4:2:2 codec

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Anthony,
The Nano is the lighter option in the market to record 422 from your SDI.
In studio you can capture with the appropriate IO box (AJA, BM, Matrox,..).
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Noah Kadner]

Also the AJA Ki Pro- not cheap but excellent quality and portability:

https://www.aja.com/products/ki-pro/

Noah

Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera! Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio.
Call Box Training now featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon 7D,
Apple Tablet Blog.

[Michael Palmer]

Ki-Pro?, Great idea, but a terrible design, and certainly unnecessary for anything other than projects for the big screen. The Ki-Pro has a poor design using plastic than holds heat and has a terrible removable hard drive design. IMO the Ki-Pro is really not ready for prime time. I would bet AJA is franticly redesigning a much smaller unit that offers solid state memory cards. I know CD is working on the next Nano.

Michael Palmer

[Antony Christie]

Hi guys,

Thanks 4 your posts, however, they r all out of my price range; I’m only playing around with chroma key @ the mo.

I couldn’t find anything on the web so thought I’d post here, I guess I was hoping I could go straight from camera to PC.

Thanks anyway,
Toeknee

Sony HVR-Z5, Avid Media Composer v3

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Anthony,
You said that you have access to an EX-1.
Use it, and light decently.
You won’t need 422 to pull a good CK.
Use the search in this page.
There are few posts from people very happy with the EX green screen.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Antony Christie]

Thanks Rafael,

I’ll give it a go and let u know ;o)

Sony HVR-Z5, Avid Media Composer v3

[Craig Seeman]

I have no problem keying 4:2:0 from EX1 1080p30. The high pixel density/proximity can certainly make up for the 4:2:0. That would not be the case with the Z5 though, I suspect.

If you can go HDMI out (or SDI out) then that’s your answer. Just make sure whatever box you use can handle the high data rate. Matrox MXO2 to Apple ProRes on a fast MacBookPro would work. Nano would be portable.

Ultimately you’re going to have to buy something unless you already own something capable of handling the data rate.

Again, I need nothing else to get a good key from EX1 shooting progressive to its native EX codec ust as Rafael notes.

[Antony Christie]

You Creative Cow guys r great (NB: So r all the Creative Cow DVD’s I’ve bought!)

Whenever I post my subjects r always a little under researched (& that’s the reason I post in the first place) – However, I alway get great advice & I’m always glad I posted!

Thanks again

Sony HVR-Z5, Avid Media Composer v3

[Noah Kadner]

[Michael Palmer] “Ki-Pro?, Great idea, but a terrible design, and certainly unnecessary for anything other than projects for the big screen. The Ki-Pro has a poor design using plastic than holds heat and has a terrible removable hard drive design. IMO the Ki-Pro is really not ready for prime time. I would bet AJA is franticly redesigning a much smaller unit that offers solid state memory cards. I know CD is working on the next Nano.”

Huh- have you actually used one? They work like a charm and there’s already a solid-state hard drive option. How many 16GB CF cards are you going to need to record ProRes HQ at HD resolution at about 10 minutes per card? FUUUUN.

Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera! Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio.
Call Box Training now featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon 7D,
Apple Tablet Blog.

[Tim Kolb]

Both the KiPro and the nanoFlash have their sweet spots…

The KiPro really isn’t designed for that “attach to the back of the camera like another wireless mic receiver” portability, but it has a frame for tripod operation and it can of course be cabled to the camcorder.

The Nano does very high quality, high bitrate MPEG long GOP or I-frame

The KiPro does very high quality ProRes I-frame.

Both run in FCP real time on a timeline designated to do that (yes, I’ve run them both in FCP).

As odd as it may seem, ProRes is actually supported as a source file (you can’t export to it) in Adobe Premiere Pro PC whereas in versions CS3 and CS4, MPEG bitrates over 35 Mbit (EX XDcam HQ) are not supported without Main Concept’s plug in. In FCP, bitrates over 35 Mbits can be handled with the 50 Mbit preset, but you can’t export any MPEG format over 50 Mbit at it’s native bitrate…exports to Color, etc., are all exported at 50 Mbits as far as I can tell…

The Nano hangs on the back/top of the camera, or anywhere else you can attach it, is very light and doesn’t consume a lot of juice.

The KiPro needs a bit more mounting, and the below-the-camera cage has one disadvantage in that a video camera is moved even farther from the pivot point for the tilt, and therefore the nodal point in the camera moves quite a bit when tilting. I prefer to have the KiPro off to the side if I’m using that unit.

The Nano can be a tad inconvenient when you want to use it as a master record “VTR” as it is heavily menu driven and the display faces up when it sits on a table vs. the KiPro front face with tape transport reminiscent controls…Convergent Design makes the full size Flash XDR, which is a bit more surface button driven if that’s what you’re looking for, but it still lays ‘face up’.

For Greenscreen work…10 bit available on ProRes means advantage KiPro (I’ve had 100 Mbit footage from a Nano keyed and it works very well…hell, I’ve keyed HDV before and it can be made to work, but there is no question that 10 bit is helpful for compositing and color correction purposes.)

For more portable production (Michael P. and I have spent some time out on racetracks shooting performance automotive footage), the Nano is simply easier for a single operator to carry and operate.

The KiPro has a fairly wide selection of connection choices, where the Nano is designed specifically for HDSDI and HDMI.

The Nano will record 4:2:2 MPEG files wrapped as QT, MPG or MXF at a variety of datarates…The KiPro is specifically ProRes at a variety of datarates.

The KiPro uses a spinning harddrive*** which gains capacity over the Nano’s dual Flash slots, but harddrives aren’t as robust as solid state in abusive field conditions (heavy vibration, jarring, etc.)

***AJA has a solid state drive option, and the KiPro will also record to Express34 cards as well, which makes the media more robust, but of course these options bring the capacity down somewhat.

The KiPro has AJA’s up/down/cross conversion built in. Feed the thing SD/720/1080 via analog or SDI and record to any of those resolutions in ProRes while converting on the fly.

…this list could go on and on, but I’ve worked with both of these products and they are both excellent devices in their own right. They aren’t optimized for the same situations, but neither are any two camcorders, NLE software packages, automobiles or athletic shoes you’d care to compare.

The key is to do some research and figure out what equipment and software works best for your application.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,