Panasonic LUMIX S1II Lab Test, Part 2 – Dynamic Range and Latitude Using ProRes RAW 5.8K with DR Boost “ON”

These of you who frequently observe up on our lab assessments are nicely conscious that we discovered a bug within the first manufacturing firmware of the brand new LUMIX S1II when utilizing 5.8K ProRes RAW with DR Enhance “ON”. The merging of the 2 ISO values into one picture was not correctly carried out. Now, Panasonic has launched new firmware that primarily addresses this bug. Curious to see the outcomes? Then learn on for our 2nd a part of the Panasonic LUMIX S1II Lab Take a look at…In our first lab check of the brand new LUMIX S1II (head over right here), we may already see the potential of the brand new implementation of Dynamic Vary Enhance mode with the interior compressed codecs and ProRes RAW in APS-C mode. Now, the time has come to guage the full-frame 5.8K ProRes RAW DR Enhance mode.The LUMIX S1II in our CineD Studio. Picture credit score: CineDThe rolling shutter values haven’t modified with the brand new firmware implementation; therefore, now we have to say the most important draw back of the full-frame DR Enhance “ON” implementation: as a result of two completely different ISO values are joined into one picture, read-out instances are greater than 2x slower than when turning DR Enhance “OFF”. We’re speaking a couple of rolling shutter worth of 27.5ms, which is moderately poor, to be sincere.Nonetheless, it’s a widespread theme with dual-gain output sensors, as now we have seen related conduct with the Canon C70, as nicely, for instance (lab check right here).Earlier than we start, a giant “thanks” to my colleague Florian Milz, who was a giant assist in capturing and analyzing this second spherical of testing.Dynamic Vary at ISO 1000 (DRB “ON”) utilizing 5.8K ProResRAWAs ordinary, we used Last Minimize Professional to develop the ProRes RAW recordsdata into V-Log earlier than working them by IMATEST. In case you are not conscious of how we check dynamic vary, please head over right here first.Taking pictures our Xyla21 chart, we get the next waveform plot:Waveform Plot for five.8K ProRes RAW DR Enhance “ON” at ISO1000. Picture Credit score: CineDWe can see a stable 13, if not 14 stops above the noise ground with a further fifteenth and sixteenth cease contained in the noise ground – very spectacular!!IMATEST confirms this end result:IMATEST end result for five.8K ProRes RAW. Picture credit score: CineDWe are getting 12.9 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of two, and 14.2 stops at SNR = 1. Additionally, we are able to see a further 3 stops above the blue “14.2” line within the center diagram above – these ought to be useful within the latitude check additional beneath.These are very spectacular outcomes, particularly for a RAW codec! Additionally, the “Noise spectrum” graph on the decrease right-hand facet reveals wholesome values of amplitudes even at excessive frequencies, therefore a really detailed image with out a lot inner noise discount.Publicity Latitude of the LUMIX S1 in 5.8K ProResRAW with DR Enhance “ON”Now, if all goes positive, we should always have the ability to see the complete energy of the 12-bit RAW codec in our latitude check now. As a fast reminder, latitude is the aptitude of a digital camera to retain particulars and colours when over- or underexposed and pushed again to a base publicity. This check may be very revealing, because it pushes the entire picture pipeline of any digital camera to its absolute limits, not simply within the highlights however primarily within the shadows.As ordinary, the latitude check is carried out in DaVinci Resolve, with the complication that there isn’t any help for ProRes RAW but. Therefore, we’d usually use the RAW Converter app, which may transcode the PRR recordsdata to Cinema DNG, a format that can be utilized in DaVinci. Nonetheless, this app didn’t acknowledge the digital camera (but), therefore it didn’t transcode the recordsdata. Subsequently, we developed the recordsdata in Last Minimize Professional to 12-bit ProRes XQ 4444 recordsdata (and likewise adjusted the publicity with the publicity slider after which the ISO), after which imported them into DaVinci Resolve.Our studio base publicity is (arbitrarily) chosen as having an (ungraded) luma worth of round 60% on the brow of our topic on the waveform monitor – on this case, my colleague Johnnie:From right here, we are able to overexpose by 5 stops:The crimson channel on Johnnie’s brow is on the cusp of clipping however nonetheless intact.Now let’s underexpose by stopping down the iris of our ZEISS Compact Prime 85mm T1.5 in one-stop increments till T8, after which doubling the shutter worth. All of the recordsdata are then normalized again once more to the bottom publicity ranges (utilizing the publicity slider and altering the ISO setting when creating the recordsdata in Last Minimize Professional).On the whole, the ProRes RAW recordsdata have a positive noise which appears to be like superb to my eye, and at 3 stops underexposure and pushed again to base, for the primary time, some positive noise begins to look within the picture:We’re already at 8 stops of publicity latitude (5 over, 3 below, and pushed again to base). That is the purpose the place sometimes full-frame shopper cameras begin to break up.Not the LUMIX S1II! The 4 stops underexposed, pushed again to base picture appears to be like like this:The positive noise, which is now all around the picture, can simply be eliminated in DaVinci Resolve 19:Fairly amazingly, at this level now we have reached 9 stops of publicity latitude and the picture nonetheless appears to be like positive! No horizontal or vertical strains, no bigger blotches of chroma noise. Even colours are fully intact – that’s the facility of 12-bit RAW!Can we push it to 10 stops? The one full-frame digital camera that was able to doing so was the ARRI Alexa Mini LF (lab check right here) and the Sony BURANO 8K, which achieved near 10 stops (lab check right here) – let’s take a look:Noise discount yields the next:Wow – now, eradicating luma and chroma noise in post-production is troublesome with out affecting picture sharpness an excessive amount of, however this picture remains to be usable! The sensor efficiency is certainly on ARRI Alexa Mini LF degree (however there’s an Achilles heel of 27.5ms rolling shutter although, whereas the Alexa Mini LF exhibited 7.4ms)!! Additionally, colours usually are nonetheless intact, though the picture has a slight greenish forged now.Then let’s transfer additional to 11 stops:Now, noise is far and wide and corrupting the picture. Let’s see what noise discount can do – utilizing now three frames of temporal NR and ULTRA NR in Resolve with greater luma values, which are actually affecting the small print of the picture:This nonetheless appears to be like considerably OK! Nonetheless, three frames of temporal NR are borderline for a transferring picture as ghosting begins to look. That is once more a case the place the static picture above appears to be like higher than the transferring picture, which additionally reveals bigger blotches of chroma noise hovering round within the picture. Additionally, the shadow facet of Johnnie’s face is corrupted by chroma noise that can’t be eradicated with out destroying all the small print within the picture.Abstract of the Panasonic S1II LUMIX Lab Take a look at, half 2The DR Enhance “ON” mode with the interior 12-bit 5.8K ProRes RAW implementation in Panasonic’s new LUMIX S1II digital camera has surpassed all my expectations. Not solely does it present very good dynamic vary values for a RAW mode (right here, sometimes, DR values are decrease as little inner noise discount is occurring within the RAW picture pipeline), however it reveals huge potential within the latitude check. From our base publicity, you possibly can overexpose 5 stops and underexpose 5 stops, offering a stable 10 stops of publicity latitude with wiggle room in the direction of 11.For the primary time, now we have a shopper full-frame digital camera that’s on par with the ARRI Alexa Mini LF (lab check right here) in our standardized latitude check. The LUMIX S1II reveals a really strong picture pipeline with a positive, pleasing noise sample that survives after noise discount when heavy shadow lifting is required. All of that with out massive shade shifts. Therefore, outperforming all different shopper full body cameras, but in addition skilled ones in fully completely different value brackets just like the URSA Cine LF 12K (lab check right here), or the RED V-Raptor [X] (lab check right here), or the Sony BURANO (lab check right here).Life is all about compromise; therefore, this comes at a value. This could be the sluggish readout pace, leading to 27.5ms rolling shutter for full-frame mode (with DR Enhance “ON” – “OFF” yields a superb 12.7ms) – the very good in-camera IBIS can, nevertheless, mitigate many of the adverse rolling shutter results for lots of capturing situations. compromise may very well be the APS-C mode for ProRes RAW. The total sensor potential cropped with a rolling shutter of 18.7ms, which is far simpler to deal with for extra demanding capturing situations.Have you ever shot with the brand new LUMIX S1II? What are your experiences? Tell us within the feedback part beneath!