it looked ok on the Ipad screen but way too dark in Resolve (i am on windows so i do not need Cine Lite, i export from the DJI Camera Exporter app on my pc and then import the DNGs into Resolve).

But it looks like the latest update of the Go app solved this problem.
 
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The exposure histogram in the Go App is based on the .h624 codec that is recording to the lower bitrate SD card and thats why it looks different in your RAW footage
 
ok, would be nice if one could choose to see the RAW footage in the histogram, maybe in a future update?
But for now the zebra works fine for me.
 
ok, would be nice if one could choose to see the RAW footage in the histogram, maybe in a future update?
But for now the zebra works fine for me.

I agree It would be far better to have something we need than all these crap updates with sky pixel and Facebook streaming!
 
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To be clear, the histogram in the app is not based on the H.264 card recording. The X5R has 3 separate streams: RAW, H.264 to the card, and downsampled H.264 for the Lightbridge downlink. The histogram is computed by the app from this downlinked stream. The same applies for the X5 without the RAW output.

You will most likely never see a histogram based on the RAW or H.264 card feed until you play them on your computer.
 
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Hi Cactuswest, thanks for the update,
i understand i need to exposure correctly in camera, the problem was that it looked ok on the Ipad screen but way too dark in Resolve (i am on windows so i do not need Cine Lite, i export from the DJI Camera Exporter app on my pc and then import the DNGs into Resolve).

But it looks like the latest update of the Go app solved this problem.

The problem lies with how Resolve reads the metadata that is attached to the raw clips. It doesn't alter, the original or the as shot clips.
 
OK so i'm joining this party a little late!

I've only done 2 shoots with the X5R, no time to test it properly, BUT - why is there such a difference between the monitor/proxy recordings and the actual footage from the SSD??

Its so frustrating!

Plus my SSD footage looks grainy......like really grainy. Where as in the Proxy it looks lovely.....its like the proxy is actually better than the SSD stuff?

Any thoughts most welcome....its a bit of a puzzle at the mo.
 

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