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Fuzzy HD from Canon or transcoding?
I am logging and transferring footage from a two camera shoot–canon 7d and canon 60d. The footage arrived on a drive and when I looked at the source files they were 1920×1080 h.264, square pixel, 29.97. Sorry if this is unnecessary detail–I’m not a shooter and don’t know what options the cameras give you.
I downloaded the EOS plug in and set my preferences to transcode to Apple ProRes 422.
All seemed well and good. Then I looked at a clip, and it doesn’t look quite right–it’s fine when the person is standing still, but any movement and the image goes soft, then seems to resolve when person is still (it’s green screen footage, guy walking back and forth).
I looked at one of the original media files, same thing.
Is this the way I’m bringing it into fcp, or did this happen in the camera? Or is this because my system is too slow to show this size hd?(data rate for clips 17-18MB/sec) Or is there some other explanation? And of course, what can I do to fix this?
My specs:
FCP 6.0.6
Mac OS 10.5.8
Processor: 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
4GB memoryThanks!
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8 Replies
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Edit systems aren’t designed to show you full quality in the edit windows. It takes too much processing power…and really, the system would prefer you not hav dropped frames when playing back. So the quality is lowered IN THOSE WINDOWS ONLY when editing. Want to see full quality? Get a capture card or IO box and an HDTV. Matrox MXO2 Mini with HDTV will be under $1000…
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Thanks Shane. Anyway to double check the quality without running out and making those purchases?
I’m also going to be pulling the clips into AE, where I’m tempted to work in a 1240×720 project, especially since I suspect the client will end up wanting dvd and posting to the web.
I’m wondering if I pull a clip into AE as described above that will give me a better sense…
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Another thought: shouldn’t the file look okay if I open it as a quicktime movie on my desktop? (i.e. not within fcp)
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Only other way to really check is to output to a format that you then watch on the medium you are delivering. DVD… web compression…whathaveyou.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Okay, I’m officially obsessed.
When I look at the source files (before any transcoding). I can stop on a frame and see that it looks blurry. The placket of the guy’s shirt is sharp in one frame, fuzzy when he moves.
When I look at the FCP transcoded clip in the viewer, same thing. This is not a playback issue–I’m looking at the still frame. At this point, wouldn’t I see what I’m getting?
Another, separate puzzling thing: I set the log & transfer preferences pulldown to Canon>Eos as source, transcode to ProRes 422 (I’ve tried both HQ and regular), yet everytime I reopen that window, it’s defaulted back to the top choice (AVCHD). That seems odd to me. Generally when you set a preference it sticks. And the window has been open all the time.
Thanks for any thoughts…
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The EOS plugin was designed for FCP7. It may not perform as advertised in FCP6
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Still doesn’t explain why the source file would look fuzzy when I opened it on my desktop in quicktime.
a camera guy said something about Canon + motion + greenscreen having an issue but didn’t elaborate. Anything to that?
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The Canon DSLRs do line skipping so there may be some aliasing and flickery lines with that. Also the choice of shutter speed can make a difference to flowing motion, but that is true with progressive cameras anyway, not a specific Canon issue
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