Can you see the difference between a 8 bit and 10 bit camera output?

The question is can you see a difference between a camera with a 10 bit output and one with an 8 bit output? This is being asked a lot right now, in particular in relation to the Sony FS100 and the Sony F3. The FS100 has an 8 bit output and the F3 is 10 bit.

If your looking at the raw camera output then you will find it just about impossible to see a difference with normal monitoring equipment. This is because internally the cameras process the images using more than 8 bits (probably at least 10 on the FS100, the EX3 is 12 bit) and then convert to 8 or 10 bit for output so you should have nice smooth mapping of graduations to the full 8 bit output. Then consider that most LCD monitors are not able to display even 8 bits. The vast majority of monitors have a 6 bit panel and even a rare 8 bit monitor wont display all 8 bits as it has to do a gamma correction at 8 bits and this results in less than 8 bits being displayed. 10 bit monitors are very rare and again as gamma correction is normally required there is rarely a 1:1 bit for bit mapping of the 10 bit signal, so even these don’t show the full 10 bits of the input signal.  So it becomes apparent that when you view the original material the differences will not normally be visible and often the only way to determine what the output signal actually is is with a data analyser that can decode the HDSDi stream and tell you whether the 2 extra bits actually contain useful image data or are just padding.
Where the 8 bit, 10 bit difference will become apparent is after grading and post production. I wrote a more in depth article here: Why rendering form 8 bit to 8 bit can be a bad thing to do. But basically when you start manipulating an 8 bit image you will see banding issues a lot sooner than with 10 bit due to the reduced number of luma/color shades in 8 bit. Stretch out or compress 8 bit and some of those shades get removed or shifted and when the number of steps/shades is borderline to start with if you start throwing more away you will get issues.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Friday, June 17th, 2011 Uncategorized

2 Comments to Can you see the difference between a 8 bit and 10 bit camera output?

  • Brian Bang says:
    June 17, 2011 at 8:23 am

    Regarding editing 10bit vs. 8 bit.
    If there is no banding in the original 8 bit footage and the footage is converted to 10 bit for editing, will there be any advantage over just editing the original 8bit file. I know that I am not going to get a true 10 bit stream by upconverting, but if the original footage is free from banding I presume I at least preserve that on my time-line. My reason for bringing this up is, I edit in EDIUS and the new version 6 has a 10 bit codec HQX.

    Reply
  • giba says:
    July 12, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    hi there, i´m glad that the internet make it possible contact people like you! i´ve learn a lot reading your material. I´m a brasilian videomaker, and i will do “the next step”. i was wondering if it is a good ideia buying the fs100 and two lenses from sigma. (the budget is low, very low for us ho lives in the third world, hehe) Other thing, the output of sony´s camera is 8 bits. Is a chance, that sony, release out a firmware that make it possible change the output to 10bits? another question, is the ninja , by atomos a good deal? to use with the fs100?

    Reply

    • Leave a Reply

    Search TVCameraman.info

    Site Pages