Sony Fs5 Owners Manual

Sony	FS5
High	Dynamic	Range	(SLOG) 

Why	High	Dynamic	Range?
•Shooting	in	High	Dynamic	range	solves	one	persistent	difficulty	of	
video	imaging	since	it’s	creation:	how	to	maintain	image	detail	in	the	
shadows	and	highlights	simultaneously.
• Although	it	can	be	more	complicated	to	expose	correctly,	High	
Dynamic	Range	video	is	useful	for	situations	of	high	contrast.
• High	Dynamic	range	video	uses	 logorithmicsampling.	Sony	calls	their
version	of	this:	 SLog. 

Exposure	Using	Linear	Sampling
Linear	sampling	does	not	provide	
enough	detail	to	reproduce	the	
luminance	range	that	the	eye	can	
perceive.
So	it	discards	highlight	information.
Any	video	camera	that	cannot	shoot	in
high	dynamic	range,	discards	this	
information.
Diagrams	from:	Digital	Compositing	for	Film	and	Video,	Third	Edition:	Steve	Wright,	Focal	Press	2010. 

Linear:	mathematically	consistentLog:	perceptually	consistent
Diagrams	from:	Digital	Compositing	for	Film	and	Video,	Third	Edition:	Steve	Wright,	Focal	Press	2010.
Log	sampling	varies	the	luminance	distance	between	samples.	
There	are	greater	jumps	between	samples	in	the	highlight	areas	
where	we	perceive	less	variation. 

Exposure	Using	Log	Sampling
Diagrams	from:	Digital	Compositing	for	Film	and	Video,	Third	Edition:	Steve	Wright,	Focal	Press	2010.
Log	sampling	is	capable	of	reproducing	
the	entire	perceived	range	of	luminance.
High	dynamic	range	cameras	also	use	a	
higher	bit	rate	codec.	In	this	chart	we	have
10	bit	sampling	(1024	variations).
The	Sony	FS5	uses	10	bits	in	HD	only. 

What	is	Image	Noise?
•Image	noise	occurs	when	there	are	not	enough	samples	to	accurately	
reproduce	the	variations	of	light	and	color.
• We	get	noise	in	the	shadow	areas	of	the	image	when	shooting	
because	reproducing	low	light	requires	a	high	sampling	rate.
• One	solution	to	eliminate	noise	is	to	eliminate	this	shadow	area	from	
our	sample	range.
• Push	the	image	information	up	into	the	lower	 midsand	highlights	in	
the	histogram	where	the	sampling	rate	is	more	sufficient	for	a	greater	
amount	of	light. 

SLOG	exposure
•Keep	your	picture	information	in	the	mid	and	highlight	area.
• Yo u 	 n e v e r 	 w a n t 	 t o 	 b e 	 i n 	 t h e 	 s i t u a t i o n 	 o f 	 h a v i n g 	 t o 	 r a i s e 	 y o u r 	 s h a d o w 	
areas	in	post	production -this	creates	noise.
• Yo u 	 a l w a y s 	 w a n t 	 t o 	 l o w e r 	 t h e 	 midsand	highlights	in	post	production	
when	“normalizing”	the	shot	(making	the	contrast	seem	correct	on	a	
computer	display). 

http://www.xdcam -user.com /2016/06/pxw -fs5 -tutorial -videos/
The	website	of	 AlisterChapman,	
cinematographer,	has	two	videos	
on	the	FS5	with	information	on	
how	to	shoot	with	SLOG	picture	
profiles.	I	recommend	this	site.
The	following	recommendations	
are	based	on	 Mr.Chapman’s but	
adjusted	with	my	own	
experience. 

When	to	use	SLOG
•When	you	have	a	situation	with	shadows	and	bright	highlights	and	
you	want	to	preserve	this	dynamic	range,	shoot	in	SLOG.
• Do	not	use	SLOG	Picture	Profiles	when	there	are	no	highlights.	
• If	the	situation	is	dark,	shadows	and	 midsonly,	shoot	with	standard	
REC.709	picture	profiles	like	PP	3	or	PP4.
• SLOG	has	twice	the	dynamic	range	of	Rec.709	Gamut	but	it	favors	
highlight	information.
• It	is	much	easier	to	shoot	in	SLOG	with	the	FS5	in	HD	1080p	than	4K.
• This	is	because	HD	is	a...

Shooting	SLOG
•SLOG	is	Sony’s	High	Dynamic	Range	setting
• Shoot	with	Picture	Profile	7	(PP7)	for	SLOG	2	and	PP9	for	SLOG3
• SLOG	3	is	easier	to	normalize.
• SLOG	2	is	easier	to	look	at	in	the	LCD	monitor	(it	has	more	contrast).
• I	prefer	SLOG	3	(PP9)	even	though	the	image	looks	very	washed	out	in	
the	LCD.