The never-ending search for right 7D import/export settings

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Jordan,

Your workflow is fine. Maybe boost the YouTube h.264 to somewhere around 5000kb/s if there’s a lot of colour or movement in your video.
I think perhaps you’re expecting too much – it’s always going to look super crisp on the camera LCD as it’s such a small screen.

One thing I would personally change would be to shoot 30p instead of 60p, unless you particularly want that 60p look (most avoid it for things like short films, music vids etc) or if you need to convert to slow-mo – you should find that the quality of each frame improves both for the in-camera files and the final h.264 for YouTube. (60fps means that less kb are applied to each frame per second compared to 30fps)

Hope that helps,
Alex

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed
Check out my latest addition to the Creative Cow Reels Section

[Jordan Wilson]

That does help, thanks.

Do you know of any examples of 1080 30p slo-mo? I haven’t been really wowed by the 720 60p slo-mo (FCP Cmd+J)

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Jordan,

You misunderstand me – what I mean is I would only shoot 60p for clips that you intend to slow mo. For everything else shoot 30p.
Using CMD+J doesn’t make use of the fact that you have overcranked to 60p. The best way to convert those clips is with Compressor instead of running them through MPEG Streamclip (MPEG Streamclip is fine for your non-slow mo shots).

In Compressor, create a custom ProRes 29.976 setting and be sure to imput the following information in the Frame Controls tab:

Notice that at the bottom I have selected “so source frames play at 29.97 fps” (what your camera calls 30p is in fact 29.976 fps)

If you want to give me your email address and are on FCP7 I can send you this setting as a preset so you don’t have to fiddle about with it.

By the way, converting to ProRes HQ is overkill. Standard ProRes is fine for stuff from the Canon cameras (and many others).

All the best,
Alex

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed
Check out my latest addition to the Creative Cow Reels Section

[Shane Ross]

Magic Bullet Grinder has a setting that will automatically convert 720p60 into 1080p24 (or 30p too). I used it to get this with my Canon T2i:

https://homepage.mac.com/comeback/.Movies/Mentos_Coke.mov

But you can also import the footage via Log and Transfer, or convert with Compressor. Then use CINEMA TOOLS to CONFORM to 23.98, or 29.97…I just like the one step process of Grinder. And of that Compressor setting above.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Jordan Wilson]

Thanks for this…. I’ll take a closer look at this during my next project.

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Jordan,
Where is the problem in the 720p Prores Master, or in the H264 compression?
To try to improve the quality of your picture Pre-master, you may try “5dtoRGB” (Google).
Once you get a perfect master, you can think about the H264 conversion.

I agree with Alex About the 60p for Internet.
Go to 30p and allow double data rate per frame.

[Jordan Wilson] “Key Frames every –> 24 frames”
Why 24?
You have no element for choosing this.
Set it in Automatic, and let the “Multi-pass” do his job.
Cheers,
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Guiri Reyes]

hi Alex! thank you for the value information.
would i be able t get this preset for compressor?
thank you agan

[Guiri Reyes]

what happens on mine is in stead of showing “so source frames play at 29.97 fps”
it shows 59.94fps…

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Guiri,

In the encoder tab under video settings you need to change the frame-rate to 29.97. After you’ve done that you should be able to select ‘so source frames play at 29.97 fps’

I’ve attached the setting below:
1174_prores42230p.zip

All the best,
Alex

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed
Check out my latest addition to the Creative Cow Reels Section

[Guiri Reyes]

man,
you guys save lifes 🙂