Hi Neil,
I just ran a quick and dirty test on
1. A protune mp4 clip straight out of the camera
2. Same clip in .avi out of Cineform
3. Same clip in mp4 out of Cineform.
I produced the clips all on the same timeline.
1. protune mp4 with 1/2 slider Video enhance.
2. avi and mp4 out of Cineform at 30% contrast and 10% sharpening.
Result.
1. Even with 1/2 slider Video enhance original clip was more washed out than the two Cineform clips. Although showed more detail in the shadows but lost out in what I call "pop" in the video.
2. In the avi clip there were sharpening halos in the produced video on fine white line writing on my black sleeves even when no sharpening was applied. This though is a very specific circumstance, as the rest of the video looked good.
2. They were missing from the cineform mp4 even when 10% sharpening was applied.
3. The .avi still looked the best although only just, followed by the Cineform mp4 and the out of camera protune mp4 last. I could have tinkered more with the out of camera mp4 but I would end up chasing my tail.
Bottom line comes down to a video I recently saw where a company tested 6 video cameras all in a studio set up with a high dynamic range of large open windows to sunny outdoors with actors doing the exact same thing for each camera.
They then got about 20-30 film people to watch all the clips only marked as A, B, C etc to see which one they liked best.
They could not come to a consensus as to which was the best camera. It appeared if you liked good skin tone you liked a certain camera. If you liked good dynamic range, that is outside the window balanced with the inside you liked a certain camera, etc etc.
To the average person they would not even notice the differences I am talking about but as I am always looking for that last 10% I'll keep tinkering.
Bottom like I guess I will continue to produce my videos that look good to my eye as in the end I am the one I have to satisfy.
Cheers
Robert2 S
My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn