Video Levels for Canon EOS 7D

[Noah Kadner]

Depends on the destination- if it’s for web use RGB, if it’s intended for broadcast use REC709. Also ask this on the AVID forum.

Noah

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[Rui Coutinho]

Thanks!!

But I still want to know what video levels Canon EOS D7 generates ?

Rui

[Noah Kadner]

Don’t know the precise answer to that- doubt it’s exactly either but this might help:

https://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=13198

Noah

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[Chris Wright]

if its going to web, sRGB-EC 61966-2-1:1999 should be used/converted to so that the browser displays correctly. and wow, yea, DO NOT shoot in sRGB mode unless you’re positive you’re going to web.

sRGB is like 1/4x gamut of Adobe RGB. sRGB is default because beginners just plop it in i-movie or windows movie maker so that the sRGB somewhat matches your monitor. it’s sad when people actually have FCP or CS5 and mess that up.

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[Pete Burger]

Chris,

Can you really shoot footage in Adobe RGB with a Canon VDSLR? Or are you referring to working with sRGB/Adobe RGB in an NLE or compositing program?

[Chris Wright]

first off, RAW images get post assigned(they can’t have a profile, only jpeg’s do). That’s why the RED camera is so great. You can post-assign a color profile. .709. or red’s proprietary etc.

the recommended profile is adobe 1998, but for video, the Y’Cb’Cr thing people get confused about is not a color management. It’s a math relationship to derive the greens. For instance, you can have Y’Cb’Cr from a miniDV tape but its color profile is BTU.601(SDTV)

whenever you shoot video, always shoot flat. This means the widest gamut, lowest contrast, 0 sharpness, etc. Plus the fact that sRGB is the smallest gamut(it was made for web)

The color space is indeed changed in video mode as well although this option is not available when you access the menu in movie mode.

and if you are indeed editing in sRGB, well, let’s just hope you are going only to vimeo, youtube, or cellphones.

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[Pete Burger]

Thanks Chris for that explanation!
Much appreciated!

[Keith Pratt]

Chris Wright: “if its going to web, sRGB-EC 61966-2-1:1999 should be used/converted to so that the browser displays correctly. and wow, yea, DO NOT shoot in sRGB mode unless you’re positive you’re going to web.”

Noah Kadner: “Depends on the destination- if it’s for web use RGB, if it’s intended for broadcast use REC709.”

Gary Adcock and the makers of 5DtoRGB are saying the Canon video is full range Rec.601.

I’m also sceptical it’s best to use full range or a photo colour profile for web-destined video. Aren’t most video players expecting YCbCr?

[Chris Wright]

first off Rec.601 is standard def. not only would an encode 16-235 delete data, which a prores encoding unfortunately does(which a lot of people do and completely destroy their video because canon uses a special full 0-255 h.264), but the actual color management comes from the camera’s menu before you go into movie mode. You can do a simple test yourself by switching from sRGB to adobe in photo mode, then go into movie mode to compare 2 video clips of the same object.

all web browsers use sRGB for video/images and again,Y′CbCr is not an absolute color space, it is a way of encoding RGB information. The actual color displayed depends on the actual RGB colorants used to display the signal. Therefore a value expressed as Y′CbCr is only predictable if standard RGB colorants or an ICC profile are used.

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[Thomas Worth]

Rec.601 is indeed SD, that is if you are following the rules. Canon aren’t. This doesn’t really matter since in order to do anything useful with the video you need to transcode it. You’ll get what’s expected (Rec.709, 16-235) after transcoding because the transcoder reads the 601 flag in the MOV and (hopefully) does a cross-conversion from one matrix to another.

>which a lot of people do and completely destroy their video because canon uses a special full 0-255 h.264

Not if you use 5DtoRGB!