Log Gamma Vs. Linear Gamma: A Primer

With the Sony F5 and F55 coming down the pipeline, cinematographer Art Adams, on behalf of Pro Video Coalition, decided to revisit the differences between log gamma and linear gamma in a simple and informative way.

While Sony’s cameras may use S-Log and S-Log2, you’ll run into log encoding in other formats like DPX/Cineon. It’s important to get a grip on why log encoding out of the camera is useful and why we need viewing LUTs for the footage to look normal on a Rec. 709 monitor.

Read Log vs. Raw: The Simple Version here.

Read Art Adams original 2009 article about Log Gamma here.