Don Hertz
Forum Replies Created
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Sean – as a back up we purchased the Sony flash modules for each camera. This allows us to record to both the flash module and SD card simultaneously so that we’ll always have a back up moving forward in the case that files start getting corrupted again. We haven’t been able to determine the exact cause of the problems yet. We’ve been using both cameras for the past week with the flash modules and haven’t experienced any issues – although our shoots were shorter and not in as cold of a temperature. As a test we also formatted the offending SD cards from before and shot directly to those same cards for almost an hour with clips of various lengths – also no issues. So at this point I’m not sure what happened. We’ve implemented a backup strategy with the Sony flash modules and will keep checking to see if the problem re-occurs. I’ll let you know if we find out anything new.
Don Hertz
AC Media Inc. -
Peter – I wish I had a good answer for you. The problem did go away but I can’t tell you which step in our process ended up fixing it as we made several changes at once – encoder, media, authoring, etc. I was very unhappy with the results of the Adobe Media Encoder for creating the video files. We have footage with a lot of small detail in the frame – trees, leaves, grass, etc. This encoder had a difficult time with this and tended to blur most of the small detail together creating noticeable MPEG artifacts often. We switched over to an encoder from DoStudio that was great (couldn’t afford Cinemacraft!). Clean details with no artifacts at the same data rates. So we encoded on a PC with DoStudio, transferred to a Mac for authoring in Adobe Encore, and then mastered the final Blu-Ray on the same Mac using BluStreak. The final disk worked great on the PS3 – but I can’t tell you which step fixed it. We also switched to using Verbatim BD-R media at the suggestion of our Blu-Ray replicator.
Hope some of this info is useful. If you need help let me know. My encoding workstation sits dormant most of the time as it’s a PC and we do everything else on Mac. I’d be happy to try and run you feature film through it and send you back the encoded files. Or if need fairly simple authoring I can knock that out in Adobe Encore and BluStreak Premaster too. Good luck!
Don Hertz
Fusion Media Works -
I’m curious – did you ever get this issue resolved? I’m having the exact same problem. Footage shot with NEX-FS100 is very pixelated when movement occurs. I’m using Log & Transfer to convert to ProRes 422. Filming was done at 1080i60.
Don Hertz
AC Media -
Thanks Gabe. Both of my FS100’s are currently in Florida on a shoot but I’ll try it out next week when they are back in the shop.
Don Hertz
AC Media -
John, in my use so far it does feel pretty awkward. It’s heavy enough to one side that I find it difficult to even temporarily hand hold with a single hand using the side grip and keep the shot level. Something I got pretty good at with the EX1. Also the EX1 was just long enough that I could semi-prop the end of it on my shoulder a bit while filming and still have the LCD monitor in front of my eye. That’s not possible with the base FS100 – you’ll have to hold it steady out in front of you. I tend to hold it more like a still camera – right hand on the grip and left hand supporting and steadying the lens. That seems to work well but wears the arm out pretty quick. We also have a shoulder bracket from an older camera that fits it so I’ll try that out on the next hand held shoot. I’m sure most people will use it with a shoulder mount when trying to go handheld anyway.
The microphone mount on the top seems to work OK for a top handle but I’m concerned about its longevity. It feels like plastic and is held on by a single screw. Time will tell.
The nice thing is the camera is made to be very modular. There are holes to bolt things on all over it. So I’m sure its only a matter of time before there’s a large selection of better crafted mounts, handles, and lenses to choose from.
One last note – I used the FS100 with the stock lens in full auto last week for a twenty minute hand held walkthrough of a museum, following two presenters with constant pans back and forth from them to various displays as they walked and talked. It performed very well. It did feel to me though (and this is by no means a scientific test) that the auto-focus took longer to adjust from distance to distance than our EX1.
Hope some of this information is useful.
Don Hertz
AC Media -
Hi Gabe, thanks for the feedback. I DO love the fact that I can so easily dial in a manual white balance setting on the camera compared to the EX1. I just wish it displayed the number after a custom white balance was set.
None of my testing was by any means scientific – however I was definitely not running the camera on automatic during our testing. I had it on full manual and was filming in studio. The lighting set up and talent was exactly the same as an EX1 shoot we had done a few days before. I placed the EX1 and FS100 shots side by side (split screen) in Final Cut Pro (converted to ProRes 422) and had a few people around the office view them on a broadcast monitor. Everyone picked the EX1 shot as the better of the two without realizing which was which. That being said – I’ve seen plenty of astounding demo footage from the camera so I’m sure there are some settings adjustments I need to make on the FS100 that after a day of use I just hadn’t mastered yet. I’ll continue playing around with it. I also see that Andy Shipsides at Abel Cine has posted a nice video on setting up the camera that I plan on going through.
I’m looking forward to getting some other lenses on the camera to see the difference!
Thanks again for the input – I look forward to reading your overview at Ken Stones site tomorrow.
Don Hertz
AC Media -
Nope. No audio. And I double checked the Motion tab on each menu to make sure they weren’t accidentally turned into motion menus.
I’m starting to wonder if I have a corrupt project. The size change on Encore restart is odd. Although the thought of spending several hours re-authoring the entire project is painful I may go ahead and start with a clean project to see if it changes anything. I may also try building the project to the hard drive to see if the final build size is smaller than Encore thinks it is going to be.
Don Hertz
Fusion Media Works -
The file size on my video in Encore says it is 20.3 GB. On my audio it says 166.9 MB.
My video length is 122 minutes. I calculated the bit rate using the Blu Ray bit rate calculator over at DVD-HQ. It suggested an average bit rate of 24350 and maximum bit rate of 45100 and minimum bit rate of 9700 in order to fit 122 minutes on a single layer 25GB blu ray with 8 menus and stereo audio. Since encoding takes so long (especially on a 2 hour project) I decided to play it safe on that high end number so I set my average to 24000 and my maximum to 31000 Kbps thinking it would give me a bit of extra wiggle room.
Here’s an interesting note. Encore just crashed. When I reloaded the entire project the final disc size in the Build menu has changed. It now says 25.1 GB. (Which still won’t fit). Perhaps if I can just crash it a few more times my project will suddenly fit on the disc! (That shouldn’t be too hard with Encore.) I still find it hard to believe that my 8 static menus should be taking up 3+ GB of space.
Don Hertz
Fusion Media Works -
Pepijn,
Great to hear someone else experienced the same results. I’ve gone back to using the Canon plug-in too and am just being very careful to watch for truncations. I spent some time going back and forth with Red Giant techs on Grinder and even sent them before and after sample clips. They said they were unable to duplicate the results and it must be my system. When I told them I was getting the same results on multiple systems they stopped responding to my inquiries. So I’m hoping for an eventual update to either Canon’s plug in or Grinder that may fix the problems.
If you get a chance – drop the Grinder techs a note and let them know you’re having similar issues. That might get them to look more seriously into the issue.
Thanks for the update.
Don
Don Hertz
Fusion Media Works -
I’ll try out a few 1080p clips out of curiosity. The clips I used were grabbed from a sports shoot we did a couple of days ago that is going to require significant slow motion speed changes during post production so we opted for a higher frame rate over resolution. I agree with you though, most people are probably working with 1080 material.
Don
Don Hertz
Fusion Media Works