[Thomas Morter-laing]

“In terms of the Sony SLT-A55 it doesn’t do 24fps and it’s only (at most) 17Mbps compared to Canon’s 5D at 50Mbps.”

Is the 550D 50Mbps as well?

Also how does it compare to a Pentax K-7 or a Lumix GH1?

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

Ok is that the same with the 550d though? (still 50mbps I mean?)
Also I heard the AVCHD cameras have more powerful h.264 hardware encoders, so they enable more h.264 switches (that require lots of CPU power), which allows for better quality at lower bitrate. So dSLR’s 48 mbps should be similar to a good AVCHD encoder at 24 mbps.
And Sony uses AVCHD…. and has better control when shooting. I’m particularly worried about the canon not being amazing at auto in some situations, and it only HAS auto for the video feature…

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

Getting the latest versions of FCP and a better computer will deal with a lot of issues, because obviously that’s simply what upgrades do, and I noticed a dramatic decrease in issues even with the latest upgrade, but no it wont completely eradicate issues.

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

Yes I did consider a D90- but my colleague has one, and whilst he is capable of getting good results, there is some kind of odd ‘banding’ which happens under certain lights. I also don’t think there’s any manual exposure control-or is there?
Cool, looks like the extra £200 for a 550D is worth it then, thanks guys you’ve been really helpful and deterred me from making what could have been dumb decision. If anyone else has any good suggestions, please let me know…

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

The Lumix G2 only has 720p though, no 1080, which may be noticeable alongside my 1080p Z5 footage- I’m having a look and you guys are (as usual) annoyingly correct- they’re a little crud at this price range. Even an extra $120 makes quite a difference. So am now looking at a 550d instead, or a Panasonic Lumix GH1, Lumix DMC-FZ100 (not an SLR but specs seem surprisingly good?) or a Nikon D3100. What dya think? They all support at LEAST 24FPS. I think they’re all H.264 AVCHD, but MPEG streamclip is a close friend now….
Incidentally, I’m not worried about sound, because my other camera would always be the recording device (if that effects anything).

What dya think?

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

Yep, pretty much! And do any software updates, and install perian, because everyone should have it.

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

Not really- I had this recently, and it’s something which comes up here often (try a search?) one way is to apply a focus blur and increase the contrast to try and re”sharpen” the edges a little, but obviously this only works on some scenarios…. Or duplicate the layer, make the top layer a composite mode such as overlay or hard light, and us filters to decrease saturation, and add the blur on the bottom layer..again, this only works in some cases, and can look crap. Gain is a pain, and it’s a shame, cos it’ll make you insane…. and my rhyme is lame…. Topaz denoise is great, but costs money.

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

…do it…

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

Whilst there have been improvements, FCP still does this in version 7…. I think I can speak for everyone when I hope for big things around February time next year….

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Thomas Morter-laing]

The concept itself is fairly simple, just duplicate the layer, mask out the eye, flop filter it and then motion track/ manually rotorscope the movement matched to the cyclists head. (even FCP can do this kinda stuff to an extent), however this could easily look terrible and may be pretty time consuming, especially if he rotates or turns his head at all…..

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).