Pete Burger
Forum Replies Created
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If you can edit natively there’s no real need for transcoding IMHO. Since CS5 I don’t transcode anymore and had no problems.
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“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
[Josh Smith] “why do people say that the 550D records in 40Mbps (I also read that the 7D records in 48Mbps), but when I look at the footage, it shows only about 3-5Mbps?”
How do you “look at the footage”? “MediaInfo” tells me “30 – 50 mbps”. And you can look up the techspecs on the Canon site too..
Maybe you confuse mbps with MB/s. mbps = MegaBits/Second, MB/s = MegaBytes/Second…
[Josh Smith] “So are you saying that the 550D records more Mbps than an XH-A1, and nearly as much as an XDCAM? Is that right…? Because that’s not what I’m getting.”
The 550D does about 48 mbps. The XH-A1 is an HDV camcorder, isn’t it?
If so, then yes: the 550D has a higher bitrate than any HDV camcorder. HDV has a bitrate of 25mbps in MPEG2. The 550D has a bitrate of about 48mbps in H.264.
H.264 even is a far superior codec than MPEG2 plus you record in a higher bitrate, so there *has* to be a difference.
I have a Sony HDR-V1 (HDV) and if I compare the Sony-footage to the Canon-footage, I see quite a huge difference in quality on the DSLR side.
Can’t compare to XDCAM though
[Josh Smith] “I didn’t think that DSLRs could record in such high Mbps – surely that is what the bigger TV cameras are for? I would have thought that DSLR bodies just don’t have enough “power” in their system to record in high Mbps.”
Well, they do… No difference between the “smaller” Canons and the “bigger” ones like the 5DMkII (Can’t speak for the 5DMkIII). We shot a couple of videos with the 7D, the 550D and the 5DMkII. There *is* a bit of a difference (mostly in low-light capacity), but not much.
[Josh Smith] “Also, I don’t usually upload to YouTube in more than 8Mbps for HD – see here: bit.ly/v35c5y”
If I read the info in the link correctly, 8mbps is recommended for “standard quality 1080p” uploads, for “high quality” even 50mps is recommended, so I’m somwhere in the middle 😉
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“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
[Josh Smith] “I’ve got in on the RAW setting, although I’m not even sure that makes a difference”
Setting your camera to RAW or JPEG won’t affect video at all.
[Josh Smith] “Looking at the file information of the .MOV clips form the SD card, it tells me that the footage is heavily compressed with .H264 right on the camera, and I’m getting a bitrate of between 3-5Mbps.”
Yes, the H.264 compression is very heavy, but the bitrate of the Canon DSLR videos is around 40 Mbps which is really quite good.
When I output for Youtube I use bitrates around 25 Mbps (H.264 compressed), not sure though, what Youtube does to the clips…You’ll definitly can get broadcast quality out of the Canons.
[Josh Smith] ” I understand that the 550D probably encodes in 4:2:0? I know that XDCAMs and the like have a colourspace of 4:2:2, which dramatically improves the quality of the colours”
True. Color-subsampling is 4:2:0 which is not… well… ideal for postproduction. 4:2:2 would be much better.
[Josh Smith] “But still, why is my 550D footage so terrible? How do they use 5Ds and 7Ds for broadcast? I wouldn’t have thought the footage would even meet the network requirements?”
Indeed, bitrate and color-subsampling are very important factors, but even more important (especially with heavy compression codecs) is proper exposure. Underexposed pictures will get grainy. So you’ll need a lot of light and/or a fast lens.
What settings did you use (ISO, aperture, framerate, picture style, … etc)? What lens are you using? Could you post a clip or a still and tell us which settings where used?
I shoot a lot with the 550D (T2i) and I find the quality amazing.
It’s no secret, that the 550D tends to be noisy in low-light. I find everything above ISO 400 unusable.
I’m talking about the 550D WITHOUT Magic Lantern. When using the Magic Lantern “hack” you’ll be able to use ISOs with multiples of 160 which are much cleaner. I’d even say ISO 640 has less noise than ISO 400 (at least with my 550D).——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
[Pj Heller] “Rode XLR adapter (the Rode VXLR Adapter for VideoMic Mini-Jack Female to XLR Male)”
OK, now I read your post again and I’m pretty sure, the Rode adapter is quite the same I have… So, it’ll work… Female Mini Jack to male XLR… Was quite tired yesterday. Sorry!
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“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
I’m not familiar with the Rode adaptor.
I assume the guy meant phantom power when he talked about XLR voltage. Phantom power won’t harm your non-XLR mics. My english is too weak to explain why… but I could in german though 😉
When not in need of phantom power I’d switch it off anyway, because it drains the batteries very quickly.
By the way: This is one of the advantages of the DR-40. You can switch between Mic/Line/Phantom and even change the phantom power between 24 and 48 volts (although I’ve never saw a mic with 24V phantom power).
This means you can plug in mics that need phantom power, mics that don’t need phantom power and even get signals from a mixer (line). Was of great use to me when I had ro record a live event recently. Got the mixed signals from the sound guy directly into my Tascam.For my mini-jack mics I have a simple TRS to XLR adaptor (cost me about 8 Euro) and it works perfectly, when plugging it into my Sony Camcorder or DR-40
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“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
Any mic (including lavs) will work. You can not only plug in XLR but also 1/4” TRS. If you have mics with a mini jack, just try an adapter to a 1/4” should work just fine.
I got no real first-hand experience with lav mics other than the Sennheiser EW wireless series. Once had a very cheap cable lav which worked just fine. Don’t know which brand it was…
Read a lot about the Audio Technica ATR 3350 being very affordable and producing decent quality.——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
I had the Zoom-H1 because I thought I won’t need XLR-inputs, but after a year or so, I realized that if you want high quality audio and versatility you’ll definitly need XLR inputs.
So I bought the Tascam DR-40 some time ago and I’m really, really happy with it. At first sight (especially if you – just like me – don’t know too much about audio) the DR-40 seems so be a bit complicated but it definitly isn’t.
After playing around with it a couple of hours I found this recorder extremely easy to use. On the quality-side, I don’t think you can get a better recorder in that price-range. The Zoom H4N has about the same sound-quality, but it’s more expensive.With adaptors (which don’t cost a fortune) you can plug in all sorts of microphones into the DR-40. So if you don’t have the budget now to get XLR-mics, you can still update later. That’s what I did, and it really makes a huge difference.
Of course it depends a lot on what you’re about to do and what your expectations are. I definitly would never get a recorder without XLR-inputs.
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“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
From the file itself you can only read the framesize, PAR and shutterspeed. All other information can only be read from the .THM files.
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“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
[Laura Weinstein] “I dont think I have kept those… any other options?”
Sorry, I don’t think there are any other options… 🙁
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“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo -
The .thm files of the clips contain all sorts of EXIF information (shutterspeed, ISO, aperture, …).
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“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster KeatonMe on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo