Lance Bachelder
Forum Replies Created
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Can’t go wrong with any Canon L series glass – my fav is the 70-200 2.8 IS – very cinematic!
We rented a couple of Zeiss primes for our last shoot and they are great also – really nice look and excellent “feel” on the camera as far as focusing etc – very pro.
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
Bummer – we transcoded half our last feature before stopping and going with Cineform instead. We’ve tested ProRES and DnxHD and had certain issues with both depending of the footage.
Did you try to transcode files with a flatter setting in camera?
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
Hey Tom you don’t have to get bent out of shape – a myriad of advice and opinions is what these forums are all about and most of the time there are various methods that can all yield the desired result.
We’re all just trying to help and some of have done this for a living for a long time.
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
Haven’t seen pulsing in transcode but have had issues when camera set to Auto WB with color shifts – NEVER use auto WB!
Have you tried testing a clip with other codec besides ProRES? Which ProRES – HQ?
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
We have one of the Zoom H4N’s – really great for run and gun audio! We did a lot of in-car pick-ups after we cut our sound crew loose and we’re pleasantly surprised! Great buy for DSLR users!
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
Yeah the Zacuto stuff is top-notch but ouch – spendy! Red Rock Micro has great quality rigs for half of what Zacuto charges. We went even cheaper with Indifocus and have been pretty happy with the rigs – more weight than Zacuto or RedRock but similar features for a lot less cash…
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
Yeah I agree – you really have to do your own testing for the show you’re working on. As far as codecs, I’m not sure I would transcode to XDCAM, try Cineform or ProRES before going to another long-gop codec.
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
Yeah I forgot audio Stuart – pain – but we did dual system and I’m glad – we were able to capture pristine 48k/24bit dialog and use the Canon audio as a scratch track for syncing purposes only. Pain but the quality far exceeds anything we could have captured to a camcorder. It all comes back to form factor and I’ll take the dream camera you mentioned too – ’til the next great thing comes out!
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
Everyone has covered most of what I would say but there is one more thing. Canon has spent years and massive R&D to make digital SLR’s good enough that pro still photographers would use them and stop using film. So you have this digital camera that shoots stills that rival 35mm film in all ways from color to dynamic range, skin tones, detail etc etc – so good in fact that pro’s use them everyday and rarely shoot film anymore.
Now take the video side – we have have a different evolution born from interlaced video and based more on resolution trying to get film DP’s to use HD. Many film diehards still don’t like digital because of the look.
So Canon ads motion capture to a still camera that pro’s have already bought off on as “filmic” and you get the images we are seeing – STUNNING! And like nothing that has EVER come from a HD video camera.
On our last feature, our cast couldn’t wait to get to the hotel every night so they could watch dailies – they were blown away at the image every single time! The footage, when shot right, looks and feels like a movie should – not some HD thing that’s gonna have to be tweaked in post to look like film.
But there are problems! Rolling shutter – just have to know going in – DSLR’s may not be right for certain shoots or scenes. The form factor – not great for handheld shots without some sort of rig to give it some weight. The codec – the weakest link thus far. While it’s decent it needs to be better (more bandwidth) or Canon/Nikon needs to give us a live full rez output so we can use our own capture device like a KiPro or whatever.
Sorry for the book – I think these DSLR’s are still in their infancy and can only get better.
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
We’ve done lots of testing with Compressor, After Effects (Twixtor) etc. Easiest way is using Compressor (see Philip Bloom’s site for tutorial on converting to 24p) but just know you will get ghosting on certain frames or lost frames if you don’t frame blend. Just have to test the various methods and see what’s best for your show.
You did do the right thing cutting at 30fps first, then transcoding cut.
Lance Bachelder
Southern California