1920×1080 or 1280×720

[Loren Risker]

I’m sure there is an argument for bigger is better, but vimeo loves 720 and a 720 projects will give you an opportunity to recompose and scale your 1080 shots.

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OutOfFocus.TV – Original series, music videos, mini-docs.

[Nicolas Vallejo]

Forgot to mention I’m Letterboxing the entire thing to 2.35.

[Joe Marler]

[Nicolas Vallejo] “roughly 70% of it will be 60fps shot on a MKIII + 7D so 1280X720 is the highest output”

On the 7D, aliasing (stair stepping of diagonals) can be significant at 720. It is much less on the 5D3. The 7D does better at 1080 from that standpoint. Of course 60 fps gives smooth 1/2 speed slow motion, which is artistically useful for concert footage. OTOH FCP X retiming with optical reflow produces pretty good slow motion from 30 fps.

We shoot with a variety of DSLRs, including 5D3 and 60D (sensor/image processing similar to the 7D). Our general practice is shoot 1080p/30 and only use 720p/60 if we really need it.

This assumes that you as the editor can request the shooting frame rate. If it is already shot or the parameters determined by someone else, you’ll just have to live with it. You can easily mix 1080p/30 and 720p/60 material in the same sequence. The frame rate is automatically conformed, and they are both 16:9, so it’s a simple scale up or down to match one to the other.

Ideally you should shoot some 720p/60 test material with both 5D3 and 7D, especially looking for aliasing and see if it bothers you. If you have no problems with it, then 720p/60 might be OK. However as already mentioned 1080 gives more leeway to crop and recompose a bit in post.

[Nicolas Vallejo]

I’ll just conform the 60fps stuff to 24 in the timeline. That’s not a problem. I have some aliasing on the 7D, but not so much that it’s a huge deal. Also, as I wrote, I’m letterboxing 2.35 so I’ll have room to repo regardless of whether its 24 or 60. My question is – is there an advantage at all at making this project 1920X1080 considering 70% of it will be 1280X720?

[Mark Smith]

FWIW 720 on the 7d looks like ass…. but that doesn’t answer your scaling problem.

[Nicolas Vallejo]

[Mark Smith] “FWIW 720 on the 7d looks like ass…. but that doesn’t answer your scaling problem.
“

Very helpful answer.

[Mark Smith]

Ah but there is a clue. If 720 on the 7D doesn’t look so good to start with, scaling it up to 1080 isn’t going to help the look at all.

[Nicolas Vallejo]

If people are gonna hit full screen, then it’s irrelevant isn’t it

[Al Bergstein]

Nicolas, I try to never upscale as the results I’ve seen are always worse. So if you can deliver in 720 and shoot most of it in 720, I doubt your audience will notice any difference. Us pixel peepers might, but it’s unlikely to be of much consequence. I agree that if you are concerned you should try a demo bit before you get into it.

Al