Do you care about file size? If not ProRes is a great choice. Does your source material require high color precision? If so 10 bit and 422 may help.

Otherwise for SDR video 8 bit 420 h264 is easy to edit with ready to deliver color.

@Jarrod-Fegley I think you also need to take into account the camera you're using and what it's sensor/media hardware recording chain is capable of writing. For instance, if you are using a cell phone whose media chain is incapable of keeping up with bitrates greater than those of 8-bit 420 hevc, like the s23, the app alone won't make up for that limitation. I think you might be able to break default limits if the app replaces the default camera app on a cell phone that also lets you plug in v90 sdxc media. I know that I can capture craw on a c70 with the fastest v90 media. But generally I need either cfast or sata-ssd media on my other 4k cameras for any kind of raw.

So essentially I just captured a short 5 second video. All I want to do is practice color grading that one video. But I want to make sure all of my settings are correct. It seems like Vegas has to be told how to interpret the footage in order to correctly grade it? Or is it as simple as dropping the clip on the timeline and color grading it? The s24 Ultra is capable of capturing HDR10. However the app I am using is not the phones native camera app. It's called MotionCam and it gives users the ability to capture in RAW and Direct Log. It gives the user the ability to capture at various bit rates. I have mine set on 75 Mbps.

For phone footage I'd just do Rec709 as it may not have enough bitrate or dynamic range to really do justice to HDR.

For HDR you also need a compatible monitor and will need to edit in 32-bit full mode with ACES. Then you would need to select the color space in VEGAS (right click on the media). If there is no color space (input display transform) for your given footage (never heard of direct log and VEGAS doesn't have it) this isn't a great option. Raw video from cameras is not supported as far as I'm aware.

Could be that it works with ACES - by choosing rec2020 for example.

Would be good to have a short original sample of that footage as an upload.

Link to the clip. It's ProRes10bit 4.2.2, Sony S-Gammut3(Cinema)Color Space, transferred to Sony SLog3(+EV3)

https://1drv.ms/v/c/822e793e3877bece/ETTFzDg2bdpAqlLdQZOVIXEBFNIDfw_aAn7pptAK19ylaw?e=xegiEz

Here's a start at it. MediaInfo states it is already transformed into Rec2020 (which is not what Slog 3 goes with but...).

To try to get it back to Rec709 I enabled ACES and assigned the colorspace to Rec2020. Looking at the RGB parade there's extensive banding and I'd say the image is starting to fall apart with color artifacts and noise.

Posterization:

It may be in a 10-bit container but there isn't 10-bits worth of usable data. This workflow is making a lot of work and bloated files without any benefit.

As this was a failure, I turned off the view transform and just ignored that it's "Rec2020" as I'm not sure the metadata is even right (also looked wrong for Slog3/sgamut3.cine) and there's hardly extended color in this scene anyway. Now it looks acceptable (RGB parade looks better with fewer gaps) and the floor gradations are just slightly posterized.

Is this any better than what the phone could do directly?

For a small sensor camera like this I'd try to minimize the amount of color corrections the footage needs to preserve quality. My suggestion would be going straight to Rec709 and h264 or h265 with no log or other transforms to preserve data integrity.

I'll have to go back and record a normal clip to compare against your screen shot but your screen shot looks really good. That slight bit of rust on the black post and those other marking came out nice. This is great, it gives me an idea of what it should look like. I'll be back.

Link to the clip. It's ProRes10bit 4.2.2, Sony S-Gammut3(Cinema)Color Space, transferred to Sony SLog3(+EV3)

 

https://1drv.ms/v/c/822e793e3877bece/ETTFzDg2bdpAqlLdQZOVIXEBFNIDfw_aAn7pptAK19ylaw?e=xegiEz

Here it seems to be not possible, to download this file. I do not know why.

Link to the clip. It's ProRes10bit 4.2.2, Sony S-Gammut3(Cinema)Color Space, transferred to Sony SLog3(+EV3)

 

https://1drv.ms/v/c/822e793e3877bece/ETTFzDg2bdpAqlLdQZOVIXEBFNIDfw_aAn7pptAK19ylaw?e=xegiEz

Here it seems to be not possible, to download this file. I do not know why.

https://1drv.ms/v/c/822e793e3877bece/ETTFzDg2bdpAqlLdQZOVIXEBFNIDfw_aAn7pptAK19ylaw?e=d2jeIB

Not sure, it might be one use only? New link above

I cannot download this new link too. I see the video as picture, and there is a download buttom - but that does not work here.

Was able to download it. Click on the upper-left corner icon and wait for it. Got this:

General
Complete name                            : C:\Users\hv\Downloads\MotionCam24fpsProRes10bitSonySGammut3CinemaSonySLog3.mov
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : QuickTime
Codec ID                                 : qt   0000.02 (qt  )
File size                                : 508 MiB
Duration                                 : 4 s 508 ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 945 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 24.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf61.7.100

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : ProRes
Format version                           : Version 0
Format profile                           : 422 HQ
Codec ID                                 : apch
Duration                                 : 4 s 417 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 954 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 24.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:2
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 4.794
Stream size                              : 507 MiB (100%)
Writing library                          : mcam
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : Logarithmic (100:1)
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : sowt
Duration                                 : 4 s 508 ms
Source duration                          : 4 s 437 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 845 KiB (0%)
Source stream size                       : 832 KiB (0%)
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1
mdhd_Duration                            : 4437

Not official Apple ProRes. It's ffmpeg, probably ks.

@Jarrod-Fegley Btw, I recently shot a 3hr New Years Eve show with an s23 but I went with stock 8-bit hevc 30fps high-quality settings which yielded BT.709 and came in at 41 mbps. Not as controllable as a real camera but easier to tote. I would recommend you try that at 60 fps and compare.

Ok, I have followed Howards idea to wait... and after some time the download has started.

Agree with Rogers finding. The ACES transformation seems to delilvers unuseable results. The best results I had in a fast test was to apply a slog3 Lut published by Alister Chapman, and then apply some color correction with the color grading portal.

That is a simple workflow to my opinion - and delivers nice results.

The LUT is the Alister_V-Look_V3_-3p00.cube (where I correct the 3 stops too).

Download here: https://www.xdcam-user.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/S-Log3-Offsets.zip

And here the project settings

Lut applied:

contrast correction in the CGP

Been playing with the LUT and grading and something's not right. I'm getting very limited grading adjustment range with 8bit-full as well as 32bit-full-2.222 composite levels. 1.0 compositing is more reasonable but not suitable for for 8bit-full. Never see that when I shoot with luts with my own cameras. I always grade in 8bit and bump up to 32 for delivery. Wonder if it's caused by a matching display-lut not being active when setting exposure and white-balance during the shoot.

@RogerS

When in ACES, what happens if you use Levels plugin instead of CG panel? Posterization or clean?

This is a link to another clip but recorded with the phones native app at 4k, 24fps, no log etc.

https://1drv.ms/v/c/822e793e3877bece/EfXnlccij7NOi6HUSY1dCDEBGR4MLHiWawO00MvTd2MKog?e=GwZgnL

Inspired by Woflgang I tried editing the older video as if it were Slog 3. That seems to be right for the tone curve but not for color. VEGAS doesn't really have tools to mix and match different gamuts and gammas.

Straight out of camera (left) vs "Slog 3"/Rec2020 (right) after a LUT and some correction:

I think the straight out of camera one has more natural colors and would require less work to edit.
It's a little hard to compare both as one is focused on the foreground and other the background.

Agree with Rogers finding. The ACES transformation seems to delilvers unuseable results. The best results I had in a fast test was to apply a slog3 Lut published by Alister Chapman, and then apply some color correction with the color grading portal.

That is a simple workflow to my opinion - and delivers nice results.

The LUT is the Alister_V-Look_V3_-3p00.cube (where I correct the 3 stops too).

Download here: https://www.xdcam-user.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/S-Log3-Offsets.zip

And here the project settings

Lut applied:

contrast correction in the CGP

Thank you for this, it looks great!

Roger, for the color we do not know anything. How were the colors of the bricks at the location? Was the white balance correct?

ACES will not work really here. All what you can do is a best guess.

Inspired by Woflgang I tried editing the older video as if it were Slog 3. That seems to be right for the tone curve but not for color. VEGAS doesn't really have tools to mix and match different gamuts and gammas.

Straight out of camera (left) vs "Slog 3"/Rec2020 (right) after a LUT and some correction:

I think the straight out of camera one has more natural colors and would require less work to edit.
It's a little hard to compare both as one is focused on the foreground and other the background.

 

Thank you, they look great as well.

@Jarrod-Fegley The 2nd clip required almost no grading at all. I tweaked the lift a smidgen for richer blacks but that's an acquired taste from someone who shoots allot of piano shaped objects. I set the project to 8bit-full even though the footage is video range. I do that for visual consistency with YouTube which always converts to full after upload. Grading on my laptop was a piece of cake. For higher quality rendering with no color-shift when done, just change the project to 32bit-full-2.222 with view transform off.

When I first switched to using Vegas for grading, I did a short illustration clip you might find helpful:

The technique is adapted from how I was doing it in Resolve up till then, whose grading panel and controls are similar. Only thing I've changed over the years is switching off the Vegas color-wheel presentation due to bugs adjusting with the mouse-wheel which disrupt the color balance. I found the Y-sliders operate bug-free.