Blackmagic Forum

I have this relatively generic question about the real benefit of shooting with a flat color profile on a mid-range DSLR with 8 bit 420 H264 encoding.
I understand the idea behind shooting e.g. with the flat cineform profile on a Canon EOS 90D is that it is supposed to provide a somewhat wider tonal range and hence more flexible color correction.
But since this flat video is recorded in 8 bit (in my case), more severe correction of tonal range and curves means more risk to create artefacts like banding, noise etc., as the narrow 8 bit range is designed to be "just enough" to encode a finalized clip.

camera sensor -> flat profile -> 8 bit encoding/recording -> tonal correction in post expands the [255] available discrete levels in some ranges to a point where we may get noticeable artefacts (and the sophisticated 32bit FP processing inside Resolve can't compensate for the limited amount of levels in the source material)

while:
camera sensor -> in-camera tonal correction -> 8 bit encoding/recording -> less correction needed in post, hence less risk of excessively stretching discrete levels

Is this reasoning correct ?
If so, I see a perhaps negative trade-off between better tonal range control and risk of more noise when shooting with a flat profile and 8 bit encoding.

I shot a few videos with Sony full-frame cameras with 8-bit video (A7iii, A7s) and really there's not much leeway for grading log/flat footage. Instead I followed everyone's advice and used a profile that looked reasonably good straight out of camera with little post work required. The downside is that you have to get everything right in-camera. But I don't see much logic in using log profiles in those cameras.

I shoot 8bit 4.2.0 C-Log. As long as you don't overdo the use of the grading tools it works pretty well. It's most important to get the exposure correct when using a flat profile.

Two things ....

1) Camera settings, set contrast to moderately low, and saturation just low enough you never over-saturate, especially the red channel.

2) CAMERA EXPOSURE IS CRUCIAL!

You have no leeway for either over or under exposure. You have to figure out how to use a meter, or field monitor with false color, or whatever, to always nail that exposure.

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thanks for the tips !