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By Pravit Gandhi··9 min read

How to grade V-Log and V-Log L footage

How do you grade V-Log footage? V-Log versus V-Log L, Panasonic's published reference values, the conversion LUTs, and the usual failure modes.

To grade V-Log footage you normalize it first, then balance exposure and white balance, then build a look. Normalizing means applying one of Panasonic's conversion LUTs or a colour space transform set to V-Log and V-Gamut. The reference points that tell you it worked are published: with a camera set to V-Log or V-Log L, 18 percent reflectance grey sits at 42 IRE and 10-bit code 433, 90 percent white at 61 IRE and code 602, and 0 percent black at 7.3 IRE and code 128. Those numbers are the same for both, because it is the same curve. What differs is where the curve stops.

V-Log and V-Log L

The common belief is that V-Log L is a different, lesser log curve. Panasonic's documentation says otherwise. The LUMIX manuals state that the V-Log curve characteristics comply with the V-Log/V-Gamut Reference Manual Rev.1.0, and the manuals for V-Log L bodies say exactly the same. Both give 18 percent grey at IRE 42 percent. One document, one curve.

The L stands for a shorter ceiling, not a different shape. Panasonic's DVX200 tech brief, written for a 12-stop camera, puts it in a sentence: V-Log L maps the shadows and midtones identically to V-Log up to the 12-stop limit at 80 IRE, and the 80 to 109 IRE range is used in full V-Log for the extra highlight stops a VariCam sensor can generate, stops 13, 14 and 15. On that camera nothing brighter than about 81 IRE is ever displayed, however far you open the iris.

The stop counts Panasonic publishes line up. Footage shot in V-Log L on the GH5, enabled with the DMW-SFU1G upgrade key, can gain 12 stops using a LUT in editing. Footage shot in V-Log on the S1, enabled with DMW-SFU2, can gain 14 or more, and Panasonic's S1H release says V-Log and V-Gamut give 14 or more stops, virtually the same as the Cinema VariCam.

Because the curves agree below 80 IRE, Panasonic states that the S1H's footage is compatible with V-Log footage from a VariCam or V-Log L footage from a GH5 or GH5S. A GH5 and an S1H land in the same place after the same transform, and the only thing the GH5 lacks is highlight headroom above 90 percent white, which the DVX200 brief puts at roughly 1.5 stops before clipping. The same brief lays out V-Log L as 8 stops below middle grey and 4 above, and recommends exposing middle grey at 42 IRE rather than shifting it.

Published reference values

Panasonic's V-Log/V-Gamut Reference Manual, revision 1.0 dated 28 November 2014, is the primary document.

The code assignments are given directly. Grey output code with 18 percent reflection is defined as 433, black with 0 percent reflection as 128, and white with 90 percent reflection as 602. In IRE those are 42, 7.3 and 61. VariCam also supports 12-bit output, where the code is four times the 10-bit value, so the same points read 1732, 512 and 2408. Those figures only mean much next to the other formats' equivalents, and set beside six other curves on a matched scale V-Log turns out to divide its code values almost exactly as S-Log3 and ARRI LogC3 do.

The transfer function is published too, which is why V-Log is one of the easier formats to implement correctly. Converting scene linear reflection to V-Log, with reflection as "in" and V-Log data as "out", the manual gives out = 5.6 times in plus 0.125 below the cut, and out = c times log10 of (in plus b), plus d, at or above it, with cut1 = 0.01, b = 0.00873, c = 0.241514 and d = 0.598206. The inverse uses cut2 = 0.181.

The manual also lists clipping levels in 10-bit code: 911 for the VariCam 35 across every listed ISO from 800 to 12800, and 896 for the VariCam HS. A flat ceiling across the ISO range is worth knowing when you are deciding whether a highlight is recoverable.

V-Gamut

V-Log's colour container is V-Gamut, wider than it first appears. The reference manual gives the primaries as R at x 0.730 and y 0.280, G at x 0.165 and y 0.840, and B at x 0.100 and y minus 0.030, with the white point defined as D65 at 0.3127 and 0.3290.

That negative y coordinate on blue is worth noticing. It puts the blue primary outside the region of real colours, normal for a wide encoding gamut and why V-Gamut material survives conversion to smaller spaces without the saturated blues folding in. Panasonic describes V-Gamut as the optimum colour space for a master archive, with conversion to P3DCI and ITU-R BT.709 handled in post, and publishes the matrices including one to ACES that it notes includes chromatic adaptation. The right gamma with the wrong gamut looks broadly plausible and is wrong in the saturated colours, the failure most often misdiagnosed as a camera problem.

Panasonic's conversion LUTs

Panasonic publishes conversions in two places, for two camera families.

For the LUMIX bodies, the support download page carries a V-Log/V-Gamut conversion LUT covering the RAW output data of the BS1H, S1H, S1, S1M2, S1M2ES, S1RM2, S5, S5M2, S5M2X, BGH1, GH5S, GH6, GH7 and G9M2, plus a V709 conversion LUT described as being for V709 conversion of V-Log and V-LogL. One file for both formats, because they are the same curve.

For the cinema line, the VariCam LUT Library is a set of 35 LUTs with names like Nicest709, LoCon Neutral and V-Log Orig, and Panasonic notes it can also be applied to EVA1 footage because the EVA1 records in matching V-Log and V-Gamut. Panasonic's definition of the job is worth keeping in mind: a conversion LUT translates the flat V-Log material to a more restricted, yet contrasty, dynamic range and shifts the colour space to match the monitor.

Two cautions. V709 is a stylised look rather than a neutral technical conversion, which the DVX200 brief says explicitly, so it is not the file for a correct starting point. And two cameras sharing the curve do not share a sensor, so a LUT built around one body will not be exactly right on another.

Conversion routes to Rec.709

Three routes, and they do not produce the same picture. That is expected rather than a fault, for reasons worked through in why CST, ACES and LUTs look different.

A colour space transform computes the conversion from V-Log and V-Gamut into your working space using the published maths. It is the cleanest option and the one to prefer on a mixed camera job, because computed transforms from different sources meet properly in a common space where per-camera LUTs will not. How properly is checkable: normalized with their own published inverses, V-Log and S-Log3 decode to the identical scene value, and to within 0.0212 stops once 10-bit rounding is included. Correct exposure in the working space after the input transform, then the look.

An ACES pipeline uses a V-Gamut and V-Log input transform and renders through an output transform. It gives a more contrasty picture, because the rendering step is doing tone mapping on purpose, and earns its setup when interchange or archive matters more than the picture in front of you.

A conversion LUT is Panasonic's finished answer to both halves of the job. It is the most portable option across applications with no colour management in common, and the one place to watch the order: exposure correction happens upstream while the clip is still log, because past the table the skew is baked in.

Whichever route, the sequence is the same: normalize, balance exposure and white balance, then build the look. The Sony walkthrough is S-Log3 to Rec.709 conversion, and the Canon one how to grade C-Log3 footage.

Failure modes

Flat and grey means no transform has been applied. That is what a correct V-Log file looks like before conversion, and the diagnostic is the reference values: waveform on the untouched clip, grey card at 42 IRE.

Highlights clipping earlier than expected on a Micro Four Thirds body are usually not a fault. On a V-Log L camera the ceiling is around 80 IRE by design, so a waveform that never reaches the top is the format working correctly.

Saturated colours drifting while everything else looks right points at the gamut. Check the input colour space is V-Gamut and not left at Rec.709.

Two log formats behaving differently on import surprises people most, and it is software behaviour rather than a camera fault. Colour management keeps separate entries per format: Final Cut Pro's camera LUT list carries Panasonic V-Log and DJI D-Log as distinct items, so a timeline holding both can end up with one clip auto-converted and the other flat, depending on what metadata survived. If a clip arrives already converted and you add your own LUT, you have two transforms stacked: Premiere is applying a LUT to my log footage.

A timeline where one camera baked a look in and another stayed in V-Log has its own method in matching log footage to baked-in LUT clips. For the wider case see why your cameras don't match and matching Nikon Z with Sony and Canon. If clip volume is the problem, batch grading and exporting clips covers the scaling side.

Frequently asked questions

Is V-Log L a different curve from V-Log?

No. Panasonic's manuals state that both comply with the V-Log/V-Gamut Reference Manual Rev.1.0, and both place 18 percent grey at 42 IRE. V-Log L maps shadows and midtones identically and stops at the 12-stop limit around 80 IRE, where full V-Log continues to 109 IRE for the extra highlight stops.

Can I use the same LUT for V-Log and V-Log L?

Yes, and Panasonic ships one that way: its V709 conversion LUT is published as being for V709 conversion of V-Log and V-LogL. The caveat is sensor rather than curve, since a LUT built around one camera's colour response will not be exactly right on another.

What IRE should 18 percent grey read on V-Log?

42 IRE, which is 10-bit code 433. 90 percent white reads 61 IRE and code 602, and 0 percent black reads 7.3 IRE and code 128. Those are Panasonic's published values, and they hold for V-Log and V-Log L alike.

Does V-Log or S-Log3 hold more shadow detail?

S-Log3, by 20 code values, and the reason is worth understanding because the raw numbers appear to say the opposite.

Middle grey sits at code 433 on V-Log and 420 on S-Log3, so V-Log's grey is the higher of the two and it is easy to conclude it has more room underneath. But the count that matters starts at black, not at zero, and the two curves put black in different places. V-Log's 0 percent black is code 128; S-Log3's is code 95. Subtract and V-Log spends 305 code values between zero light and an 18 percent grey card, against S-Log3's 325. The higher grey is more than cancelled by the higher black.

Two cautions on what that difference is worth. It is about 6 percent, which is small enough that it will not decide anything on its own — we computed the same figure for nine formats and the spread across the full set runs from 190 to 375, so these two are near neighbours in a much wider field. And code values are quantisation, not noise: a denser allocation buys headroom against banding when you lift shadows hard, but it cannot remove grain the sensor already recorded. Exposure and sensor decide how clean your shadows are. The curve decides how finely what you captured is described.

Why does my V-Log footage look wrong only in the saturated colours?

Almost always the gamut rather than the gamma. V-Log rides in V-Gamut, whose primaries are much wider than Rec.709, including a blue primary defined with a negative y coordinate. The right log curve with the wrong colour space looks broadly correct and drifts where colour is strongest.

Sources

All fetched 2026-08-15.