There's no denying that Canon HDSLRs have made a big impact on our industry, and while proving to be an amazing tool for cinematographers, some of their limitations become apparent in post-production. While the native HDSLR image is often lauded its for high contrast and saturation, this can also prove challenging to color correct and grade.

The Sony PMW-F3 has a very nice standard look right out of the camera, but it also has many many ways of adjusting the image to your liking. At AbelCine we have been making scene files for our clients, designed to both match cameras and create a look. With the wide range of adjustments available in the F3's picture profile control, I was able to make several looks that you might find useful. Some are aimed at maximizing the range of the camera, while others are aimed at creating a specific look.

Many people have been asking for suggestions on scene files for the AF100, so I put together a couple that I think you might find useful. In the process of creating these files, I also discovered several ways to reduce sensor noise. Reducing the detail levels helped, but to my surprise, changing the Matrix settings to NORM2 seemed to make the biggest difference.

Today's cinematographer is constantly switching between a variety of cameras and lenses. For a long time, the professional standard in film and sensor sizes were 16mm, 35mm and 2/3". Recently the choice of digital cameras has increased, and this has created a lot of confusion concerning sensor size, focal length and field of view.

ARRI Digital has created a series of online resources for the ALEXA camera. These tools are designed for operators to get the most out of the camera. ARRI will be creating more of these tools in the future, and we will continue to bring them to you here.

Numerous cameras available today feature a "35mm-sized sensor." How is this defined? They all vary slightly in size, and some are shaped differently so that, when used for HD shooting, the usable size is dramatically reduced. Our clients frequently ask how to compare these different cameras and how sensor size affects field of view and lens coverage. On this topic, words and numbers can be difficult to interpret, so AbelCine decided to produce a graphical chart to better compare areas of coverage.

We created this quick glossary as a useful reference for understanding some of the common terms used in our blogs.

These charts from Canon and Fujinon explain what the letters and numbers in their broadcast lens model numbers mean. They are a useful reference for understanding and comparing features.