Here's my new preset based on demand for more vivid colors. I developed one earlier (the windmill shots in this thread) but it fell apart in lighting that was not full sunlight so I had to start from scratch.

I used Panalook as my starting reference and built up from there. The colors are much more intense than Panalook and may appeal to those looking for more of a punch. I haven't had time to do a spreadsheet on this so I'm sorry for those who need that.

I'm including a quick still out the window of my office using this preset in slightly diffused sunlight and also the CPF preset itself. I'm calling it VIVIDRGB.

I have waited and waited for a sunny day here in Seattle but with no luck so the example below is not ideal, the sky was pretty bright and I didn't have a graduated ND filter at hand. If I had, you could see how intense the blue sky is.

I have not tested this for noise or sharpness and in all lighting conditions so tweak it as you like.

Awesome, thanks a bunch Steven -- I can work up the SpreadSheet but I need to add all the other presets that have been submitted since Vol. I of the download library. There must be six or seven of 'em floating around here somewhere... many thanks,

Thanks Chris -
I always love Steven's Panavision, so I can't wait for you to excell it!
Gracias Muchos

Hey John, don't you have a couple of presets you shared here once or twice before, that didn't make it into Vol. I?

Can you type it out? I can't read a CPF file and am interested in your yellow bleach-bypass preset.

hi jim: it's loaded into my office computer/camera, so it'll take me a bit of time, since i've been stuck working at home for a couple of days, but i'm happy to do it.

steven: i can't wait to try this out. it sounds promising! thanks for all your contributions.

Hey John, don't you have a couple of presets you shared here once or twice before, that didn't make it into Vol. I?

yep.
I will write them out by hand again - I don't have a card reader so can't upload those files,
but I'll write them out & post them again (with more)

Thanks,

Here's the settings for VIVIDRGB in an Excel spreadsheet

Steven,
Excellent !
a few questions ... as you know the H1's menu only goes to +9
so for your 10 I put 4
for your 15 I put 6
for your 25 I put 9

The one thing I worrk about is the RED munching the H1 loves to do,
is this better on the A1/G1?


Thanks for all your insight
J

for jim:

MEMORY

Color Matrix Cine 1
Color Gain -41
Red Gain 10
Blue Gain -50
Color Phase 9

and those are the only changes. i'm sure this could benefit from more time spent with it, especially in terms of playing with the blacks. but i set this up on the first day i had the camera. it's not bad, for what it is....

thanks a lot Steven for vividrgb. Very nice!

Steven,
Excellent !
a few questions ... as you know the H1's menu only goes to +9
so for your 10 I put 4
for your 15 I put 6
for your 25 I put 9

The one thing I worrk about is the RED munching the H1 loves to do,
is this better on the A1/G1?


Thanks for all your insight
J

John, red and certain shades of orange are always a huge concern for me in DV or HDV so I really try to avoid shooting it as much as possible. If you don't have a choice and there is a lot of red in what you are shooting, don't use a preset like this, it will definitely cause problems. Having said that, it's amazing how many shots I've taken that have no red in them :)

Your conversion to the H1 seems about right but I can't tell for sure. My Panalook preset looked a little different on the A1 but not enough for me to want to change it. You'll probably get close enough.

There have been reports that the VIVIDRGB has a magenta cast. Please also try this and let me know which one you prefer. I will then make it the official VIVIDRGB version:

EDIT:
There are reports of a magenta cast so try this one also and let me know which one you guys prefer.

GAM Cine2
KNE Low
BLK Middle
PED -7
SET -1
SHP 1
HDF Middle
DHV 0
COR 0
NR1 0
NR2 0
CMX Cine2
CGN 15
CPH 0
Red Gain 14
Green Gain 20
Blue Gain 14
RG Matrix 15
RB Matrix 10
GR Matrix 10
GB Matrix 15
BR Matrix 25
BG Matrix 25

Steve,

This variation is less magenta, which I prefer.
It is still a touch vibrant in the reds
which I might tone back abit,
but that's all just personal tweeking that
we all probaby do with these pre-sets.
Thanks for putting in the time.
It has given alot of us a jump up the learning curve - well, me anyway.

David

I just did a shoot yesterday with two A1s and a DSR-400 and the VIVRGB came closest. I did turn down the red a bit and used 2800K for a white balance to try and get it closer. The other VIVRGB (trying to correct for Magenta) looked too cold even at 3300K.

As an aside, it sure would be helpful to have other presets to try and match other cameras. There are already several for the DVX100, but it would be great to have a library of presets available for multi-cam shoots.

Russ

Russ,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm a little confused...which was your preference, the preset in post #51 or #62 of this thread?

#51, even though I shifted the red s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y and went colder on WB it was still closer (and had more magenta) than #62, which I also tried.

Russ

OKay, I want to discard all other attempts at the preset I call VIVIDRGB and make this the new and final one for now:

Gamma: Cine1
Color Matrix: N
Color Gain: +40 (adjust to taste)
Color Phase: 0
Knee: Low
Black: Middle
Master Ped: -5
Setup Level: 0
Horizontal Detail Frequency: High (or mid, depending on your preference)
H/V Detail balance: 0
Sharpness: +3 (or adjust to taste)
NR1: Off
NR2: Off
Coring: 0
Red Gain: 0
Green Gain: -10
Blue Gain: 0
RG Matrix: 0
RB Matrix: -15
GR Matrix: 0
GB Matrix: 8
BR Matrix: 0
BG Matrix: -15

This appears to my eye as neutral (no color casts) aside from some red in the highlights which I can live with and fix in post if needed. I'm just not sure how to adjust for that directly in-camera. Special thanks to Tom Roper for kick starting the settings.

Here's a still using this on an overcast day:

Looking pretty good, Steve. I think I'm going to try this one out!

Hi Steve,

Looks nice I will give this one a try tomorrow on a shoot.

Thank you for your help. Big jump for me coming from the Z1.

Here's the CPF file for the new VIVIDRGB

Steven,

Any chance of an excel doc. for that adjusted preset?
(mac)...

Thanks,

David

I have documented the preset setting by setting in post #57.

Sorry if this a tad off topic, but I've seen enough posts regarding people with Macs who always ask for a Custom Preset file in a Excel file format. What is it about Mac's with a SD card reader that can't save a .cpf file to their card? It's not like it has to be opened/read. Isn't it a simple save to the SD card or at the very least a save to drive & transfer to card kind of thing?

Bill

I have documented the preset setting by setting in post #57.

Do you mean post #67?

Looks great, thanks --I love how the blue pops against the green (and vise versa) in your test shot...

Yes, I mean 67 :)

Oh, and make the color gain 25, not 40. Tom Roper found that cranking the color like that introduces noise and 25 is almost as vivid as 40

Steven, I think you should post the settings again. Post #67 above is not correct, not just for the color gain should be +25 not +40 as you noted, but also the RGB gains are not the new ones. Matrix settings are the old ones also.

What you've created is beautiful.

Tom, I very much appreciate your help.

You can download the CPF file at the bottom of this post (It's currently called PRESET30.CPF but you can rename it to the preset number you want it to be on your card or camera).

Just so everyone knows what the final settings are:
Gamma: Cine1
Color Matrix: Normal
Color Gain: 25 (thanks, Tom)
Color Phase: 0
Knee: Low
Black: Middle
Master Ped: -5
Setup Level: 0
HDF: High (This can be "mid" if sharpness is 0)
H/V Detail: 0
Sharpness: 3 (adjust to taste)
NR1: Off
NR2: Off
Coring: 0
Red Gain: -2
Green Gain: -2
Blue Gain: -3
RG Matrix: 0
RB Matrix: 0
GR Matrix: 0
GB Matrix: 10
BR Matrix: 0
BG Matrix: -13

See below for four example shots of my kids on an overcast day and indoors with natural light to demonstrate how the preset handles intense red and skin tones.

The bottom two stills are a comparison of the DVX100B (with settings listed below) and the XHA1 (with the VIVIDRGB settings).

Here are the DVX settings for anyone interested. Everything is zero in the DVX settings except for the following:
Chroma Level: 4
Master Ped: -5
Gamma: Cinelike
Knee: Auto
Matrix: Normal
V Detail Frequency: Thin

For the bottom two stills, the XHA1 had the 1/32 ND engaged at F3.7 and the DVX had the ND 1/64 engaged at F4.8

Hi all !

This is a superb preset ! Great job.
I think it is the best for the moment. The most difficult was to keep neutral colours, and that was precisely what I was looking for and that I couldn't find with the other presets.
This could be renamed "NEUTRAL" !... I will put it as my CP1.
Maybe the black level could be set to "press" so that it would better match the DVX.

Thanks Steven, but how do you tweak your presets ? Do you use the Canon "console" software ?..

GC

The best all-around useful preset from this list, IMO, is Kodak, followed by the original Bleach Bypass by Juan (if you're shooting war, horror or bleak sci-fi/futuristic).

The old VividRGB turned everything I shot into a bad Disney cartoon colorwise, but I'll have to test the "final" version. That said, I'm not half the cameraman Disjecta is, and his results with the prior version of his preset (like that gorgeous dogwalkers in morning fog vid) are phenomenal...

Note: So far, the final version looks MUCH better!

Kodak? I don't recall that one

I think he's referring to one of two different presets that approximated a particular type of Kodak film. Look at the descriptions in the spreadsheet on the first page of this thread.

Oh yea... I didn't even think of those two. Thanks

Bill

So this preset looks pretty darn close to the DVX which I thought was the goal of the Panalook preset. Should this be called Panalook? How about a three way shot of Panalook/VividRGB and the DVX.

It looks like the DVX is crushing the blacks more than the A1. It favors the Canon to my eye. It seems the Canon could be getting a larger lattitude. It also appears that the blue in the sky and greens in the trees are darker on the DVX despite the fact that the white vehicles look closer to blown out on the DVX. This points to more contrast on the DVX (or less lattitude.) I like the fact that the Canon is resolving more shadow detail and higlight detail to my eye. I do large-fomat printing for a living so color comparisons are always interesting to me...

Has anyone shot video of a grayscale to determine if the Canon can capture a higher white to black lattitude. I already sold my DVX so I'm no good for comparisons.

-Jonathan

It's looking good (and pretty close to the DVX). There's definately a touch more red in the A1 image - look at the clouds in the lower portion of the sky to the left of the lampost. I shot some footage with the previous settings and noticed that it added a touch of red to skintones - which wasn't a bad thing for pasty Caucasian skin (adds a nice glow), but I didn't have anyone with olive, brown or black skin to test it out on.

I won't bother posting the grabs as the settings have changed since and I don't want to confuse the issue.

I'm still having difficulty understanding what exactly each of the matrix settings does. Can anyone enlighten me?

Just for the record, I've done everything I'm going to do regarding this preset. For those looking for additional tests, I suggest you do it yourself and post anything you find interesting.

With every preset comes a million opinions and, while this will look great to some, others will find things they don't like about it.

The purpose of these presets is to use them as a starting point and adjust the parameters to what works best for you. As for me, I love this preset and will be using it extensively.

Thank you Steve I also love this preset and will use it often. Also it help jump start me on diving into adjusting the presets of the A1.

Nice job Steven. Thank you for all your hard work. I will definitely be using this preset. While I was a long time DVX user and loved that cam I have no desire to emulate it with my A1. I'm looking forward to much greater things with the A1 than my DVX was ever capable of.

Thanks guys and please keep in mind that I did not develop this to look like the DVX or HVX, it was just a coincidence that they were so similar. This preset stemmed from people wanting more vivid colors in general.

Kodak? I don't recall that one

I think he's referring to one of two different presets that approximated a particular type of Kodak film. Look at the descriptions in the spreadsheet on the first page of this thread.

Yep. Not sure which of the two Kodak filmstock presets it was. I only liked one and that's what I've been using as a general purpose preset for interiors/exteriors. It gives me vivid (but not too vivid) colors without going all wonky with the reds/magentas. Panalook was a close second to the Kodak but not quite as colorful, IMO, and since I only need one general purpose preset, Kodak wins. I am keen, however, to more extensively test the new and final version of VividRGB.

I've tested all the presets under various conditions indoors and out and found the best for my needs as an independent filmmaker are Kodak and Juan's original, silvery Bleach Bypass. Some of the others might be useful under certain conditions, but not often. Of course, everybody has different needs, so YMMV.

BTW, this preset library is a veritable godsend. I would never have figured out this stuff on my own, or at least not without wasting a ton of time when I could have been shooting instead. Even though I won't end up using most, just having been able to test and compare them against each other has been a wonderful experience.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed a preset!!! Looking forward to more!

I love this preset also and will use it often. I deviated only in that I use it with the Normal gamma, but it captures beautiful color with that too. Well done Steven!

Nice going Steven,
this is a great preset.
I agree about this being a starting point
should anyone want to further tweak it.
All presets should be starting points.

One of the special qualities of this camera
is that it allows for a huge variety of changes
in the color characteristics.

Thanks everyone who contributed to these presets,
you have benefited us all...

David

Silly question but...I cann't find a link to Juan's silver bleach bypass cpf !?

Just type 'bleach bypass preset' into the search and its there. I used it yesterday and it's excellent. I think to get the best from it you need to overexpose by as much as 2 stops.

I think to get the best from it you need to overexpose by as much as 2 stops.

Nice tip!!

VIVIDRGB - This is one great preset, thanks a lot Steven, excellent work, thanks for sharing it!
Chris

I've used that bleach bypass preset for a short film and it looks fantastic!

Outside you only need to over-expose a little bit,inside,as I said by as much as 2 stops. I also added a light blue filter for an overall colour cast. I'll post some grabs when I've finished it.

I loaded all the presents in the PRESET folder. When scrolling through the presets on the SD card the A1 only allows me to select from 20. The presets numbered above 20 don't appear on the card even though I know I have 21, 22, 25 and 30 on the card. Is there another proceedure I'm missing?

Thanks

Jan-Arden Petersen

I've been banging my head against this very same problem and I think I found the answer... The A1 is limited to 20 presets, but it is ALSO limited to the numbers "1" through "20" for those presets. Meaning, presets numbered as 21, 22, 23, 30, etc. will not show up.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be the answer.

Good luck.



I loaded all the presents in the PRESET folder. When scrolling through the presets on the SD card the A1 only allows me to select from 20. The presets numbered above 20 don't appear on the card even though I know I have 21, 22, 25 and 30 on the card. Is there another proceedure I'm missing?

Thanks

Jan-Arden Petersen

In fact A1 is limited to 20 presets and also to the numbers 1 to 20. In practice this means that even you change the preset number by a name (ex. mypreset.cpf instead preset21.cpf) A1 will not recognize it.