A thorough study of Cine2
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Sony A7s Guide

A thorough study of Cine2

In this lesson we’ll focus on just one picture profile – Cine2 – against four color spaces: Cinema (the one Sony wants you to use with it) Matrix 709 (Rec. 709) Pro (Rec. 709) S-Gamut (for S-Log2, but let’s see for ourselves!) Cinema Color Space Here’s what Cine2 looks like, in the Cinema color space (In this […]

In this lesson we’ll focus on just one picture profile – Cine2 – against four color spaces:

  • Cinema (the one Sony wants you to use with it)
  • Matrix 709 (Rec. 709)
  • Pro (Rec. 709)
  • S-Gamut (for S-Log2, but let’s see for ourselves!)

Cinema Color Space

Here’s what Cine2 looks like, in the Cinema color space (In this order: -4, -2, 0, +2, +4, click to enlarge):

IMPORTANT: Please ignore the highlight clipping. It looks ugly because I had the Knee setting (will cover this in a later lesson) all the way down. Just look at the shadows and mids.

What do you see?

Matrix Color Space

Here’s what Cine2 looks like, in the Matrix color space (In this order: -4, -2, 0, +2, +4, click to enlarge):

IMPORTANT: Please ignore the highlight clipping. It looks ugly because I had the Knee setting (will cover this in a later lesson) all the way down. Just look at the shadows and mids.

What do you see?

Pro Color Space

Here’s what Cine2 looks like, in the Pro color space (In this order: -4, -2, 0, +2, +4, click to enlarge):

IMPORTANT: Please ignore the highlight clipping. It looks ugly because I had the Knee setting (will cover this in a later lesson) all the way down. Just look at the shadows and mids.

What do you see?

S-Gamut Color Space

Here’s what Cine1 looks like, in the S-Gamut color space (In this order: -4, -2, 0, +2, +4, click to enlarge):

IMPORTANT: Please ignore the highlight clipping. It looks ugly because I had the Knee setting (will cover this in a later lesson) all the way down. Just look at the shadows and mids.

Cinema Color Space with Knee corrected (default)

I re-did this test just to show you the highlights (In this order: -4, -2, 0, +2, +4, click to enlarge):

Who wins? Look for these things:

  • Which has better texture in the underexposed regions?
  • Which looks better when clipped either way? Is there a good roll-off at either end?
  • Which as more dynamic range?
  • Which has better skin patches?
  • Which has a better look overall?

Try to at least answer the above before reading the next. Otherwise I’ll be putting words in your head. Here’s a tip: Study each exposure point against the others. E.g., study all -2s together, then 0s together, and so on.

What I think

This one’s easy. It looks damn good when underexposed, but doesn’t quite have the dynamic range of Cine1.

But there’s a reason for this. Here’s the official wording from Sony:

Similar to [Cine1] but optimized for editing with up to 100% video signal.

I would stick to Cine1 unless I wanted to strictly deliver to broadcast.

Click on the link below to the next lesson or head over to the main menu (above). If you need help with something, feel free to send me an email. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.