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Catchy title, huh? But yep, that's pretty much what this is - a look at different Picture Profile options for the Sony A7II mirrorless camera. I wanted to create a few options for using in different applications, and thought it might be worth sharing the results for anyone else who's interested! All of my grading was done in Premiere Pro using Lumetri Colour. It's worth noting that the findings here and the customized picture profiles I've created in-camera are all based on personal preference to what looks good to my eye, and within my own workflow - what works for me may not necessarily work for you or even be what some might consider best practice, but the test had to be realistic with the tools, skills and resources I have available for ongoing work. Here are the settings for the three different Picture Profiles I ended up creating for the Sony A7II: PP1: S-Log Pro - for shoots that I want high dynamic range for and intend to grade, without sacrificing colour information. Lowest ISO is 1600. Black Level: 0 Gamma: S-Log2 Black Gamma: Middle / 0 Knee: Auto Color Mode: Pro Saturation: +3 Color Phase: 0 Color Depth: R +5, G +2, B +2, C +2, M -2, Y +2 Detail: Level -2 Mode: Manual, V/H Balance: 0, B/W Balance: Type5, Limit: 3, Crispning: 3, Hi-Light Detail: 2 PP2: "The No Grader" - when there’s no need/time to colour correct. Gamma: Cine1 Color Mode: ITU709 Matrix Color Depth: R +2 Detail: Level -3, Auto Adjust All other settings are default. PP6: "The C100 Emulator" Black Level: +2 Gamma: Cine2 Black Gamma: Wide +4 Knee: Manual, Point 80%, Slope +2 Color Mode: Pro Saturation: -5 Color Phase: 0 Color Depth: R +3, G +1, B -1, C -4, M -4, Y +3 Detail: Level -4, Manual mode, V/H Balance 0, B/W Balance Type5, Limit 5, Crispning 3, Hi-light detail 3. --- UPDATE (2017) / A7R mkII Profiles: Since shooting this test I've upgraded to the A7RII and tweaked some of my picture profiles. Here are the new settings that I'm currently using on the A7RII: PP6 (Canon Log Emulator), works with Canon Log and C-Log3 on the C200. PP6: "The Canon Log Emulator" Black Level: +2 Gamma: Cine2 Black Gamma: Wide +4 Knee: Manual, Point 75%, Slope +0 Color Mode: Pro Saturation: -5 Color Phase: 0 Color Depth: 0 Detail: Level -4, Manual mode, V/H Balance 0, B/W Balance Type5, Limit 5, Crispning 3, Hi-light detail 3. PP1: "S-Log Alternate" I've tweaked this quite a bit from the original 'S-Log Pro' above, mainly just for personal preference. It's always worth experimenting to get the look you like best. For me, this works quite well as a standalone profile, but if using in concert with V-Log on the GH5, the factory set PP7 matches better. Black Level: 0 Gamma: S-Log2 Black Gamma: Middle Level: 0 Knee: Auto Color Mode: Still (After a bit of testing I think this has the more realistic colour rendering than Pro and S-Gamut across the board) Saturation: 0 Color Phase: 0 Color Depth: 0 Detail: Level -2, Adjust: Auto
