[Dick Kennedy]

I’m a bit nervous about bumping a discussion that has run for 3 years and clearly drew blood, but…

I’m part of an enthusiast/amateur film-making collective. We’ve made two shorts so far.

We shoot on DLSR (Nikon D800, since you ask) and have just acquired a Ninja-2. So we’ll be recording from the 10-bit HDMI output direct into ProRes, rather than scrunching stuff into H.264 first.

Mostly, our work will be output to DVD/Blu-Ray, although we’ll be submitting to festivals, so there is a chance of projection.

And I edit on FCPX on a MacBook Pro (i7, 8GB RAM), so large files can be an issue.

So the question is … ProRes 422 or 422 HQ?

As a lifelong pro photographer, I am somewhat anal about image quality. On the other hand, I hate watching my life slide by as the MacBook grinds away rendering clips. The cost of disk space doesn’t worry me. Bytes are cheap.

I’ll be doing my own tests, ‘natch, but would appreciate insight from more experienced people.