Premiere Import changes color | sony camera

They have changed the color management options available in Premiere 2024, and ... have you even looked at them?

The weirdest part about this to me is that I have been shooting and editing in Premier with the Sony A7r4 for over 5 years and before that the A7r3. I have never seen this issue before at my previous employer over 8 years and hundreds of hours of footage and dozens of videos. 

I recently started a new job and was given a Macbook Pro M2 loaded, a brand new Sony a7r4, and the Adobe Suite ... now this issue pops up. WTF?  There must be a setting difference somewhere, but I never changed anything between the systems to be different over the years.  It's all the stock Adobe Suite programs.

I am going to take this same footage to my old machine at my last job (since I still work freelance for them) and test this same footage.  I am VERY curious of the result. The footage should look EXACTLY like what I shoot on the camera.  BUT, on this new machine and new camera it does not .... it's way darker and more saturated on this new system.

Because of improper color management settings. Combined with Apple's bonkers color management settings for Rec.709 video.

Apple's ColorSync CM utility is setup to apply the by-standards camera transform (essentially gamma 1.96) as the display system transform.

This is completely non-standard, and is done by no one else. QuickTime Player, Chrome and Safari browsers allow ColorSync to set display CM. VLC and Firefox normally apply their own CM.

So actually, the view in QuickTime Player is incorrect if you want full Rec.709 display standards.

Further, newer Macs with Reference modes will often use their HDTV settings for Rec.709 video, which displays proper broadcast standard sRGB, D65, display gamma 2.4.

Oh, and in test results I've seen recently, ColorSync didn't properly remap Rec.709 sRGB hue values within the display's P3 color space. So there are both improper tonal settings and color remapping.

In Premiere you do have controls for things. And choices.

Set Display Color Management on, and Extended Dynamic range also.

Set both auto detect log and auto tonemapping on.

Whether you set the sequence to Rec.709/SDR or HLG HDR, use only export presets built for your sequence color space. Rec.709 sequences,  make sure there is no HLG or PQ in the preset name. For HLG sequences, make sure the preset has HLG in the name.

Now for screen display gamma. This is a pick your poison choice.

QuickTime 1.96 will show an image very similar within Premiere to QuickTime Player outside Premiere. But understand, on PCs, Macs with Reference modes, and any broadcast compliant system, it's gonna be way dark and oversaturated.

Or do what pro colorists do, use broadcast Rec.709 gamma 2.4, and let it go out into the  wild where you have no control.

By the way, no professional broadcast media is graded at gamma 1.96. Not a single broadcast or streaming video you see was graded on anything other than gamma 2.4.

Some people use the "web 2.2" setting as kind of an in-between thing. But it's all your choice.

Has there been any resolution to this?  I am having the exact same issue with newly shot footage on a brand new Sony A74iv camera. It looks great in the camera and in Quicktime, but the moment I drag it into Premier, the footage turns darker and more red. I can color-correct it to be better, but WTF Premier? Why is your software changing the color so badly?