Canon EOS 5D Mark II – good for chroma keying?

[Michael Szalapski]

In addition to what Dave said, there could be issues with the actual footage itself. The camera can be the greatest camera in the world, but if there’s an inexperienced operator or a bad lighting designer, it’s still going to look absolutely terrible.
A lot of green spill onto your subject or a slightly out of focus shot could cause what you’re seeing.
Also, as Todd mentioned in another thread, h.264 is great for compression for viewing by the human eye, but it sucks for compositing apps because they see everything. So when the compression throws away color information, it’s color info AE would have had use for.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Judie Luszcz]

Thanks Dave,

Files I normally receive are of the Animation, ProRes, etc. variety. The people who did this shoot are ace photographers, are breaking into video, left the fluorescent room lights on, and did not have access to a video monitor.

The only thing I can tell that happened to this footage prior to winding up in my hands is that it was shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. From what I’ve read about this camera, it heavily compresses to h.26, is not ideal for keying in the first place, and the footage doesn’t play nice with the Mac. I didn’t have time to research prior to the shoot, and they would be using this camera regardless of what info I found. So, I’ll be masking and luma-matting my days away with this footage.

Anyone have any other info on this particular camera?

[Bill Davis]

A lot of folks have given you very helpful information, but nobody has addressed your question head on.

So allow me.

The 5d footage shot properly can and should be able to pull EXCELLENT keys.

Many of us have done it time and time again.

So if you’re having problems – it’s likely human/workflow errors rather than any intrinsic flaw in the way the camera operates or the digital stream it outputs.

Simple as that.

[Anthony Bari jr.]

If lit well, great for Green Screen, transcode to ProRes 4:2:2
The 422 is the color space great to pull a key. Unlike some others like HDV 4:2:0

*Production*Post-Production*
Apple Certified Instructor (Final Cut Pro 7)
“Semper Fi USMC”

[Clyde Villegas]

Anthony, do you mean accept the h.264 in your machine and convert to another format? I’m also a bit confused on this matter.

The best ways should be to capture 4:2:2 out from the HDMI port, but as far as I know, the 5D is incapable of that.

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Anthony Bari jr.]

Yes, Convert the H.264 footage using the Canon E1 plugin,Mpeg Streamclip or Compressor.

HDMI is for monitoring, to ingest the media you just pull the data from cards intact copy the DCIM folder
onto a harddrive and convert from there.

*Production*Post-Production*
Apple Certified Instructor (Final Cut Pro 7)
“Semper Fi USMC”

[Clyde Villegas]

Just to make sure I understand, I’ll ingest the h.264 clips from the cards and convert them to ProRes 4:2:2 for use in After Effects? Is ProRes4:2:2 the best format to use in AE, especially in chromakeying?

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Anthony Bari jr.]

Yes, if you want more information choose a ProRes HQ or ProRes 4444 (best for animation) if FCP 7 is installed. ProRes 4444 clips are Huge files.

*Production*Post-Production*
Apple Certified Instructor (Final Cut Pro 7)
“Semper Fi USMC”

[Clyde Villegas]

This is where I get confused. If h.264 is highly compressed, how can converting to another format bring back color information that was not there from the start?

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Thomas Morter-laing]

I’m with Clyde here- I dont understand how converting it will help with the actual Key. I get that it will be easier to render and nicer to work with when converted to, for example, Prores 422, and I understand that lighting etc are massive factors, but once you have shot in H264 420 converting it to 422 wont put any information back or improve the key in any way surely? At least, thats what I was told here a while back…

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Freelance Editor
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
http://www.depictproductions.co.uk

Sony Z5, with Rode NTG2.
iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800), with Elgato Turbo H264HD.