Best codec to edit Cannon DSLR footage in CS 5.5?

[Noah Kadner]

In Premiere native is generally the expected workflow for DSLR footage.

Noah

Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and GoPro HD Hero.

[Ryan Orr]

Noah,

I can understand that Premier can edit DSLR footage natively, but is it the BEST codec to use? How about if you want to color correct and in general, beat up the image for whatever reason. Would it be better to transcode it into a different codec so Premiere/hardware would still be happy, even after all kinds of alterations to the footage?

Thanks,
Ryan

[Fred Dorsett]

Hey Rian,

I would say best you edit native in Premier, THEN take your ‘cut’ into After Effects and there you can ‘beef it up’ / colour correct and do whatever else you have to do, THEN export as you choose.

Best regards,

Fred (2D & 3D Animation and Stop Motion)

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah that’s the thing- there’s no point in transcoding as you edit because your footage won’t get any better than it is already as H.264 camera original. Only once you leave Premiere and go into another program for additional processing that can’t share Premiere’s edit do you want to switch to another codec. If you have ProRes- great. Otherwise try uncompressed or animation or what have you.

Noah

Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and GoPro HD Hero.

[Richard Cardonna]

What if you transcode before editing to prores or cineform?

Richard

[Deleted User]

You may wish to refer to the documentation for the free transcoding software “5DtoRGB”:
https://rarevision.com/5dtorgb/

The developer claims higher quality results than what can be obtained using an NLE alone. YMMV.

—

https://www.peterdv.com

[Ryan Orr]

See, I’ve seen this 5DtoRGB thing before, but it just made things a little less clear. I’ve always heard that transcoding your footage to a codec that your NLE loves is best. And now with this 5DtoRGB transcoder, it will keep your gamma of your footage truer to the original, and in a flavor your NLE likes best…

Meh, I’m just gonna do my own tests and see what fits my bill better.

[Brent Dunn]

Adobe has made it simple. I likes multiple flavors of the codec ice cream…so enjoy, but I wouldn’t waste time encoding just to edit. That’s why they have spent alot of money and time using people who are much smarter than me to solve problems for the rest of us. Why fight it, join them and edit natively.

If you can’t get enough head room for tweaking your image, get a new camera or become a better camera operator.

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.net

Sony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut Studio

HP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite

[Jorden Mosley]

I work with Canon footage all the time and as others have said, it’s best to edit in native format. If you’re having issues running it real time, then change the playback preview to 1/4. If the colors aren’t where you want them, complete the cutting first and then do color correction last.

As far as exporting formats, if you have Final Cut also installed on your system, use Prores 422 (only if your making a master copy, otherwise it would be overkill) or Cineform if you have it, or heck h.264 at its highest settings can be pretty darn good for mastering at 1080p.