Phantom files

[Nicolas Hanson]

We have a shoot coming up with Phantom camera and 1000fps. Do you have any experience in post workflow with this camera, transcoding formats etc? 

[dermot.shane]

i have had log encoded DPX arrive at my doorstep, not  clue how they got there, it's what the DiT created with DiT magic

no issues with the files or the footage, nice looking highspeed food shots, flying peppers and dropping  / bounceing msuhrooms in a studio, no issues with expoure or highlight rentention, but there was grownup behind the camera.

 

[Nicolas Hanson]

Great, so DPX is a way to go!

[Orash Rahnema]

I usually use the .cine files that are native from the camera, i don't see why a transcode is needed. 

The dit transcode the .cine in something editable (prores for example) and never had a single problem conforming the timeline with the cine files. 

[Nicolas Hanson]

I was afraid they were too heavy compared to other raw files?

[Orash Rahnema]

They are actually quite light, i usually Can play them in real time or close to even on a laptop, of course without correction

[Mazze]

A common workflow is to transcode them to ProRes and use that as Online material.

However, if the finishing app can play the raw files with no problems (or better to say, the hardware of the finishing machine),

then I'd stick to those.

One big caveat to be aware of, is the timecode of the phantom files.

It's not uncommon to reset the TC to zero upon creating dailies from the original raw files,

since you might end up with your dailies tool reading a different TC (and hence writing this to the offline files),

than the finishing tool that you use to conform in the end, which pretty much breaks your whole workflow.

Have a read here: https://support.gluetools.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/39/12/smpte-timecode-and-the-phantom---why-all-of-the-other-software-vendors-get-it-wrong

 

Resolve has a dropdown in it's raw preferences to select which TC interpretation you want.

SCRATCH has an updated version coming with SMPTE TC support and ACES debayer for Phantom.

Anyhow, I know plenty of DITs, who set the TC to zero directly after loading the cards in, just to exclude all of the TC-difficulty upfront.

 

Cheers,
Mazze

 

PS: The debayering is not that heavy, it's rather disk speed that you need.

You should have roughly 400 MB/s for 4K Flex files, plus some headroom. If you plan to transcode on and off the same disk, rather double the bandwidth.

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2017 by Mazze

[Nicolas Hanson]

I have run the .cine files through the system now, and the performance is good. 

That said, I have switched between the rec709, Log1 and Log2 profiles but can't really see any huge difference at all. The luma levels change, but almost nothing. Can barely see it on the scope. Can't be compared to normal rec709 to log transforms with other camera formats. Why is it like that? 

 

[Mazze]

The log options are provided directly by Vision Research in their sample code.

They also look fundamentally different than Rec709 (the difference between the two log flavors is not as big, but noticeable, though).

Not sure why they would look similar on your system, but I guess it is sort of a color management thing, then.