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C300 Aliasing
A client of mine has recently bought a Canon C300 to use for corporate videos (previously using either 5Ds and 7Ds or EX1s etc). Currently they are doing a series of interviews with local architects and are seeing some severe aliasing (or moire) on suits and ties far more often than I would expect from this camera. Having dones some searching I cant find many people talking about aliasing problems with the C300 except in severe conditions but for these guys it seems to be worse than it was with a 5D MkII. I’ve asked them to check the sharpness setting, but I cant imagine that accounts for what we’re seeing. should I be advising them to be returning their camera for repair/replacement?
Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC6
Apple Certified Trainer – FCPX
Pixelwizard.net
Futureworks.co.uk -
6 Replies
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[Andrew McKee] ” should I be advising them to be returning their camera”
Perhaps… I would definitely have them check/adjust ALL the possible settings first.
The C300 is actually extremely good at preventing moire patterns… much better than the other cameras you mentioned. I saw a side-by-side shootout just for moire patterns, and the C300 blew Canon DSLRs out of the water.
I’ve not done any comparison shooting, but have shot a number of things with my C300 (guys in tweed jackets, etc.) that would have made any other camera I’ve ever used moire like crazy, but it was solid as a rock.
Something is definitely not right there….
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Thanks for that. I knew something was a bit weird. I’ve got to the bottom of it this morning and thankfully it was nothing to do with the camera. Rather than using FCP log and transfer to rewrap the mxfs to movs, they were using a piece of software called Borosoft MXF converter to recode to ProRes. This software was causing the aliasing either because of some inherent problem or because of the way they had set it up, I’m not sure which. I’ve moved them over to using log and transfer and all the problems have gone.
Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC6
Apple Certified Trainer – FCPX
Pixelwizard.net
Futureworks.co.uk -
Was there florescent lighting in the room? If they didn’t turn off the room lighting and use their own lights, then this may have been the problem.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro
with Final Cut Studio Adobe CS6 Production -
Ah, cool Andrew… glad you got that solved.
I mistakenly assumed you meant you were getting/seeing the moire pattens right in camera… rather than in post.
I also didn’t think of it as being a post issue because here all our suites cut with Premiere (CS6) which uses the MXF files straight from the cards and doesn’t require any conversion. Being an all-PC house, I keep forgetting that FCP makes you jump through a few hoops to use the MXF files.
It’s actually probably a blessing in disguise that you had the moire issues. If you were getting those, the rest of your images were probably being degraded a little bit too by the conversion software… and you might not have noticed it so soon.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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It’s possible that the conversion software created an interlaced file that then exhibited the moire. BTW, FCPX handles MXFs from cards or camera easily.
Todd, I read your excellent rundown of the C300. Do you know if the SDI out is 8 or 10-bit?
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, OS 10.7.4, QT10.1, Kona 3, Dual Cinema 23, ATI Radeon HD 5870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
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John…
Sorry I don’t know… I’ve never used the SDI output on the C300… I don’t think I’ve ever even uncapped the spigot, so to speak.
I would certainly assume it’s 10-bit, but can’t say that for certain. I have three solid days of location shooting with the C300PL starting tomorrow morning, though… I’ll give it a look and see if I can confirm that.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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