Sony Z7U

[Walter Biscardi]

What format are you editing in? If you’re using HDV, then that’s a terrible format to work with, especially when you start color grading or adding effects.

Also remember, “60i” is Sony’s way of saying 29.97. See 60 interlaced FIELDS per second is 29.97 FRAMES per second. Not a true 60 frames per second like you would get when shooting 720p / 60 which gives superior slo mo quality over 1080i / 29.97.

We convert all HDV to ProRes during ingest as we get much better results in edit getting out of HDV as quickly as possible. You should get decent slo mo if you run about 50% range, but it won’t be quite as smooth as 720/60. Also be sure you render the slo mos before judging quality.

Motion has Optical Flow slo mo which looks even better.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
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[Edward Neary]

Hey Walter,

HD is completely new for me so I’m importing via compact flash cards without making any adjustments in FCP. All I did was download the Sony program that allows for import. What section would I import for Pro Res and what settings would you suggest?

If you check out my Blog https://milestonevideo.blogspot.com/

you can view something I did last night. I could only go down to 80% and it still looks jittery. I’m actually installing FCP 7 upgrade because I was told it handles slow mo better. I like to go to 60% sometimes.

Here’s the big issue, I shoot the reception at a shutter of a 30th and sometimes play with a 15th. If I slow that down I can’t even imagine what will happen. I like slow mo, want to put HD videos on my site and provide client with dvd’s that are not HD but SD downconverts. I feel confused about the whole thing.

Thanks,
Ed

[Alan Okey]

Ed,

If you use a lot of slow motion in your work, then I would suggest using a camera that can overcrank, i.e. shoot at a faster frame rate than the recording frame rate. I\’m not sure about the Z7U, but the Sony EX1 and EX3 can shoot as high as 60 frames per second recorded over 720p30 or 720p24, which yields super-smooth slow motion shots that look far superior to shooting normal speed and slowing it down.

[Shawn Lloyd]

I’ve been dealing with this exact same problem this week.

Walter, I’m curious about your statement above:

“We convert all HDV to ProRes during ingest as we get much better results in edit getting out of HDV as quickly as possible. You should get decent slo mo if you run about 50% range, but it won’t be quite as smooth as 720/60. Also be sure you render the slo mos before judging quality.”

I thought all HDV footage in FCP was automatically converted to ProRes. Is there another step you are doing to get it into prores?

Thanks,

Shawn