Jonathan Ziegler
Forum Replies Created
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Also worth considering – an external spot meter or incident meter. They take some getting used to, but you’ll love them once you do. These cameras very much remind of my 16mm days – meters and math and I don’t blow $30 every time I blow a take. 😉
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Well, my guess is it’s a matter of color space: the 7D uses a 4:2:0 color space and ProRes is 4:2:2. Since the 2 color spaces don’t match, the conversion to prores is the likely culprit.
Since I color correct everything anyway, I’ve never noticed it before, but now I see there are differences between the original footage from the 7D and the upres to prores. Try bringing the brightness down a touch and see what happens. I know you obviously don’t want to have to do a ton of color correction, but if it means that much more, then do it.
Also, I use the Final Cut display only for basic stuff like movement and simple color viewing. My monitor is NOT color corrected and has banding in areas (I bought a cheap monitor because that’s what I could afford). Images in photoshop, illustrator, and other apps never look quite the same on other machines. If you can, run your footage to an external monitor and you’ll see all kinds of differences – trust the monitor, not necessarily Final Cut. Try this: view the prores file in quicktime pre-render, then render in FCP and view side-by-side in quicktime, what happens?
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
What were the settings when you set up the project in FCP? I’m guessing you built the project with the prores files and not the raw footage from the 7D. Looks like skin tones suffered the most, but your mids look good. I also see 2 different light sources – one outdoor (in the background on the right) and the rest tungsten or available light?
What color-corrections did you do (ie: blacks, mids, whites, or just white balance)? Did you add brightness/contrast? What did you render to? Did you compress during render (I save compression for later in Compressor)? Almost looks like a gamma correction.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Should be an existing post on this:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/122/858766#858766
I think it’s best to get a class 6 or higher for speed, but check the boards. I like Sandisk Extreme IIIs, but others like Kingston Elite Pros. Technically, all SDHC cards are supposed to have certain properties to call them SDHC, but many don’t. Stay away from off-brand cards. Kingston, Sandisk, Transcend, PNY, etc. I’ve heard good and bad for all. Check the Cow Panasonic DVX-100 / HMC-150 boards – the 150 camera uses SDHC class 6 cards, too.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Try this link. Depending on your budget, there are some great suggestions here and I read that Zeiss has a new set of lenses just for Canon DSLRs (again, depends on your budget):
https://nofilmschool.com/dslr/
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
If you have FCP and Compressor, I just transfer files and then run them through Compressor, converting to Prores. It can take a while, but the final is gorgeous.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Hmmm, wonder if they’ll make a 24PA camera or just give us back 24fps! That was one of the nice things to the 5D! 🙂
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Russel, Noah is right: it depends. The only real general standard is full-rez HD (I think that’s around 100mbps at 1920×1080). Sports may be an even higher number than that. I don’t shoot for broadcast, but I shoot for quality. If you have used a DVX-100 in the past and have moved to an HMC150, you have basically the same camera that has a slightly better wide-angle, but shoots in AVCHD – that’s basically MPEG4 with H.264 compression. Either way, rez up the footage to ProRes, do all the usual corrections and view on an external monitor (I seldom have a monitor so I have to cross my fingers sometimes) or run a vector scope (which you have in-camera with the 150). Look for hitches, compression leftovers, noise, weird colors, etc. The usual suspects.
The DVX-100 was such a powerful camera in such a small (and cheap) package, it was lightyears ahead of it’s time. The HMC-150 is sort of caught in it’s predecessor’s own backwash. It’s not really lightyears ahead, but the footage trumps HDV (my personal opinion in case I create flames) and it’s on the right path. Panasonic will say it is broadcast quality, but not for everyone. I’ve seen it used for documentaries and it looks fine. I wouldn’t use it for live broadcasts, but it looks great for Blu-Ray and narrative filmmaking and incredible for SD.
One last thing: all the buzz about HD is really about the cutting edge and the latest things – most people still don’t have HD TVs anyway (or they have the cheaper 720P sets) and most won’t know the difference anyway since most cable isn’t HD (it’s redone as SD) and satellite is re-compressed anyway. Obviously, the higher the original quality, the better, but you can still use the 150 with well-established video production standards and produce HD video on par with higher-level cameras. It’s less about the camera and more about you and that’s how it should be.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Okay, I’m not real experienced with re-fitting 24P Advanced to 24P, but I always understood it was better to shoot 24P for straight video (it uses a 2:3 pulldown) versus 24P advanced (which is 2:3:3:2 so you can recapture all 24 frames in post which is great if you plan to make a film print). I think you need to convert the 24P Advanced footage to straight 24fps (not 24P or 30P), THEN reconvert that footage to 24P so it will all match the 24P footage.
The nice thing is you shouldn’t lose any quality in the process, just the frame rates will be corrected.
What are you using for your NLE? Final Cut, Vegas, Premiere?
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
No worries. 24P footage can still be edited as 60i footage as long as you don’t plan on making a 35mm print from it (in other words, you’re planning on staying in the video realm). 24P is technically just 60i with a 2:3 pulldown to simulate a film look, though NLEs treat it differently now. 24P will strobe a bit if you convert to 30P so you are better off just leaving 24P footage the way it is and edit as regular interlaced video (60i) or as 24P.
I’ve used MPEG Steamclip (freeware) to upres footage to ProRes and a few others, but I’m not sure what file format is ideal for FCE. I prefer Compressor because you have more control over the footage. Honestly, if you plan on doing a lot with HD footage, you really need to buy FCS – it’s an incredibly full-featured video suite and well worth the price. What you make back in the long run more than pays for the software.
You should find a bunch of footage if you search. I went to google and searched “canon 7D raw footage download” (no quotes) and found several sites with good links. Found this one: https://exposureroom.com/members/philipbloom/0b8e68acc32349378168a568c69816ef/ a – link from Philip Bloom with a link at the very bottom with “Download.” You can chnage 7D to 5D to T2i to Nikon D90 to any of the other DSLR cameras. I like Canon, but I’ve only ever used Canon.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293