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Using Smoothcam filter in sequence w/ 1080p & 720p footage
Hi, I recently shot a bunch of video on the Canon 7D, using the camera’s 1080p/23.98 and 720p/60p modes. I shot this entirely on the subway, so I am considering using FCP’s Smoothcam filter to alleviate some of the shakiness in some of the shots.
I plan on mixing the 1080p footage with the 720p, using the 720p footage (overcranked) as slow-motion. The final video will be exported as 720p.
My question is, theoretically, if I edit the whole video in a 720p timeline and apply the Smoothcam filter to only the 1080p footage, will I not suffer any real loss in resolution for those 1080p clips assuming the filter doesn’t scale them dramatically?
My rationale for this is that since 1080p footage in a 720p timeline is 1.5x larger than the 720p output, this should give me a fair amount of leeway to scale the 1080p footage, which is essentially how the Smoothcam filter works.
I hope I’ve explained this clearly. It’s a bit complicated and not very easy to explain verbally, but I’d really appreciate any insight anyone might have.
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4 Replies
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So, I have the same question. I am currently working on a project and want to use the smooth cam from 1080 footage in a 720 sequence in order to not loose any resolution. Have you found any answers yet? I am still organizing my project, but I’ll let you know what I find as soon as I start the editing process. Please let me know if you’ve found answers in the mean time. Steve.
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Hey Steve, unfortunately, no one was able to answer this question for me. Fortunately, I didn’t have to use SmoothCam on my project after all. I’d be curious to know what the answer is anyway. Theoretically, I’d imagine that down-res’ing a lightly scaled 1080p clip to 720p would be higher quality than a native/unsclaed 720p clip, but I’m still not sure.
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I’d also be very interested in an answer to your original question… somebody help!!
Ramzi Dreessen
Photo Editor – Buzz Magazine
Junior, News-Editorial Journalism – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
http://www.rkdphoto.wordpress.com
buzzphoto@readbuzz.com -
I don’t know if this will specifically answer your question, but when you add a 1080 clip to a 720 timeline, by default, the spatial conform is set to fit. You’ll need to change that setting, highlight the 1080 clip, in the Inspector under the video tab twirl down Spatial Conform and set that to none. What FCPX doesn’t do is auto scale your clip to 66.6% by default it leaves the clip set at 100%, however, you now can scale that Clip between 67% and 100%
Hope that helps!
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