EX1R vs. EX1 vs. 7D - Color/Presets - HELP!

[Lloyd Ubshura]

Hi Guys,

I need some help. I'm working on a cooking show with the following cameras:

3 - Sony EX1Rs
1 - Sony EX1
1 - Canon 7D w/ 100mm L-series Macro f/2.8

Here's a sample raw clip:

Color Problems - Raw Footage on Vimeo

(Background is EX1R (yellowish), Cropped is 7D. Last clip is EX1 (reddish)).


** PROBLEM #1 **

I've got all 4 Sonys set with the same picture profiles, however there is a huge difference between the EX1 and the EX1Rs despite the settings being the same. I have read some threads on that here already, but I'm not sure how to get them to match. They're not even close. The EX1 is reddish and the EX1Rs are yellowish.


** PROBLEM #2 **

I cannot seem to get my colors presets to work in my favor. I want to get as much of it right in my camera BEFORE color correcting in post.

I admittedly don't understand all the functions on the presets, which is what I hope you can give me some suggestions on. This is going to be an ongoing show, so I need to dial in all my settings so it actually looks warm and nice, not yellow/green and sickly.


** PROBLEM #3 **

As a comparison, I have the Canon 7D running as a B-roll for closeups. You can see in the sample video that the color is much, much nicer than the EX1s with the current settings. I know there are fundamental differences between the cameras and they'll never be identical, but I know there's got to be a way to get the EX1s MUCH closer to what the 7D looks like.

The 7D color is rich, vibrant and more natural. Skin tones seem healthy (very important for a vegan, healthful cooking show, eh?!). The EX1s look totally different--almost sickly, not inviting, not warm and vibrant.


** SOLUTION? **

I posted this here because I hope you can help me dial in my EX1 and EX1R presets (picture profiles) much better than they are--get them closer to the 7D shots.

We are using a mixture of lighting, mostly fluorescent softboxes (5600k) and some a couple Coollights LEDs (5600k) with minus-green filters on. We are using some cheap 3200K Tungstens as rims and to highlight some of the cabinets and oil containers in the background.

[Robert Young]

How are you setting the white balance for each of the 3 cameras?
There may be a way to get the cams to match via WB adjustment.

[Alister Chapman]

First of all you need to get your white balance correct on both EX's. If you look at the white window frames you can see that the first shots are slightly blue and the end shot is clearly orange. Whites are independent of the matrix etc and should always be white if the colour balance has been done correctly. The difference in your shots suggest different white balance settings. It's always better to do a manual white balance on a multi camera shoot like this to eliminate differences between camera settings.

The Canon cameras do have very different matrix settings and gamma curves to the EX cameras. You can see some heavily crushed blacks in the 7D footage. You can either lift the blacks on the Canon or crush them on the EX using some negative black gamma. Getting the colour matrix to match is much harder. I did create some scene files aimed at getting close to a Canon DSLR. On an EX1/EX3 this works best with the Standard Matrix, On a PMW-350 or PDW-700 you can use it on it’s own or mix it with one of the preset matrices as a modifier. User Matrix On, R-G 0, R-B +5, G-R -6, G-B +8, B-R -15, B-G -9