[John Young]

Ron, it doesn’t look like you are the only one.

https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4319&start=50

This is worrisome.

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

So to recap: You will be taking your high-quality Pro-Res camera originals, transcoding them into a compressed low-quality H.264 file (even a high-quality H.264 is still pretty compressed and pretty low-quality compared to ProRes) and then deleting forever your original files. Do I have that right?
Well, let me say that this wouldn’t be the way I would do it. Hard drives are cheap and getting cheaper by the day.

To answer your primary question:
[Ty Yachaina] “My question to everyone here is, when i take the footage, should i transcode it back to pro res 422 (and would any data of the image be lost?) or should i just keep the file as is and edit as .h264?”

Once, you throw away all that data from the ProRes file and compress to a H.264 file, you cannot get any of it back at the end of your edit process, even if you transcode back to ProRes. Maybe an online/offline workflow using proxy files could work for you.

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

Don’t you have to go through the menu to change f-stop/ISO? If I am shooting a live band in a club, I can see that causing problems and resulting in missing shots.

But for shooting more controlled shoots, I don’t know if anything is going to beat this at this price.

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

Oh, and I agree with Steve. Don’t try to achieve a full 2 hour video of the entire show. Doing that right would require much more than 1 guy and 2 cameras, and NOT doing it right means that nobody is going to sit through through the full 2 hours, not even the band. Don’t waste your time.
Instead, pick out a four or five songs. Shoot them and a bunch of b-roll and a bunch of interview footage. Pull the best parts of a one or two songs and intercut with the interview footage, using the b-roll as transitions, to cover your mistakes, and to make the piece more engaging in general.

Here are about a million good examples – https://pitchfork.com/tv/

John

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

Frank,
DO NOT put your WB and ISO on auto. With color concert lighting, your Auto White Balance would be going crazy. Set all cameras to the same color temperature at the beginning of the show and then don’t touch it. You want your purple concert lighting to look purple. You don’t want your camera trying to make your purple lighting look like standard white light. Bad idea.

I have shot music in clubs with an f/4 and it works fine. It looks solid on my 7D at ISO 800 (with a little bit of NR), so your 5DMIII with its great high ISO performance should be fine.

I wouldn’t necessarily worry too much about how wide your lens is, I would put more focus on how much variety of focal length you can get, especially since you are doing this all by yourself. If you don’t have much variety in focal length and you have two set cameras. You are going to end up cutting between the same three shots over and over. I think the audience may get bored. I would try and get a 70-200 or 24-105. Those give you great coverage and for music I find ECUs on the long end of those lenses to be really engaging.

As far as start & stopping your DSLR’s: I would put my camcorder in the back as your wide shot. Keep that rolling the entire time and plug your audio feed to it. Then start and stop your DSLRs at will and sync in post (I use Plural Eyes but I think FCPX might do it for you).

John

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

I think reproducing skin tones is where this camera is really going to shine. I worry about the form factor and ease of use for the kind of work I do. But man, those skin tones look great.

Well lit too. Nice job.

As these cameras finally get into people’s hands, I will be interested to see how people are able to use them in run & gun docu work.

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

What kind of videos do you do?

BMCC is a great option for certain kinds of shooting. DLSR is a great option for certain kinds of shooting.

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

Juan,
I honestly am not really sure what you are talking about. Can you describe what you mean by “stuttering”?

I have shot for two years on 7D and 60D. I have shot plenty of motion shots, where either the camera or the subject is moving, and often times both. I have intermixed DSLRs with our dedicated standard video cameras. I have edited and finished hours and hours of DSLR footage. I don’t really know what “stuttering” you are talking about. Please explain so we can get a better idea of what you mean.

Thanks,
John

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

I say this as a proud Canon 7D owner, for interviews a Panasonic GH2 or GH3 is the only DSLR I would go with due the Canon’s record time limit. Stopping every 12 minutes kills an interview’s flow and momentum, and for emotional content it is a deal breaker for me.
Imagine, your interviewee is 10 minutes into a story about visiting Haiti right after the earthquake, and seeing all the people in need, and this one particular Haitian that really touched their heart, and the interviewee starts to tear up and give you this great touching line. And you have to stop recording, wait a few seconds, re-slate the shot, and start again. Not good.

I am not too familiar with Sony’s options, so I can’t say if they have a time limit or not.

For speaking subjects in uncontrolled environments (on the street, in an office, in someone’s home) an on-camera mic is not going to give you good results. I guess this may depend on your definition of “good”, but an on-camera mic will give you “amateur good” but not “professional good” If you are doing this by-yourself, I would suggest wireless lavs. If you are just getting ambient sound, then an on-camera mic is fine.

John Young
Surrounding Media

[John Young]

Working with sound on DSLRs is doable, but can really be a pain when in run and gun situations.

What will you be doing for sound? I think this will play a major role in what camera will work best for you.

John Young
Surrounding Media