Project settings for 10 bit video footage

lothar-j wrote on 2/4/2026, 4:01 AM

I've just bought a SONY ZV E-10 II camera for video purposes. It can record video in 10bit 4:2:2 format.
Which settings do I have to use in Vegas pro 23, if I want to use the full potential of the videos? 8bit or 32 bit floating point?

If I stay in 8bit, does will it ditch any data from my 10bit video or are the project settings only for what goes OUT, not what goes IN the project?
I don't want to render in 10bit, I just want to use the better possibilities of 10bit (S-Log3 and color grading).
Thanks a lot for your help

Comments

RogerS wrote on 2/4/2026, 5:16 AM

You can still edit in 8-bit full mode. Before you render change the project properties to 32-bit full with view transform set to off. Then render as normal.

Otherwise if you stay in a full 8-bit workflow the log transform will also be done at 8-bit precision and can induce banding. If you aren't shooting log 10-bit 422 is likely overkill. In general I'd recommend 10-bit 420 HEVC over 422 unless you have an Intel GPU/iGPU to decode it.

Wolfgang S. wrote on 2/4/2026, 5:40 AM

If you wish to grade the slog3 footage with the ACES color management, you have to do the grading in the 32 bit mode.

if you work with transformation LUTs from slog3 to rec709, you can do that in the 8bit mode, and render in the 32bit mode (without transformation).

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 2/4/2026, 11:45 AM

What RogerS said. Start my new multicam projects 8bit-full and do not switch to 32bit-full until the final render for delivery. Generally have to turn off the view transform and make sure the compositing gamma stays at 2.222. I personally like initially screening 8bit with clients and watching them gush when they see the 32bit final.

Btw, I found that vp22 suffers a pretty big performance hit with 4k 32bit projects. Vp23 fixed that.

Regarding 422, I shot HD422 for about a decade with 3-CCD cameras like my Canon xf305, that actually capture all 3 pixels. Canon and most others discontinued that design when 4K came along. Been shooting 4K hevc 420 10bit ever since with more common and affordable single-sensor Canon and Zcam cameras. My 4k's can all synthesize 422 internally but objective quality measurements say there's no increase in quality over letting the viewer/monitor do it later, just in time, with higher powered hardware & software than can be put inside a battery-powered camera to record in real time. And decoding is only the tip of the iceberg... every other processing step is slower with larger sized 422, 444, or rgb media.