[Richard Doyle]

Perhaps you’re right, but I can’t understand why the H4 is splitting up the tracks on me into various lengths. It’s a 4Gb card and it says that I should be able to get near to 2 hours on it at 96/24. I want 96/24 as it’s the best quality (I know I don’t absolutely HAVE to record at this quality). If the H4 wasn’t able to handle 96/24, then why is the option there?

[Richard Doyle]

The zoom h4 says that I’ll get nearly 2 hours of audio at 96/24 on a 4Gb card. I got the almost 2 hours but the tracks were broken up. I don’t think this is the way it should be. I’m wondering if I have a setting wrong or something.

[Richard Doyle]

Hi Ty

Thanks for the response. I bought your audio guide years ago and found it very helpful.

I know that most recorders have limits, but the zoom h4 was telling me that I’d nearly get 2 hours of audio at 96/24. I did, but the tracks were broken up into separate files and before I use it again, I want to make sure I know what’s happening.

Thanks
Richard

[Richard Doyle]

Just wondering why Pro Res HQ is not necessary? Is it not the highest quality I can get with my footage?

[Richard Doyle]

“Yeah, you can, but they will never match exactly.”

That’s okay. I’m shooting primarily weddings in full HD with both the 7D and the EX3. It’s done in sections, like ‘Bride’s preps and pre-ceremony are 7D, ceremony is EX3, photo shoot is 7D etc..

The highlights section at the end is when I’d have to mix the two, but that will be mostly 7D. And I don’t the viewer will notice the difference, since they’re both full HD.

“They wouldn’t have to be resized and you could work in HD till the end.”

Yep, that’s why I just bought an EX3. It’s the best way to go.

“However shooting it all in the same format is a much better idea. So why not finish with the DSLR?”

The DSLR is great for most of a wedding day when you’re trying to go unnoticed by people. It’s also great for shallow depth of field and running and gunning etc. The EX3 is excellent also, but I’m using that primarily for parts of the day where XLR captured audio is vital. Ceremony, speeches, and dancing. Also, for the ceremony, speeches and dancing, I need to be able to do slow creeping zooms every now and then.

Thanks again, Jerry. Fingers crossed when I burn a DVD, the up-scaled DV PAL footage looks fine beside the 7D footage (luckily, I only have a few projects to edit like this).

[Richard Doyle]

Well, I’ve just bought the EX3, so I will be using that with the Canon 7D soon.

However, I have some weddings where I’ve shot:

The bride’s preparations with the 7D
Pre-ceremony with the 7D
The ceremony with the XL2
Post-ceremony, photo shoot etc up until speeches with 7D
Speeches with XL2
Cake and dancing with XL2

Highlights of the day will mostly be the 7D footage.

I don’t understand what you mean when you say “If you can avoid DV codec that would be the best idea. In PAL only DV codec is lower field so mixing lower and upper is a pain, especially if you do speed changes to the DV footage.”

Once, I get the EX3 over the coming week or so, I’m finished with interlaced footage and tape forever.

When I come to editing the couple of weddings where I’ve mixed 7D and XL2 footage, I still don’t get what timeline I should put the footage on.

I just set up a 1920×1080 timeline in Final Cut and brought in Apple Pro Res HQ footage from the 7D, and then brought in the DV PAL footage from the XL2. I take it what’s happening is that Final Cut Pro is up-scaling the DV PAL footage from 720×576 (or is it 1024×576?) to 1920×1080. It looks fine, but I’ve been advised against this.

What would you do?

“In you original post you said 7D 24p PAL. Make sure you are shooting 25 not 24 if you wish to have it in the same timeline as 50i footage.”

This is very worrying. Am I screwed? I think the 50i footage is 25fps anyway, is that correct? So I’m putting 50i on a HD timeline for 24p 1920×1080 footage. I can see why that wouldn’t work, but I’ve just tried it and it looks okay. Is there something I’m perhaps not noticing — like the frame rates are off or something. Y’see, with the speeches or other parts of the wedding, where everything is very still, it might not matter if my frame rate is off a bit, once it’s not noticeable to the viewer. Any thoughts?

“Convert the 7D to ProRes (HQ is not required).”

I thought HQ is required if I want the highest quality from the 7D?

“The XDCam can also be converted into ProRes although you can have XDCam footage in a ProRes sequence.”

So I will shoot with the 7d and the EX3. Convert the 7D footage to Pro Res (HQ or not), and convert the XDCAM footage to the same Pro Res quality. Then what do I do? What timeline do I bring it into. Just a 1920×1080 timeline?

Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it.

[Richard Doyle]

Thanks. I understand that way of thinking, and it makes sense, but I absolutely need to own cameras that I operate. I need to have a back-up on every shoot I do, and with weddings alone, I could shoot anywhere from 60 – 80 or more weddings in a year. I also have many other projects that require a deep knowledge of the cameras that I operate. I also don’t want to be going back and forth between rental houses.

I bought the EX3 anyway, but thanks.

[Richard Doyle]

“Of course it will lose quality. But you’re going to do it in any event when you create an SD DVD or a web stream. Might as well get there from the get go, and match your other camera’s footage which is already SD. I don’t think the quality loss is going to be that much different at all in the end. Hey, the story telling you do will affect the success of the project a ton more than the picture quality will. a ton more…”

What do I change the HD DSLR footage to within Compressor or MPEG Streamclip? Is it called ‘DV PAL’ or ‘DV PAL Anamorphic’?

“If you put the SD footage in an HD sequence setting it will have to expand it a ton. It will look pretty bad… that’s why, since you’re going to deliver SD, just get there to preserve that SD original footage. Keep in mind too, that the “look” of your DSLR footage will be retained, but the resolution will be lowered to SD. BUT YOU ALREADY are going to do this when you make the DVD. If you were to deliver HD then the workflow has to change from a down convert to upconverting the SD footage. NOT the best to do this with anybody’s software. It’s best done in a hardware conversion.”

I just set up a 1920×1080 sequence in Final Cut 7. I brought in Apple Pro Res HQ footage (7D dslr footage) and edited some of it on the timeline. I then brought in DV PAL 16:9 50i footage, and it looks okay. I mean, it’s not HD, but it’s fine. I don’t need to cut the SD and HD together too much. It’s in sections. Section 1: HD. Section 2: HD. Section 3: SD. Section 4: HD. Section 5: SD. etc etc etc

So once I’m not chopping between 7d and XL2 footage too much then it’s not too noticeable.

But I must be doing something wrong, as the 7D footage is 24p and the DV PAL footage from the XL2 is 50i (which I believe is 25fps).

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the only thing that I’m doing wrong seems to be that I’m upscaling DV PAL footage to 1920×1080 in the HD timeline. Is that right? I just want to make sure that I understand the processes behind this correctly. Thanks again for all your help. Really appreciate it.

[Richard Doyle]

Thanks again. I’m thinking of just getting a Sony EX3 and shooting it all HD instead. Can I mix XDCAM footage and DSLR footage on the same timeline? What kind of set up would that be? When I go into Final Cut Pro, would I just create a 1920×1080 timeline and drop all of the footage into that? Thanks.

[Richard Doyle]

Thanks Jerry.

If I convert the DSLR footage to DV 16:9, won’t that drastically reduce the quality of the image before I even begin editing?

Am I correct in saying there’s no need for me to convert the DSLR footage to Apple Pro Res 422 HQ if this is the case? I just take the footage straight from the camera, drop it into MPEG streamclip and convert to DV 16:9. Open a DV 16:9 (or DV Anamorphic?) timeline in Final Cut Pro and then bring all of the footage together?

After that, do I just export it as a DV PAL FCPro QuickTime file?

I don’t have a capture card that I’m aware of — I didn’t buy one separate to the computers.

The way I would like to work is like this:

Capture the DV PAL 16:9 XL2 footage off tape. Download the DSLR footage and convert it to Apple Pro Res 422 HQ using Compressor (which is what I’ve been doing).

Then open a 1920 x 1080 timeline in FCPro and simply bring in all of the footage and begin chopping away. If I do this, Final Cut Pro will treat the DV PAL footage as 1920 x 1080 — is that correct? Is that not okay?

I want a high quality DVD, but I also need the footage to look great online and most of what I have is the DSLR footage.

Thanks again.