I’m still on the road running workshops across Asia. So far I’ve done Mumbai, Hanoi, Hong Kong and now I’m in Taipei. Really interesting seeing the contrast between all the different Asian countries. I loved Vietnam, shot a load of footage at Halong Bay that I will edit together in the next couple of weeks with the F3.
I hear from Convergent Design that they are about to ship the first batch of Gemini 444 recorders. I’m testing one on this trip and it’s an amazing device. The possibilities when combined with a S-Log equipped F3 are fantastic.
Talking of S-Log, I’ve been lucky enough to have played around with a couple of F3’s with the new (not yet released) EI S-Log option. It’s quite a significant improvement over the existing S-Log in my opinion. The lower base gain/ISO means less noise in the images, but the ability to add gain to the LUT’s via the EI options means that you can pre visualise what the image will look like with post production gain or lift added. This in turn means that you can safely underexpose, knowing that the image will still be acceptable after the grade. This underexposure can be used to give you more headroom in problem shots. I have not been able to measure the actual dynamic range yet (maybe tomorrow) but it’s at least as good as the standard S-Log, in theory it should be a stop greater. I’ll let you know.