This Simple Mistake Could Ruin All Your Footage (Sony F55)

[LensMeAHand]

I was on a shoot recently where we were using the Sony PMW-F55, and upon reviewing the dailies, we found the monitor LUT had been baked into all the footage! Luckily we caught it early, but it could've been catastrophic had we not.

The problem comes stems from the way the F55 settings are configured—when you add a LUT to the top two SDI outputs, the camera will bake the LUT into the recorded files. You can't put a LUT on one and not the other; they are linked. 

Not that many of us are still using the F55 these days, but if you are, make sure you run your monitors from SDI pins 3&4, or apply a LUT from the monitor if you use SDI pins 1&2.

[DougJensen]

Yes, you are correct about the potential for accidentally recording the MLUT, and it is good to give people a reminder about the risk.  I literally wrote the book on the F55 a few years ago and I think I can condense your warning down to one sentence:

The menu  VIDEO > MONITOR LUT > SDI(MAIN)&INTERNAL REC should always be set for "MLUT OFF". 

I can't imagine any reason why anyone should ever turn this menu on.

My F55 book:  https://books.apple.com/us/book/doug-jensens-guide-to-the-sony-pmw-f55/id892493476?ign-mpt=uo%3D4