Neil Abeynayake
Forum Replies Created
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The 7D transfer video (both) 1080 and 720p at approx. 330 MBytes/minute. This corresponds to around 5.5 MB/sec. You will be fine with either 30 or 60 MB/s cards. The difference is how each manufacturer arranges the given data internally.
We’ve had excellent results with SanDisk products. We tested a SanDisk “Extreme Pro” 90 MB/s (32 GB) card recently. Even though, some may say that it is an “overkill”, we found it did not drop any frames even at 90% capacity.
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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[Noah Kadner] “Yeah but have you really truly researched actual sales numbers? Just because a country has 6 billion people doesn’t mean they all care about shooting video on HDSLR cameras… “.
I’ve already addressed that in my previous posts. Figures stated were dynamic (and hypothetical) since they are related to a “life cycle” of a product which just began its life. This may seem strange to some but, Canon still sells the original EOS 650 (introduced in 1987). So it is fair to say, that model has not ended its life-cycle yet.
What this means is that there are immense possibilities to all who had taken steps to get involved in a new paradigm. Noah, you have written a few books about these cameras and work-flow related issues. Rather than arguing about Canon’s anticipated sales and DSLR purchasing habits of others, I would look into getting a larger share in the market they (and other DSLR manufacturers) have created.
Example: If you were to translate your books into Chinese, Indian (Hindi), Spanish and Russian, think how many books would you sell? With proper marketing and strategic alliances, you could make extra income to fortify your already comfortable lifestyle. (I hope you will still be here sharing your knowledge in the COW forum, after becoming rich and famous).
Possibilities, there are a lot of them. What we have to do is to identify and act on them.
Good luck,
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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[Robbie Carman] “Have you tested the E5A with video? My understanding ( I don’t own one) is that it is limited to still capture transfer only”
We are working with a client who is a VFx house. One of their requirements is a MoCap rig for a movie that is in budget planning stages. Effects guys are using Assimilate Scratch, Autodesk Inferno, Maya and LightWave. The minimum frame resolution requested by the effect supervisor/s is at 4K. However for keying and other critical effects they are exploring larger resolutions if possible.
One of the ideas that got tossed around was to rig 48 (yes, forty eight) 7D units in a “certain way”, (each camera with its own wireless file transfer unit attached); triggered by a sensor. This seems to be the least expensive method to acquire imagery in real-time for this project.
We are writing custom apps to ingest MoCap @ 6K (image + telemetry and other data) in real-time. The end result will be screened at IMAX 3-D.
[Noah Kadner] “I don’t think 200 million is even a remotely realistic number. I’d be surprised if any SLR or Prosumer camera ever made has sold more than a couple of million units. Most I’m sure are very far under even that”.
If you are referring to the West coast market of the US, maybe you are correct. However, there are a few billion folks are living in other countries in Asia who are NOT affected by OUR economic downfall. If you take India which is the leading movie producer in the world, over 150 million of its 1.2 billion people are associated in the movie industry, one form or the other. China has a healthy population of over 1.6 billion consumers. And world over has over 6 billion people. Yes, not everyone can afford or may not even need toys we buy. But many can and will purchase if they see a value and a need. US is no longer the purchasing leader of the world. Many countries did not totally depend on the US to sell their products and services. I think the figures given earlier are still reachable. Please understand I am NOT a Canon fan boy. I work with clients who are on RED, Viper and F23 ~ 35 based work-flows. However, I see the potential of 5D, 7D other DSLRs and their contributions to complement existing pipelines.
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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I was trying to emphasize objectively, what the 7D can do when compared to more expensive cameras. This is not the forum to explain what RED One can and cannot do. They have their own forum for that.
Can Canon DSLRs overcome overheating, data throughput bottlenecks (and other irritants that Uli had mentioned?) Absolutely. Canon did listen to their users and in less than three months after the release of the camera, came with a major firmware update. If you have not updated your 7D yet to firmware update ver. 1.1.0, it is available at the Canon (USA) website. Once you get the update, you will notice there are less aliasing artifacts, camera runs a bit cooler, faster scanning of the image sensor which relates to rolling shutter anomalies etc.
What Canon had done is to give everyone (@ sub US$5000.00 range – i.e. 7D, L series prime and 70 ~ 200 f2.8 L) an opportunity to access a region that was once the playground of a selected few. If someone think that they can buy this camera, press a few buttons and create a masterpiece with it, that person would be disappointed. 7D comes with a bunch of features that the user can customize and/or programmed. In the hands of a proficient user and with professional lenses attached, this camera can challenge (in certain areas) some of the mainstream digital movie cameras. Also, with optional (affordable) attachments an array of 7Ds can get motion captures for VFx at a fraction of the current (MoCap) rates.
One example is Canon’s WFT-E5A Wireless File Transmitter:
(Quote)
With WFT the EOS 7D Digital SLR camera offers professional photographers a wide range of digital connectivity options including IEEE802.11a/b/g and Ethernet, ideal for commercial and studio work. The WFT-E5A opens the door to new possibilities in remote and Geotagged shooting applications. Photographers can fire up to 10 cameras simultaneously from across the room or across the country while maintaining control over camera settings and remote live view on a laptop or smart phone.
The WFT-E5A wireless transmitter can also transfer and display images on DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compatible televisions and photo frames. Geotagging is now possible via Bluetooth, using compatible GPS devices to append coordinate data to the images.
(End Quote)
Try doing this with a bunch of ARRI, RED, Viper, Dalsa or SONY F35 at a comparable price point.
Over its life cycle Canon will sell (perhaps) 200 million+ of 7Ds and a bunch of lenses. Do the math. I’d rather sell 200+ mil. of US$1300.00 (Canon’s probable FOB rate) than maybe 5000 cameras @ US$ 17,500.00.
And Canon’s global reach is huge. Their annual R&D budget on imaging products alone eclipses both RED One Camera Company and its owner’s (Janard) net worth. They sell very high quality products. It may not be that difficult for Canon to change form factors, add a couple more to their existing DIGIC-4 chips, add decent cooling and create a workflow for their end-user. At that point, if they want to take on the RED One, they would win hands down. I think what needs be looked at is how you can tell your story aesthetically using this tool.
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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Ryan,
The primary role of a codec is to take large data sets presented to it in a logical array, deduce and compile that data to be used by an end user more economically. The RED One uses codec by the name “RED code”.
(I quote);
Redcode RAW is a variable bit rate wavelet codec which allows raw sensor data at resolutions of up to 4096 x 2304 to be compressed sufficiently for practical on-camera recording. Two variants were offered previously, one with a maximum data rate of 28 MB/s (224 megabits), and one with a maximum data rate of 36 MB/s (288 megabits), but the camera was recently updated to record with an additional data rate option of 42 MB/s (336 megabits). Compared with the uncompressed data captured by the sensor, these bit rates represent compression ratios of about 12:1 and 9:1, respectively. Because Redcode is a wavelet codec, similar to CineForm RAW and JPEG2000, the blocking artifacts associated with other digital video compression algorithms are absent. However, sample images detailing Redcode specific artifacts have been posted on the manufacturer’s forum.
Redcode is a mathematically lossy codec, meaning that decompression does not fully restore the original image data captured by the camera. Red does claim the codec is “visually lossless”, meaning that the information loss is not visible to the naked eye when images are viewed; however this is a subjective statement.
Unlike cameras that record RGB data, the camera records raw data similar to the Dalsa Origin and Silicon Imaging SI-2K. Recording raw data allows white balance, gamma and other image processing parameters like sharpening to be set during post production. Adjusting these settings directly on camera does not impact the raw data that is actually recorded. Such adjustments only influence live monitoring outputs, but are attached to the recorded data as metadata.
(End quote)
Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a Canon Engineer who is involved with the current incarnation of EOS DSLR line. His and Canon’s view about the DSLR’s could be summarize as; The DSLR form factor is designed to complement established ENG trade. However, the camera (is designed and) could perform much more than just ENG work (Yes, we know this!).
The Canon 7D’s image sensor outputs 5,184 x 3,456 pixel (RAW and Large JPEG) images. As you know, it can capture 8 frames a second. This is happening at 12% of the capacity of its dual DIGIC 4 processors. In reality those processors can handle over 40 frames a second. There is couple of drawbacks to this however. The main issue at hand is the enclosure. Because of the form factor of the DSLR, there are restrictions in dissipating heat. This could lead to serious over-heating of onboard electronics and associated parts. The second is the ingest of RAW data by transport” media (CF cards). According to Canon 7D owner’s manual, the camera can output a RAW image using 17.90 (Megapixels) which corresponds to about 25.1 Megabytes + 17.90 Megapixels JPEG image @ 6.6 Gigabytes, 8 times every second. This corresponds to a data transfer around 253.6 MB/s every second.
Now if you want to capture at 5K resolution for digital cinematography (according to the Canon Engineer, theoretically the 7D can resolve at 24 frames @ 5K), get just the RAW data file (i.e. 25 MB/frame) and multiply that by 24 frames a second = 600 MBytes/second. Not very many flash memory cards available today can handle that kind of ingests unless, they are custom made for that camera.
Also, you would have all kinds of work-flow related problems within Canon’s current user base. Therefore, Canon uses a h264 based codec with a QuickTime wrapper (at least for now [they may add other PC based file options later because half of the Windows based clientele is pretty upset about the current QT only ingest]).
We work with a couple of RED One’s and use Assimilate Scratch work-flow. I agree about the aesthetic look of RED output. We also, work with 1D, 5D and 7D footage as well.
About “RAWworks” comparison of 5D and 7D to RED, the company and the people who are associated with them are well qualified to do so. Some may not like it but, there is a lot of merit in what they have done.
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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Joseph,
You do NOT have to transcode 7D captures to edit using Sony Vegas app. Just make sure that you have installed the latest Apple QuickTime codec installed in your PC. Most desired (or popular) Windows editing programs will take whatever given to them (i.e. if you have installed the proper codec) and compile an edit without much of a hassle.
You may already know this. If you do not have a dedicated editing card such as Grass Valley (or Canopus) Storm, HD Spark, Edius, Matrox, Avid etc., etc, you have to software render all effects, graphics and titles etc. Often it is frustrating to watch the video stream stuttering while in timeline playback mode.
And if you do not own or have access to an above mentioned dedicated editing hardware, here is a tip many tend to neglect.
If possible, move alternate clips to two separate hard drives in your computer. This helps when you playback the entire timeline and things will go much smoother.
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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Ayodele,
When it comes to aerial photography/videography etc., you’ll get a lot of advice from folks who had done this before. However unless they’ve used an aerial stabilizer system such as Cineflex, Kenyon, Wescam and a few other systems, you tend to get mixed results. Everything is based upon your budget. Since you are riding in the helicopter, I guess you would be holding the camera while capturing imagery. Here are some tips that may assist you.
1). Make sure your camera is on manual mode.
2). In contrary to the advice you may receive against using IS (Image Stabilization) lenses for DSLR videography, using IS lenses on an aerial platform will rather benefit you.
3). Explore the possibility of hiring a company or an individual who owns a RC based aerial gyro-stabilizer and experience to use it. (It is cheaper than you think).
4). Attaching the camera to a monopod and sticking it out of the helicopter is another option. (Yes this had been done and you have to see it to believe it!) [Check bottom (2) links].
The 4th alternative listed above is an option that, you have to discuss with your helicopter pilot and/or the owner/operator of the aircraft. It a safety based issue and there are FAA regulations that pilots have to abide by. Monopod/camera contraption has to be firmly attached with double if not triple redundancies.
Here are some links:
(Expensive)
https://www.aerialfilmwork.com/
(Affordable)
(You could do this)
Good luck,
Neil
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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Brian,
There are many ways of achieving what you intend to do. However, there was a excellent posting by another forum user (Ryan Koo) a few days ago.
Here is the link to: The DSLR Cinematography Guide
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/280/234
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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Bouke,
There is another way to find and use all of the information that you may require. Visit Canon’s website and check out their DSLR SDK (Digital SLR Software Development Kit).
Here is the url for the Canon USA DSLR SDK:
Good luck,
Neil
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius
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Nicolas,
The best thing to do is to get hands on experience on the camera that is most suited to your needs. What is good for one person may not address your requirements and/or project demands that you are working with.
Please note that if you were to visit a pro-camera shop or a dealer, the sales person’s recommendations may not be the best for you either. I’ve gone to many camera dealers where the sales person would try to show his (or her) superior technical knowledge on the product that you are inquiring. And when asked what was the latest project that they’ve participated and could you see a clip or two, they suddenly get busy on other things that require their attention.
So, where do you start and what is the best source of information that may give you the guidance?
Well you started at the right place to begin with (Creative Cow Forum).
Here are a few other sources of info.
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/
Also,
https://www.vimeo.com/videos/search:dslrs
You can check videos uploaded by actual users of the camera of your choice. Just type the brand of the camera (and model) in the search area and you’ll get ton of video experiences and camera tests of actual users.
Write down the pros and cons of each camera, on a piece of paper. Now compare your needs and match them with the camera that fits the profile.
Remember to check the workflow issues with what you have and what is needed to work with that camera you select. As you know, digital (camera) technology is changing every day. No matter what you buy, it is going to be out-shined by a newer better model with more bells-and-whistles, come next summer. Again, ask yourself whether you need all those extras to tell your story.
Hope this info helps you to find what suits you the best.
Good luck,
Neil
“Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else”.
Confucius