Editing Sony F3 footage

[Andrew David]

On second thoughts, would anyone recommend that instead of going to Pro res I should edit natively using the Sony Cinemon plug-in:

“It enables MPEG to be transparent to FCP
Quicktime. You’ll be able to edit natively in FCP, with drag and
drop capability. All files will be instantly viewable on a Mac.” Says the info

ADC

[Andrew Rendell]

I had it battered into me that you should never transcode (change codec) more than you absolutely have to, in order to avoid concatenation errors building up and ruining the quality that you had in the suite by the time it gets to the viewer. So I’d be inclined to give the Sony plug in a go, myself… (just as long as you’re not using the long GOP codec)

[Andrew David]

Thanks guys, great advice and than you Dave for the link.

ADC

[Richard Cooper]

“Unfortunately, this particular camera records video in a long-gop codec, which makes for painful — if not downright impossible — FCP editing.”

Well… if this camera records to the standard XDCAM format like it says, this really is not an issue. FCP and XDCAM work very well together, long GOP and all. Just remember to set your render codec to ProeRes, which FCP allows for XDCAM and HDV. Then renders are fast and efficient while the need to trans code everything to ProRes is bypassed.

Another option with this camera (that we are looking at) is recording directly to KiPro Mini via HD/SDI which will of course allow recording directly to ProRes, bypassing the XDCAM codec all together. This would definitely give you better results all around.

…of course all of this is speculation until the F3 actually ships… which to my knowledge, it has NOT.

Good Luck!

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com

[Rafael Amador]

I have a NANO and I agree with Richard.
The beauty of the NANO is that you just drag&drop the media.
No L&T. No transcoding needed.
The codec is plain XDCAM-HD/422.
Edit native on a Prores sequence.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Andrew Rendell]

I understand that the F3 has a choice of codecs, including a long GOP one – so if you were using that you’d have to convert to a more FCP friendly one. Otherwise, XDCAM is a variation of mpeg, but it’s all i-frames so no GOP issue.

[Rafael Amador]

[Andrew Rendell] “I understand that the F3 has a choice of codecs, including a long GOP one – so if you were using that you’d have to convert to a more FCP friendly one. Otherwise, XDCAM is a variation of mpeg, but it’s all i-frames so no GOP issue.”
LGOPs MPEG-2 are supported on FC almost since the arrival of the HDV (well some FC versions later. in the beginning was necessary to go through the AIC).
The F-3 has the same options than the EX-1/3.
All are supported on FC since v 6.2.
The NANO give extra options on higher data rate and Intraframe recording (and SD too).
Makes things even easier to work in Fc.
You would need to transcode to an intraframe codec only in case you would be editing multilayers on a low performance computer.
I’ve been editing NANO footage on a MBP for the last two years.
Never transcoded.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Gareth Ellner]

Hi all,

I’m assisting Andrew with his film as sound recordist, camera assistant and general technical/IT assistance. I’m helping him to come up with the workflow for the film.

I notice that the Nanoflash can record either I-frame or Long-GOP MPEG2. I know technically what this means but neither of us are familiar with exactly how well FCP (on a modern high-spec Mac) can handle 1080p Long-GOP. The film will have a modest number of layers and effects.

We have limited storage, so the highest bitrates could be impractical. I know that (for example) 100 Mbps 4:2:2 Long-GOP will be better quality than 100 Mbps 4:2:2 I-frame (due to compression efficiency), but:

Should we use I-frame-only on the Nanoflash exclusively, or will FCP cope fine with Long-GOP?

Thanks for all your insights so far!

[Rafael Amador]

[Gareth Ellner] “We have limited storage, so the highest bitrates could be impractical. I know that (for example) 100 Mbps 4:2:2 Long-GOP will be better quality than 100 Mbps 4:2:2 I-frame (due to compression efficiency), but:

Should we use I-frame-only on the Nanoflash exclusively, or will FCP cope fine with Long-GOP?”
Hi gareth,
The truth is that since I bought the NANO I’ve used Intraframe very little.
Most what I shoot is 100Mbps and the picture is simply great.
I reserve 220/280 Intraframe for some slow motion time-lapse and so.
Probably I would use it too for keying or heavy compositing.

[Gareth Ellner] “100 Mbps 4:2:2 Long-GOP will be better quality than 100 Mbps 4:2:2 I-frame (due to compression efficiency”
Rates for intraframe are 220 and 280Mbps.
100Mbps would be too low data-rate for Intraframe, so is not an option in the NANO.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Gareth Ellner]

Thanks for your advice, Rafael.

We’ll stick to 80 or 100Mbps Long-GOP then, I think. It will make the shoot a little smoother/safer if we don’t need to clear our CF cards.

BTW, the documentation for firmware v1.6.248 claims that the rates are “422P@HL: 100/140/180/220 Mbps VBR 4:2:2 I-Frame Only” – however, I know it can also do 280Mbps so it might well be a typo.

Cheers again!