Is BMCC white balance analog or digital

The place for questions about shooting with Blackmagic Cameras.
  • Author
  • Message
Offline

PT1

  • Posts: 5
  • Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:21 pm

Is BMCC white balance analog or digital

PostThu Jul 18, 2013 5:50 am

Camera white-balance has traditionally been done in the analog domain against the sensor RGB voltages. I am wondering:
Do Blackmagic Cinema cameras perform white-balancing in analog, pre ADC, or in digital, on the post ADC data?
Offline
User avatar

Aaron Scheiner

  • Posts: 341
  • Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:57 pm
  • Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Re: Is BMCC white balance analog or digital

PostThu Jul 18, 2013 9:35 am

Digital. It would appear that the BMCCs have very little pre-ADC adjustment (in most cameras you usually have a pre-amp, which you adjust with gain settings). The BMCC's ADCs, according to John brawley are 16 bit. The camera maps part of those 16 bit samples into the 12-bit DNG output depending on ISO settings. The white balance is then performed on the raw 12-bit data as part of the raw-to-BMD Film/REC.709 debayering process.

As a side note, it would appear that most other cameras perform white balance digitally rather than analog (Canon DSLRs are no exception).
Offline

PT1

  • Posts: 5
  • Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:21 pm

Re: Is BMCC white balance analog or digital

PostThu Jul 18, 2013 9:43 am

Thanks.
Offline

Dennis Nomer

  • Posts: 113
  • Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:54 pm

Re: Is BMCC white balance analog or digital

PostWed Jul 24, 2013 9:10 am

The 16 bit linear output of the sensor pixels is mapped to a 12 bit log value. 12 bit log easily handles 16 bit linear. In Resolve it is put back into 16 bit linear and debayered, and you grade it the way you want there. Speaking here about RAW workflow, of course.
Dennis Nomer

Return to Cinematography

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: zachnfine and 143 guests