Colour matching 2 Sony cameras

[Wayne Garton]

We've got a 3 camera setup indoors under tungsten lights. (2 PMW-200's and 1 PXW-X70) The cameras are switched live and the resulting file is edited later. I would like to adjust the X70 a little in the blues to make it match the other two cameras better. The blue on the X70 is deeper and more purpley than the blue on the 200. Which adjustments in the picture profile should I be changing?

What I am asking is what part of the picture profile menu should I be heading in to change the blues on the X70 (picture on right) to get closer in colour to the other 2 cameras (picture on left)?

[David Dixon]

Have you checked out Paul Anderegg's custom color settings for the X70? I recommend starting with those. You can find them a few months back here in the X70 threads. They specifically address getting the blues less "purple-y" :-).

[Wayne Garton]

Yes reading that partially helped, but I got a bit bogged down by the detail in the thread. As I understand from reading through, you can either shift a particular colour's hues by using the gamma control or you can go into the white balance settings and change it in there.
Christopher Young said “With some playing around on this rather unusual Color Correction mode that Sony has included in the PPs on this camera I was in fact totally able to correct the blue / purple spread discrepancy that the camera exhibited and to end up with a pretty decent representation on a blue to purple gradation spread. More experimenting ahead!*“
This looks like the answer to my problem except Christopher does not say HOW he played around and eventually ended up with his "pretty decent representation on a blue to purple graduation spread"
Maybe Christopher could enlighten me!

[David Dixon]

No, I meant the thread where Paul gave a list of specific color settings for REC709, Cinematone, etc.

I've pasted them in below. Find the info for the Color Mode your PP is using, and enter these settings. I do find that over time I've adjusted the color phase slightly on these, so tweak that to taste if you find things consistently slightly skewed overall. For the rest, just set Type to Color Revision, Memory Selection to 1&2, then enter these numbers. I just use these and do a manual white balance and find there is very little color correction needed in post.

This may not solve your problems, but it's the first thing I advise doing with the camera.

Cinematone 1
• color phase: +3
• memory 1 color: 9, 4, 0
• memory 1 revision: +8, 0
• memory 2 color: 18, 7, 0
• memory 2 revision: –15, 0

Cinematone 2
• color phase: 0
• memory 1 color: 10, 5, 0
• memory 1 revision: +5, 0
• memory 2 color: 14, 7, 0
• memory 2 revision: –5, 0

Standard
• color phase: –1
• memory 1 color: 10, 5, 0
• memory 1 revision: +8, 0
• memory 2 color: 19, 7, 0
• memory 2 revision: –6, 0

ITU709
• color phase: –2 (but I don't keep it this low)
• memory 1 color: 10, 4, 0
• memory 1 revision: +8, 0
• memory 2 color: 19, 7, 0
• memory 2 revision: –14, 0

[Wayne Garton]

Well David this is where I get confused a bit. When these PP settings are listed, is Paul talking about the Gamma setting as Cinematone 1; Cinematone 2 etc or is he talking about the Color Mode setting as Cinematone 1; Cinematone 2 etc or are they both set to the same value?
There are a bunch of settings not listed so I assume these are left at the defaults.

[David Dixon]

Yes, use the same setting for both or you get odd color shifts.

No, this was not a total PP settings file, just what he found to get the colors more accurate. These colors should not be affected by Gamma, Black, Knee, etc. I suppose Saturation might be a slight factor in Color Phase if an extreme saturation is used but not usually.

I shoot ultra flat (blacks and gamma raised as high as I can get them and Knee as low as I can get it) and then adjust to what I want in post, but I still use these settings based on the Color Mode I've chosen.

[Paul Anderegg]

Those are the color modes, not gammas.

If you go into the color correction menus, you will see a PUSH TO SET option. Point the camera at the offending blue/purple color to select it, then make phase and saturation adjustments until you are happy they look similar to the PMW200. The way YOU need to "correct" a color is much more how Sony intended the color correction menu to be used. We are trying to use it as a matrix adjustment, but the options are so minimal it can never be fully calibrated to my liking. :(

Paul

[Wayne Garton]

Now having found the correct colour, can I leave this set? The camera will never be moved from the auditorium where it is used weekly. It is operated by volunteers (not me) and Ideally they should not have to be in the PP menu ever. Just turn it on, check that the white balance is on manual and the F stop is where it usually is; focus and good to go.

[David Dixon]

In a word, Yes.

You could even turn off the PP physical button on the camera by programming it to None.