[Richard Depaso]

DSLR Video Production Test in Las Vegas
This article is on our blog at https://www.aardvarkvideo.tv/blog

So much has been said about the benefits and outstanding picture quality of using one of the new large image chip DSLRs from Canon, Nikon, Panasonic and others that we decided to do a test. It is unquestionable that the large image chips these cameras incorporate have raised the quality of the image produced to a level that was ony achievable with much more expensive video cameras in the past. So with this in mind people are jumping on the bandwagon and buying what are essentially still cameras with video recording features (DSLRs). However often other considerations are overlooked. For example, there are many comments about the wonderful look that a limited depth of field the large image sensors can provide. Depth of field is the area in front of and in back of the subject you are focusing on that is in focus. If only the subject is in focus, this small depth of field gives a look similar to what film has been providing forever. Depth of field is influenced by the telephoto setting of the lens and also the aperture set as well as the size of the image sensing chip. The larger the chip, the more telephoto and the more open the aperture, the less depth of field and the more areas in front and behind a focused subject will be blurred/out of focus. Now this really can look good but is it practical for the typical run and gun type shooting that we as videographers do mostly. The answer is yes and no.

To provide some experience and documentation on using a DSLR to shoot a typical event video production in Las Vegas where we have our studio, we did a test shoot with a Canon DSLR, a Panasonic GH1 DSLR and to provide a baseline for shooting video, Panasonic HMC 150 Camcorders

CANON DSLRs
Beautiful picture quality when everything is perfect but not easy to use for run and gun shooting. In low light the depth of field is so limited with any kind of a telephoto shot and wide aperture that you can focus on a nose and a forehead is out of focus. Because the Canon has a mirror you can’t use the eyecup viewfinder when shooting video; you need to use the LCD screen. In bright light the LCD screen is useless and for people who need reading glasses you need to hold it at arms length which makes holding it steady very difficult. It doesn’t allow you to autofocus on a moving target and because it is difficult to see in the LCD viewfinder, hard to keep in focus. These are some of the reasons you need to buy expensive support systems and LCD viewfinder accessories to get some additional ease of use. Color balancing was cumbersome. Bottom line, very difficult to use for anything but static well lit shots. Audio also requires supplementary equipment such as a digital recorder that you can plug external mics into. If you are used to having smooth zooms in your shots, a DSLR needs a bit of practice or supplementary optional equipment because there is no servo control. The 12 minute limit built into Canon DSLRs isn’t much of a problem to us but for long form continuous recording, it is a issue. Canon lenses are expensive and those with a large zoom range are very slow and large. If you want better faster lenses it gets VERY expensive. It is best to rent lenses if you have a big job that needs them because you could easilly spend $10-$20K on lenses alone. We would use this in the future for static or moving on the same plane green screen and product video.

PANASONIC GH1 DSLR
The picture quality was very good. This had a lot of advantages over the Canons. Because the sensor is still large, much larger than 1/3 inch video camera chips but smaller than the Canons, it has excellent picture quality with a more usable depth of field range making it more usable for moving subjects. Because it doesn’t have a mirror, you can use the eyecup viewfinder while shooting video. This has a diopter adjustment so for people who need reading glasses it is perfect and while against your forehead provides more stability. It also has an autofocus which though sometimes does some hunting, is usable together with the ability to touch up focus by pressing the shutter 1/2 way plus the ability to also focus manually. There is no time limit on the length of time you can record a clip. You are only limited by the size of the SDHC stick and your battery. I would recommend you have several batteries. The 14-140 lense we used was adequate but very slow (3.5 to 5.6 maximum aperture based on wide angle/telephoto setting). I would say it doesn’t compare to the better Canon lenses but the actual shot video footage guality in comparison was better because of the ease of use and the ability to get successful well focused video. Audio here again requires separate equipment because though the onboard mic is decent, it can’t compare to a shot gun or wireless setup. What is great is that it gives you control of audio levels easily. Changing color balance was pretty simple with one button, an instant choice of presets and the ability to manually white balance. Because of our experience with this camera we bought the latest version GH2 which we are still trying to learn the features of.

Panasonic HMC 150s
These are regular AVCHD 1/3 inch 3chip HD camcorders and we of course found they are much easier to use on a run and gun shoot than any DSLR. If needed, autofocus is flawless, changing apertures, gain, color balance and all the other pro features we are used to are standard. Actually for well lit static shots and even some poorly lit shots both the GH1 and the Canons provided better image quality. However as indicated, that isn’t real life in tradeshow or event video.

SUMMARY
We are easing our way into integrating DSLRs into our work operations because of the outstanding image quality. At present they are not going to take the place of our camcorders for most of our work. As we become more knowlegeable with the GH2 we hope to integrate it more and more.

[Richard Depaso]

There were two files that the uninstall didn’t remove that were the basis of the problem. In /library/preferences the uninstall did not remove the “com.blackmagic-design.decklink prefspanel.plist” and in /library/preferences/users another file.

What i did was install the card in a PC to be certain it wasn’t a hardware problem. In a PC it worked fine. I then spoke to Blackmagic tech support, learned about and downloaded the latest 7.9.5 driver, found and deleted the errant files in the Mac, put the card in the Mac and installed the latest driver.

What was needed was to find the residual corrupted files that weren’t uninstalled with the Decklink Uninstall. That and corrupted Preference files are a suspect issue with problems like this.

Shane, I’ve been building computers since 1987 and it is rare that I’ve had to reinstall the operating system to fix problems with an application; on a PC usually only when internet activity corrupted the operating sytem itself. These computers I’m posting on are only used for NLE tasks. We have other machines for administration. Usually what I’ve found with operating system issues with a Mac, is it is a problem in the /Extra folder and with specific applications with a plist file somewhere corrupted or with preferences that just need to be deleted. My expertise is definitely on the PC side but for the last year we have been heavily into learning the Mac. Hopefully the problems will remain resolved. Thank you for your suggestions

[Richard Depaso]

Our Decklink HD 3D Extreme appeared to work correctly for about a month and then all of a sudden Final Cut 7.0.3 wouldn’t play from the timeline and froze the program. I had to “force quit” and then when i tried to reopen FC, it wouldn’t. I uninstalled the BlackMagic drivers and FC opened properly. Since this issue began i notice my machine is taking longer to boot even with the driver removed.

The OS is 10.6.6, the BM driver is 7.9.4 and Final Cut is 7.0.3, 8 core Mac Pro.

I put the card in a PC to test that and it doesn’t crash CS5 Premiere but doesn’t display out of the HDMI out to a monitor either when trying to watch AVCHD 720-30P clips in Premiere with Blackmagic showing as the playback device. I’m wondering if the card is defective. Any ideas anyone?

[Richard Depaso]

I’m having a similar problem with my Decklink HD 3D card. It worked fine for a month outputting through HDMI to a monitor and then all of a sudden it crashed when i tried to play from the timeline. The BM driver 7.9.4, the OS is 10.6.6 and Final Cut 7.0.3. The monitor is an HP 25 inch 1920×1080 at 60hz.

I had to “Force Quit” Final Cut and then it wouldn’t open. I uninstalled the BM drivers and it opened fine. I reinstalled the BM drivers and it wouldn’t load. With all these posts, it is obvious something is wrong. If someone knows where there may be BM driver remnants after the uninstall let me know so I can delete them. Does anyone have an answer yet?

[Richard Depaso]

Shane,
I appreciate your comments and certainly don’t dispute anything you’ve said but apparently there are problems with the card as indicated by the thread below taken from the Apple Forums. There are similar posts in other locations also I can post. I’ll try to see if anyone online has found a solution

Hello,
I’ve got big troubles with using Black Magic Design HD Extreme 3 in my Mac Pro. When i install card into Mac Pro (tested on two diferent computers (Mac Pro 3,1 and 4,1) with the same results) FCP become crashy and unstable. Its often crash while loading thumbnails or rendering templates and sometimes from no reason. We are working with AVCHD from Sony NXCAM converted using Long and Transfer to ProRess LT 1920×1080 50i. I thought that problem is in Black Magic Card, but replacing doesn’t help. After removing card and drivers FCP became stable. Now i’m testing external card MOTU HDX-SDI connected thru the cable and PCIe card to the computer with the same result. It seems like the FCP become unstable when i’m trying to monitor video using card pluged into PCIe. I’ve used all last drivers and versions of SW.

Please help.
Jirka

MacPro Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Patrick Sheffield

Posts: 12,281
From: Southern California
Registered: Jul 18, 2004
Re: FCP crashes with DeckLink HD Extreme 3
Posted: Dec 4, 2010 12:06 PM in response to: Jiří Mühlfait Reply Email

I can’t say my experience with the Decklink HD card has been anything like this, although I am not running 10.6.5 on that system.

It would help if you were to post a crash log. Then we might see where the system was crashing. What did Black Magic’s tech support say?

Patrick

Octo 3 GHz Intel Mac OS X (10.5.6) 5 GB RAM, ATI x1900, Decklink HD Extreme

McCNN

Posts: 1
From: London
Registered: Feb 3, 2011
Re: FCP crashes with DeckLink HD Extreme 3
Posted: Feb 3, 2011 7:32 AM in response to: Jiří Mühlfait Reply Email

I’m having exactly the same issue. FCP is very unstable when outputting video to a Decklink HD Extreme 3 card.

When video preview is sent to an Apple monitor the crashing stops.

I recently got Balckmagic support involved and they couldn’t replicate the error.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Ollie

Mac Pro 5,1 Mac OS X (10.6.6) Blackmagic HD 3D card

Jiří Mühlfait

Posts: 4
From: Czech Republic
Registered: Dec 4, 2010
Re: FCP crashes with DeckLink HD Extreme 3
Posted: Feb 3, 2011 12:37 PM in response to: McCNN Reply Email

They said same to me. We cant’t replicate the same error. It’s horror. Every time I’m trying to load bigger amount of thumbnails FCP stuck and crash. After removing decklink drivers everything works fine.

We are editing clip from AVCHD camera from Sony converted to ProRess LT using Log and Transfer. No strange formats or workflows. So where is the problem. Nobody can say and my boss want’s to kill me because I was the one who said that the decklink is the right solution for us. And he paid money for piece of unusable trash.

MacPro Mac OS X (10.6.5)

LasVegasVideo

Posts: 2
From: Las Vegas
Registered: Nov 26, 2009
Re: FCP crashes with DeckLink HD Extreme 3
Posted: Feb 9, 2011 6:31 PM in response to: Jiří Mühlfait Reply Email

The card worked for me for about a month and then all of a sudden Final Cut froze when i tried to play a clip on the timeline (pro res from original AVCHD) after working without changing settings. The only changes being that i made some new presets (pro res 422 and pro res lt) I had to “force quit” and then Final Cut wouldn’t open. I uninstalled the BlackMagic drivers and Final Cut worked fine. I then loaded them again and Final Cut wouldn’t open. This is definitely a problem and BlackMagic and Apple need to solve it.

Mac Pro 8 core 3.2GHz Mac OS X (10.6.2)

[Richard Depaso]

Shane,
Thank you for your response. However that isn’t really an option as this machine is loaded with software and redoing the system drive would be very onerous. I’d just buy a Kona card before that. A more effective option would be to probably find everywhere this driver impacts a file and looking at the content and deleting it. We’ll have to see who else responds and then possibly contact BlackMagic.

[Richard Depaso]

This Decklink Extreme HD 3D card i have is giving me all kinds of problems. All of a sudden in Final Cut 7.0.3 it wouldn’t play at all on the timeline even though the settings weren’t changed from when it did play and it crashed Final cut repeatedly. Then after i uninstalled the 7.9.4 drivers, Final Cut ran perfectly. Next i tried reinstalling the drivers and Final Cut wouldn’t even start. Is this driver so unstable that it renders the card virtually useless or does someone have a fix for this?

[Richard Depaso]

Thanks guys, that was easy enough. Is there a way to do the same thing in BlackMagic Media Express which is a simpler capture interface in some instances?

[Richard Depaso]

Kristian,
Thank you for getting back. If it isn’t too much trouble could you please provide a little more detail. For example in Final Cut I was able to make a Custom Preset but couldn’t change it. How exactly do i duplicate it and then change it?

The same for the BlackMagic app where it gives the option in Preferences to select Quicktime ProRes but i didn’t see anything to let me duplicate and change.

Your specific direction help is appreciated.

[Richard Depaso]

Correct. We associated MOV with ITunes so at least they will play in something. There are tons of posts on various forums about problems with Quicktime/Windows 7-64 bit. Apple and Microsoft need to take note of these posts and take action.

I’ve also reported it to Adobe where they were able to duplicate the problem so at least even without a total solution, their tech people are aware of it.