LS300 Firmware 4.0.0 has arrived!

[Alex Humphrey]

A couple experiments with 4K 422 last night with a single RotoLight. I'll duplicate the setup up tonight with C4K 420 and see if the red circle around the Rotolight looks any different zoomed in or there are any color correction advantages other than green screen.


So these where with the JVC LS300 24p 4K 422 J-Log, ISO 400 with Rokinon 24mm DS T-1.5 at T4. Rotolight has the skin tone enhancing filter and diffuser in the filter holder.

BW image is same footage having applied the JVC cube LUT to the footage then draining the color in FCP-X with the Colore Finale plug in.

If I had thought about it I would have changed to 420 from 422 to see any difference in the red Rotolight.

The JPG's below are significantly inferior to the footage in FCPX zoomed in. I'll do some serious tests later and upload PNG or Tiff or something that has little or no visual compression artifacts.

[Steve Rosen]

Alex... I'm curious, how would you switch from 422 to 420? I did the upgrade and don't see any option to chose as there is in the HD setting - not that I'd want 420, but I'd like to confirm that I'm in 422 before I use this.

[Nick Haman]

Hey Steve,
The option is under 'Bit Rate' and if you've got it selected, it's hard to miss :)

[Steve Rosen]

Nick: I finally figured that out - for some reason the bit rate drop down box was greyed out the first time I tried, but after rebooting the camera a second time it appeared - and, yes, 422 was not selected by default, so it's a good thing I didn't assume it would be.

[Russ Gutshall]

Greetings -- with this 4.0 firmware upgrade -- are folks saying this upgrade NOW ALLOWS full 4K (4096 x 2160) recording -- or are we still talking (3840 x 2160) ?? Clarification please ? Thanks --

[Nick Haman]

The camera could always do 4096x2160 - It's under C4K in the menu (Cinema 4K).

Unfortunately, shooting at that size you're still at 4:2:0 colour space. you're also on 24p or 23.98p. Then again, you'd likely only use that resolution for the cinematic feel, so 24p is fine.

This 4.0 update adds 4:2:2 to regular 4K (3840x2169) and also 50p or 60p to external recorders.

[Marcello Mazzilli]

SO what about the quality with an external recorder?
Does it keep up to... Sony Fs7?

[Nick Haman]

I don't know, I don't have an external recorder, but they've done some kind of a deal with Atomos. I'm sure google has your answers :D

JVC News Release -- New firmware for GY-LS300 adds 4K 4:2:2 recording and 60p output

My guess, having never used an external recorder, is that you'll end up with a ProRes file in whatever flavour you chose to record at. There's a setting on the camera called 4K EXT - which I assume tells it to output 50p or 60p UHD through the HDMI. Again though, I can't test, but if you want to buy me a monitor, I'll get back to you asap.

[Marcello Mazzilli]

ahahhaha... I'll wait
Not much on Google anyway

Sure.. codec is not the issue here... still ... I wonder what is tha real transfer rate from the camera to the atoms, thus the compression.... Is 4.2.2. 8bit also and not 10bit