[Neil Sadwelkar]

Dave,

The original intent of the Canon 5d MkII was not to be a video camera, nor challenge any existing video cameras. It was made to fulfil a specific need of reporters from Reuters who could shoot pro quality stills with the occasional video.

The video was made as 30 fps not 29.97 fps with that specific intention as Reuters reporters were expected to create video for the web with this device. Web can work with 30fps every bit as well as 29.97 fps.

The form factor of the camera is friendly for still photographers so they could concentrate on shooting stills rather than learn a whole new alien interface as well as method of using the camera. Still photographers simply wouldn’t have been able to easily adjust to a shoulder mount camera. Whereas, holding a camera at arm’s length and looking at an LCD screen is not very new to them.

What Canon did not estimate is how well the video fraternity took this camera up. They have sold nearly 50,000 5dMkII models and maybe about half as many 7Ds. And now there’s the 1D MkIV. Together, through 2010 Canon could easily move probably a 100,000 pieces.

There is probably no video camera, and definitely no pro HD or higher resolution camera that can ever hope to sell these numbers. Even the Red, arguably the post popular pro digital movie camera so far, has sold not too many over 5000.

One of the benefits of making a still camera that shoots video, rather than a video camera that shoots stills, is that still shooters who use the SLR form factor are generally good photographers. They have a strong sense of composition and pictorial language.

They often also make a living out of taking pictures. Hence, by and large, videos from these vDSLRs seem to be pretty decent looking compared to the shaky, zoomy, swimmy videos most amateurs dish out of handycam type video cameras.

Vimeo, Flickr, smugmug, Exposure Room are full of some really great video from vDSLRs. Perya, Dublin’s People, Nocturne, lots of examples.

Granted, they may be unsuitable for broadcast, but there is a huge, not-recession-ridden market of wedding video, corporate video, and internet video that can benefit from vDSLRs.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Bruce Nazarian has compiled a lot of useful information on Blu-ray for small productions at
https://www.idmadvda.org

There’s a good intro to licensing as well.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Nitin,

You seem to be from India. I could help you with this. Where are you located? I represent Maxx in India and am also (one of the) forum hosts at the Cow’s FCP forum.

If you’re in Mumbai, we can meet and discuss this.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I just made new sequences in FCP 7.0.1 and checked.
And the field order is…

All SD
DV-PAL – Lower
DV-NTSC – Lower
DV50-PAL – Lower
DV50-NTSC – Lower
ProResHQ PAL – Upper
ProResHQ NTSC – Lower

And in HD
ProResHQ 1080i50 – Upper
ProResHQ 1080i60 – Upper
DVCProHD 1080i50 – Upper
DVCProHD 1080i60 – Upper

So in NTSC SD all codecs are lower.
In PAL SD DV codecs are lower and everything else is upper.

In HD 50i and 60i DVCProHD and ProRes are all Upper.

So if you’re doing SD-HD mixed in PAL better to work with ProRes clips for HD and SD in a ProRes timeline.

And if you’re doing SD-HD mixed in NTSC you will see field order mixed. I wonder if FCP’s ‘Shift field’ filter that gets applied automatically handles this.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Going through the bit rates for various codecs in Apple’s ProRes whitepaper, I find that 184 mbps is the data rate for 1080p25 or 1080i50.

Mind that ProRes are variable rate codecs, so the given data rate is the maximum. Depending on the complexity of the scene, actual data rate may be lower as well. QT Player shows actual data rate for that movie.

So, for instance if you place a colour bar for 10 sec in a ProResHQ 1080p25 timeline and export it as a QT movie it is only 20MB is size with a bitrate of 16mpbs.
If, instead you place a video clip, that same 10 sec becomes 215 MB with a data rate of over 180 mbps.

To take this further if you place a still jpg in the same timeline for 10 sec and export it as a QT, that QT is 202 MB at 169 mbps.
Give that still a gentle DVE move and export, now its the same image, but in motion. And that QT is 187 MB at 157 mbps.

So, 10 sec of ProResHQ shows such widely varying data rates depending on image content.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

On a running FCS2-FCP6 system if you upgrade to FCS3-FCP7, Livetype stays and is not deleted. If however, you choose to install Snow Leopard first and do an ‘erase and install’, then of course you lose Livetype.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I think in PAL DV is lower dominant, while UC and other codecs (even ProRes) are upper dominant.
In NTSC all codecs are lower dominant, aren’t they?.

So DV is the only codec that is lower dominant across all standards.

This field inversion hell is a part of PAL workflow which we all have to watch out for.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

You cannot use CT to conform XDCam clips from 25 to 24. That’s because they are MPEG. You can, however convert them to ProRes and then conform them. That works.

You can batch compress a bunch of clips to ProRes with Compressor.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

This down-convert during Edit to Tape from a HD 1920×1080 seq is done by setting the video out to downconvert in System Preferences, right?
How good is this hardware downconversion in an HD Extreme? Does anyone use it for broadcast?

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

The cultural significance is that’s is a festival of the good over evil in mythology.

But we celebrate it by lighting oil-wicker lights at home and bursting fire-crackers. A lot of calories are consumed via some really sinful food. By and large everyone takes a holiday. Schools and colleges have a two week vacation.

Post production generally slows down, but some ‘bad karma’ guys get to work. The fortunate ones wind up work in the days leading up to the festival. I’ve checked out links sent by friends in the US. They seem to celebrate it more traditionally that us in India.

In Atlanta…
https://www.atlantadunia.com/dunia/News09/N481.htm

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India