Color in Mavis Camera is designed to support both simple, straight‑to‑delivery workflows and fully color‑managed production. To make sense of how everything fits together, it helps to think about color in three stages: the input color coming from the camera, the internal processing color used by Mavis Camera, and the final output color used for display and recording.
This article explains how those stages work together, and how LUTs affect the pipeline in real‑world workflows.
Input Color
The input color is the color space produced by the camera itself.
When you use the built‑in iPhone camera, Mavis Camera can receive footage in Rec.709, Rec.2100 HLG, Apple Log, or Apple Log 2. Which one you choose depends on whether you want a ready‑to‑use image, an HDR workflow, or a flat log signal for grading later.
When you connect an external camera, the input color space depends entirely on what that camera outputs. For example, a Sony camera may send S‑Log, a Canon camera may send Canon Log, or the camera may already be set to standard Rec.709. Mavis Camera does not assume or force a specific input color for external sources. It simply receives whatever the camera provides.
Processing Color
Once the image enters Mavis Camera, it can either pass through untouched or be actively processed by the Mavis color pipeline using a LUT (see below more information on LUTs).
If you bypass processing (e.g. you don't turn on a LUT), Mavis Camera keeps the input color unfettered. No color space conversion is applied internally. What comes in is what flows through to output, subject only to the limits of what the hardware display can show. This mode is useful when you want a pure log or camera‑native signal and you plan to handle all color conversion downstream.
If you enable processing, Mavis Camera converts the image into one of two working color spaces: Rec.709 or Rec.2100 HLG. These are the only two color spaces Mavis uses internally when processing is active. All effects, LUTs, and live adjustments operate within one of these spaces.
Output Color
The output color is split into two independent parts: what you see on the device, and what gets written into your files.
The display color space must match something the device hardware can actually show. In Mavis Camera this can either be Rec.709 or Rec.2100 HLG (both these modes are supported by the iPhone display). You cannot set the display to an arbitrary color space such as S‑Log, because the hardware display does not support it directly.
The recording color space determines how your clips are tagged and encoded on disk. This can differ from the display color space, depending on your workflow and how LUTs are configured.
LUTs in Mavis Camera
LUTs add flexibility, but they can also be a source of confusion because they deliberately transform one color space into another.
In most workflows, a LUT takes an input color space, such as Apple Log or S‑Log, and converts it into a display or delivery color space, such as Rec.709.
Mavis Camera supports two LUT modes.
Preview mode - the LUT is applied only to the display output. The recorded file remains in the original color space. This is ideal when you want to monitor a finished‑looking image on set, but still record a flat or log signal for grading later.
Record mode - the LUT is applied to both the display and the recording. The recorded file is permanently transformed into the LUT’s output color space. This is ideal when you want files that are ready for delivery and you do not plan to do additional color grading.