"Panasonic look" on an EX1?

[Josh Bass]

Sort of related to the other thread about things paying for themselves, due to a ridiculous amount of renting this month alone I'm thinking about getting an EX1 or EX1R. I wanted to go Panasonic when I upgraded by for a variety of reasons none of the offers, current or past, really appeal to me. However, the thing about Panasonic is that some of them (DVX, HPX,) have that "look". . .you know, the colors, the gamma, etc. that is sooooooo nice. Wondering if anyone's got a profile to put a similar look an the EX?

[David Heath]

For starters, try reducing the detail level.

Panasonic cameras were traditionally shipped with lower default levels of detail enhancement than Sony. No real right or wrong - depends on the type of work you're doing - but I agree that I prefer the lower settings. IMO high levels of artificial detail correspond to "video look".

At least now such factors are largely a matter of line up, and not hard wired into the camera - but the manufacturer differences do still persist to an extent as default out of box settings.

[Josh Bass]

Yes, the ex is very ridiculously sharp! However to my eye the look is more to do with the color/contrast, thats more what i meant.

[Tim Polster]

I had a profile back when I owned an EX-1 but I did not document it well. So it is just a bunch of numbers.

I think Andy at Abel Cine put a profile out on the interwebs that matched the EX-1 to an HVX. It will not match exactly but they can be made to be close.

[Josh Bass]

Cool. Any idea of what to google to find that? Already tried "pansonic look on ex1" and similar, just got a bunch of comparisons between cams.

[Josh Bass]

Okay, I think I found it. . .this look familiar? I'm having trouble telling if this is supposed to match the HVX to the EX (i.e. putting these settings in the HVX) or the other way around (putting these settings on the EX)

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...ml#post1008414

[Tim Polster]

Yes, that was what I was thinking about. Sorry I am too far removed from my EX-1 ownership as I used it along side an HPX-500 and had to bend the EX-1 to match the HPX. They are different but you can get close and make up the difference in post.

[Josh Bass]

Aw, hell. Now I'm looking into the HPX250 again. It's not supposed to be perfect and course is more expensive, but finding a used one at B&H plus getting the micro P2 cards puts it not ridiculously pricier than the EX.

[Tim Polster]

I might have considered the HPX-250 had Panasonic put the AVCHD codec in as one of the choices. AVC-Intra is a great but 100mbps and P2 is just too expensive for recording long events.

[Josh Bass]

Yes, and i wrestle with that as well. However, a few things to consider

-used p2 cards are an option

-micro p2 cards + adapter am option

-regular old sd cards an option (i realize they wont record all modes but i definitely dont need that highest quality all the time

-native modes an option

-50 mbps modes an option

All of these should essentially reduce cost of recording media for longer shoots

[Dave Sperling]

At one point I had created a 'Pana' profile for my EX1 to use the camera to intercut with a client's HVX900 footage shot at a different time. (Never tried to match the camera for a 2-camera shoot with an HVX).
As I recall in addition to the previously mentioned dropping of the sharpness, I set it up for Cine 1 Gamma and in the matrix raised the Reds a little while dropping the Greens and only slightly dropping the blues. This moved flesh tones and overall color look more toward typical 'Panasonic Pink'
The camera isn't here so I can't read the numbers, though I do have a copy of the saved settings file (which is not in text form so I can't read.) If you have an EX1 I could theoretically email you the settings file.
Remember, this basically got the camera close -- it was not an exact match as would be needed for a multicam setup.
However, after the first time I used it, the clients kept hiring me and they continued to be happy with the camera setup...

[Josh Bass]

Yeah that would be great.

joshbass1979 at gmail dot com