Color Match Broadcast G1 & Studio 4K Pro

My church purchased an URSA Broadcast (g1) a couple years ago, and recently purchased a Studio 4K Pro as a secondary camera. We were hoping that having the same brand for both cameras would help keep colours consistent, but with the Gen 5 colour science only being available in the Studio 4K Pro, we’re stuck with two cameras with different colours.

I’ve played around with the built-in luts, but no luck. Blue lighting on stage look dark blue/purpleish on the Studio 4K, and cyanish on the Broadcast. Orange lighting looks a bit dull and unsaturated, whereas on the Broadcast its punchy and saturated.

I’m assuming the way to go is to create my own lut to make one camera look more like the other. I’ve never done this before, and I haven’t been able to find much online, so what would be the correct way to colour match these cameras?

Thanks!

Ps. we do have an Atem switcher, but would prefer to avoid doing colour correction from the switcher, as it creates other unintended issues, such as losing camera control from the camera, plus not a lot can be done in terms of colour correction.

You should take a Davinci kompatibel Colorchart. Take a Shot on it in Film Mode on both Cameras with the same WB in good Lightning. If you have special colors like orange or purple put it in the frame. Than you go to Davinci Resolve Studio to match the Chart (there are several YT Videos on this). Maybe you have to do some adjustments on gamma and so on to get a nearly same looking picture. **Edit than you have to export the adjustments as a LUT** Personal i think it make no sense because the sensors are very different so you would never get a real pleasing picture on both.

I just saw this video an hour ago talking about the same thing. It doesn't seem like there is a solution unless BMD comes out with a firmware update. I would send in a support ticket.

Thanks for your comments. It's unfortunate that colors are handled so differently on both cameras. I'll experiment with a LUT, and see how close I can get.

Different sensor models deliver different default images. That is true for every manufacturer, not just BMD.

If you shoot some color charts in BMD Film on both cameras with the same exposure under your typical lighting scenario, any competent colorist can use those chart shots to create LUTs for you to load into each camera that match them both reasonably close. While 100% pixel peeping identical isn’t generally possible when the sensors are different, well made LUTs should be able to get them close enough for most viewers not to notice the difference (as long as both cameras are exposed and white balanced properly).

It also helps to auto white balance each camera to a standard 18% gray card, rather than relying only on the temp + tint numbers.

My church purchased an URSA Broadcast (g1) a couple years ago, and recently purchased a Studio 4K Pro as a secondary camera. We were hoping that having the same brand for both cameras would help keep colours consistent, but with the Gen 5 colour science only being available in the Studio 4K Pro, we’re stuck with two cameras with different colours.

I’ve played around with the built-in luts, but no luck. Blue lighting on stage look dark blue/purpleish on the Studio 4K, and cyanish on the Broadcast. Orange lighting looks a bit dull and unsaturated, whereas on the Broadcast its punchy and saturated.

I’m assuming the way to go is to create my own lut to make one camera look more like the other. I’ve never done this before, and I haven’t been able to find much online, so what would be the correct way to colour match these cameras?

Thanks!

Ps. we do have an Atem switcher, but would prefer to avoid doing colour correction from the switcher, as it creates other unintended issues, such as losing camera control from the camera, plus not a lot can be done in terms of colour correction.

The URSA is an older color science. I own a Production 4K and a Pocket 6K and I had to make a conversion from the Blackmagic Gen 1 to the Gen 5. Once you do that, it makes everything easier.

I ended up making a lut with LUTCalc to help me and then later, I used CineMatch to correctly match both cameras.

I think the URSA and the Production 4k has the same sensor.

Post some footage of both.

Thanks, I'm planning to purchase a colorchecker video.

Playing around with the clips on Resolve, I discovered that the Ursa Broadcast clip had "Gamut Compression" disabled by default in the Raw settings, whereas the Studio 4K Pro clip had it enabled.

Matching these settings (both enabled or disabled), already made a huge difference. Don't think there's an in-camera setting to change this? Also, don't think this setting would be saved within a LUT file since it's a raw setting?

To clarify, this is for our church live stream, which means it has to happen in-camera, not in post.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

(screenshots below appear darker than they actually are)

Gamut Compression disabled in raw settings for the Ursa clip (default setting)

Screenshot 2023-03-14 at 3.52.02 PM.jpg (367.47 KiB) Viewed 1391 times

Gamut Compression enabled for both (default on the Studio 4K)

Screenshot 2023-03-14 at 3.52.24 PM.jpg (349.33 KiB) Viewed 1391 times

IIRC, the internal processing on the Broadcast G1 is Gen 4, and your new 4K Studio Pro is Gen 5.

While there are other differences between BMD Gen 4 vs Gen 5, one of the main ones is that Gen 5 includes a relatively strong gamut compression (which can be disabled in BRAW in post, but not in camera). Gen 4 does not include gamut compression.

The way to get the image of the SDI outputs to match (not 100% identically but reasonably close enough) is to create a matching LUT for the G1 (or create a LUT for both cameras if you want to create your own look for both, separate from the default options on the 4K Pro).

IIRC, the internal processing on the Broadcast G1 is Gen 4, and your new 4K Studio Pro is Gen 5.

While there are other differences between BMD Gen 4 vs Gen 5, one of the main ones is that Gen 5 includes a relatively strong gamut compression (which can be disabled in BRAW in post, but not in camera). Gen 4 does not include gamut compression.

The way to get the image of the SDI outputs to match (not 100% identically but reasonably close enough) is to create a matching LUT for the G1 (or create a LUT for both cameras if you want to create your own look for both, separate from the default options on the 4K Pro).

Yes, just learned that that's one of the main differences between Gen 4 and 5 from another post here. Thanks!

I did find a solution! Use the CST effect to transform the Broadcast Gen 4 to Rec709 and use Saturation Compression, set to minimum. Generated a LUT with that and now the lighting color is pretty close to the Studio 4K Pro, just gotta dial it in a bit more (contrast and saturation specifically). This basically has the same effect as Gamut Compression.

I think this plus the ColorChecker Video I ordered will do a decent job. Thank you all for your help!

Glad it was useful info.

Yes, using a CST to move the image from log wide gamut source to output display is one way. If using that method for your matching, it will help to make a LUT for both cameras, each from their respective source log gamma and gamut, set to the same output display gamma and gamut.

I’d go the other way and match the 4k to the G1. I’m not in the room but I’m guessing the G1 is presenting a more accurate image.

Good Luck