Jittery footage from DSLR – unable to solve

[Jon Doughtie]

Is your footage stored and [playing back from the system drive – that is, the same drive on which your edit software is located?
If so, this is a big no-no which may be the root cause, or is masking the real root cause of your playback problem.

[Henrik Duncker]

No, it is on external FW disk.
But I also have tried to play from the start-up disk and several other externals while looking for a cure.
Henrik

[David Baud]

What was your shutter speed setting when recording these clips? does the Nikon let you change it in video mode? if so I would try to slow it down. If not you can recreate the motion blur in post using a plugin like the Revision FX RSMB.

David Baud
Post & VFX
KOSMOS PRODUCTIONS
Denver – Paris
http://www.kosmos-productions.com

[Kevin Monahan]

Hi Henrik,
What happens if you change the extension from .mov to .mpg? This helps a lot of other Nikon DSLR users.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan
Support Product Manager—DVA
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe
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[Henrik Duncker]

Hi Kevin,
Changing the extension from .mov to .mpg only causes QuickTime to start a conversion process if I try to play the movie (i.e. it wont play the file as such).
Best
Henrik

[Henrik Duncker]

Hi David,

I used as long (or almost as long) exposure times as the camera allows for a given frame rate. I do recognize that using a 1/60 shutter speed with 60fps may not be ideal and can cause too much of motion blur. Unfortunately I did not make notes on the shutter speeds used when I shot the actual footage I started working with, nor did I make notes on my first pendulum tests. However I certainly did not use too short shutter speeds, wanting to avoid strobe like effects. Further, I recognize that when working with slow motion effects (like in my case) the shutter speed / frame rate relation may need extra consideration.

Nevertheless, I have now got enough feedback from people who can’t see any frames dropping (stutter), so that I can quite safely assume that the camera is fine, and so are the files that I’ve produced. What remains is the question why my computer is giving the hick-ups. System upgrade to Yosemite and possible further talks with Apple are the next steps.

Anyway, thanks for the input. I will take the linked pendulum test offline as it won’t serve a purpose any longer.

Henrik