What is the New Color Science?

[Steve MacMillan]

I understand that RED has changed the way build 20 handles gamma? But I'm not finding answers when I search for "New Color Science". What exactly is it? Plenty of posts, but no clear explanation and nothing in the build 20 manual.

STeve

[Graeme Nattress]

Colour Science is the math behind how we turn the colours the image sensor sees into the colours you, the end user sees on the EVF, LCD or computer monitor.

The NCS is an advanced calibration of the colours the camera produces for greater accuracy, lower noise (especially under tungsten light) and more accurate calibration of the white balance kelvin and tint numbers.

Graeme

[Steve MacMillan]

Thanks for that.

So I gather from piecing together posts I've read, that Red Alert build 20 interprets the RAW footage in a different and improved way during transcodes. What about the Quicktime codec, does it also interpret footage in a new way? Are we talking about only RAW footage produced by a build 20 camera? What are the ramifications of mixing NewColorScience footage with older build 17 footage?

Thanks,
STeve

[Graeme Nattress]

All footage from all builds can benefit from NCS. That's the benefit of shooting RAW.

Quicktime Codec is not quite ready with the NCS, but it's coming.

Differences are how the white balance is handled so you may need to re-balance pre-B20 footage. Other than that, just enjoy the more accurate colors and lower noise.

Graeme

[Chris Bell]

Graeme,

Can you explain why build 20 looks so warm? Under 5600K lighting, the image appears as if I had put a tobacco filter in front of the lens. In order to get a proper color balance, I white balance the camera to 4200K, which looks normal under 5600K lighting conditions. The images look fine in Red Cine, but the quicktime proxies are quite blue.

I should add, even when white balanced to 4200K, the viewfinder still looks too warm.

[binodpradhan]

Build 20 being a Beta, could there be problems unforseen that could leave me redfaced in the middle of a shoot? I am scared to use 20 because it is a beta

[Kevin Wild]

Old news. Build 20 is not beta any more. It's the release build.

[Graeme Nattress]

Chris, what 5600k light source are you using? I've shot or had shot for me RED under a variety of light sources, from 2800k to 5600k and when auto-white balanced, they always look neutral, and the kelvin readout is very close to what my color temperature meter says the light source is.

Graeme

[Chris Bell]

Hi Graeme,

I just finished a shoot this morning. Lit with Arri HMIs, the camera white balanced to 4300K. The viewfinder still looked warm to my eye, my Panasonic 1700 HD monitor looked correct.

Is there an issue with my camera?

[Graeme Nattress]

I'm not sure if there's a camera issue or not. But the EVF should be showing the same color balance as the LCD as an external monitor.

Graeme