[Declan Smith]

You just need to change the line:

finalResult = ‘,’ + finalResult;

to

finalResult = ‘ ‘ + finalResult;

Or you could make this more configurable by having another slider to control what separator character you want and using the changes as in the script below, Basically the two lines with the word ‘separator’ in is what you need.

To use this, just put the slider to the ascii code of the required character (don’t go over 255!). For a space, put the slider at 32 and for a comma 44.

num = thisComp.layer("Controls").effect("number")("Slider")*100000;
amtOfDec = thisComp.layer("Controls").effect("amt_of_decimals")("Slider");
commas = thisComp.layer("Controls").effect("use_commas")("Checkbox");
separator = String.fromCharCode(Math.ceil(thisComp.layer("Controls").effect("separator")("Slider")));
//--
num = num + 0;
amtOfDec = amtOfDec + 0;
commas = commas == 1;

//--
if(! commas){

//commas not requested
num.toFixed( amtOfDec );

}else{

//commas requested

//This function takes a positive whole number as a string
//and adds commas to it

function addCommas( str ){
finalResult = "";
for( i = str.length - 1; i >= 0; i-- ){
finalResult = str.charAt( i ) + finalResult;
if( (str.length - i) % 3 == 0 && i != 0 )
finalResult = separator + finalResult;
}
return finalResult;
}

//--

intPart = Math.floor( Math.abs( num ) );
decPart = Math.abs(num) - intPart;
wasNeg = num < 0;
result = "";
if( wasNeg )
result = "–" + result;
intPartString = intPart + "";
decPartString = decPart.toFixed( amtOfDec ) + "";
decPartString = decPartString.substring( 1 );
result = result + addCommas( intPartString ) + decPartString;
result
}

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

I have had this once and found that when the “render at maximum depth” was unchecked I didn’t get such artifacts. I never got to the root cause as I needed to get the render done, but unchecking that seemed to resolve it for me.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Hi,
I see that their dropdown doesnt have the option, but have you tried emailing support at rarevision.com and asking them?

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

You’re right. Now that I’ve seen that the custom WB between both XLH1s does get them almost identical, in those situations all is good, and for the others a simple primary colour correction will do. I do mostly colour grade anyway, so can fix any differences if needed like you say. I generally fix white balance issues by number and it would almost certainly be constant under a particular preset for the setups I’m talking about (event filming). Certainly learned some things going through this exercise and particularly about the lenses.

Thanks for your help.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Hi Todd,

You’re probably right about my expectations. This is the first time I’ve had two ‘identical’ cameras so I’ve always put white balance / colour differences down to the fact that the mulit-camera shoots I’ve worked on are using different cameras (which like you say is like comparing apples and oranges) and need colour correcting in post. I included them just to see if anything was consistent / close.

I must admit I hadn’t realised that lenses themselves could make such a difference. To answer your question, both XLH1’s are set at factory default, no presets, and both using the 20x stock lens for all the pictures in this thread. They are not matched as such in that they are just the lenses that came with the cameras and I haven’t tried interchanging them.

I’ve included some re-arrangements of the tests showing the three daylight shots of one camera on the same slide, three shots of tungsten on one slide for both cameras. I’ve also shown the RGB settings of the grey patch. The colour is different from Fixed setting to degrees kelvin setting to custom, probably because the light source wasn’t exactly tungsten or 3200k. When comparing like these though, I’ve noticed that the custom white balance is king and actually shows (on a per camera basis) that the cameras do hold white balance. i.e. on XLH1-1, custom WB on Tungstun is more or less the same as custom WB on daylight and the difference between XLH1-1 and XLH1-2 is negligible.

What is at odds, however, are the presets and the colour temperature. Comparing say both the 6400k slides, or both the 3200k, or both tungsten presets or both daylight presets, they are different between the cameras. So in my mind, the only ‘safe’ WB setting to use is custom. XLH1-1 is more red in the preset / kelvin colour temperature or the XLH1-2 is more green.

For many things, I can use custom WB, but sometimes it’s more convenient to use the presets (or the colour temperature). One of the cameras has to go back for other repairs so wondered if this is something that is feasible to get corrected or whether to just fix these issue in post. I am more than comfortable with doing things in post production but my opinion over the years has gone almost 180 degrees in that the more that is right in pre-prod, the less work needed in post.

XLH1-1 Daylight

XLH1-2 Daylight

XLH1-1 Tungstun

XLH1-2 Tungstun

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Try the following:

"" + Math.round(effect("Point Control")("Point")[0]).toFixed(0).replace(/(\d)(?=(\d{3})+(?!\d))/g, "$1,");

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

It’s on the Canon Website, just a little hidden!!

Try this:

https://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_7d#DriversAndSoftware

Select Drivers & Software

Next select Mac OS X Snow Leopard as the operating system (it’s only under here)

Then expand Software, and you should see EOS MOVIE Plugin-E1 for Final Cut Pro 1.6 under that.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

I understand what you are saying, ‘Transcoding doesn’t add detail that isn’t in the original fie’, but Mike Jackson’s comment refers to the fact that a lot of transcoding software (which are all based on different algorithms) end up leaving (or rather PUTTING) banding in to the transcoded version due to the way they treat the data and the decisions made as to how to interpret colours. In other words, the native file (H.264) version of the clip does not have visible banding and therefore when transcoded, the end result also shouldn’t have banding, but some transcoding software will exhibit it.

To some extent, the picture profile used can make a difference, particularly if shooting flat subjects (such as a grey sky).

If you do get banding, then adding a low level of dithering or noise in post can sometimes help.

I agree that the EOS plugin does a very good job at converting H.264 canon files to ProRes (as does 5DtoRGB) .

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Hi,

For what you are trying to do, then you could easily go native with Premiere Pro and I think you will be impressed with the way it just handles formats. I know this may seem to be opposite to my first post, but it does really depend on your workflow. The thing is, you can always just work with native files and if, and only if, you have issues, you can transcode. Like I said, the main issue I have is compatibility between different systems. As this isn’t going to be an issue for you, just go with the native premiere workflow.

As for RAID setups / mulitstream clips, I think you’ll find that Premiere Pro will work better on that front also (like you’ve said, FCP 7 is old software). There are many many ways of setting up disks, but what I have found generally is firstly ensure your disks are modern, they tend to be faster. Next I create Raid 0 arrays which contain two disks (you can have more) BUT you must also have a backup solution as if any one disk in a RAID 0 fails, you lose all your data. So I have an external eSATA connected array and manually mirror it using Carbon Copy when I significant changes. My machine is a 2009 MacPro but newer machines Thunderbolt connectivity is probably better. The reason I have gone down this route is that i have found that RAID rebuilding can take a while. I also back up my main disks this way so I can always boot off the external disk if needed,

RAID 0 is simple and fast. Just ensure you have a backup strategy.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Hi

Perhaps I should qualify a little more my response.

If you are literally going to stay within Premiere Pro and After Effects then it does save you having to transcode as it does understand and work with most formats (unlike FCP 7). For the large part, the timeline will play in real time and you can start editing straight from camera. There are just a few potential issues that I have highlighted, particularly if you plan to interwork with other software (i.e. non Adobe). I have found that processor intensive effects do benefit from not having additional decoding, but it really does depend on what you are trying to achieve.

Premiere Pro / After effects are the two programs I do most of my work in and the transcoding step really is more useful if you want to interwork with Final Cut Pro or Color or Davinci Resolve.

It’s a balancing act as well because transcoding does add time to the beginning of a workflow and uses more disk space! You should also look at Adobe Media Encoder (part of the Adobe Suite) which I tend to use over and above compressor. It’s also worth noting that my comments relate to CS6 ant not necessarily CC (as I don’t have that version to compare against).

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”