167 replies to this topic

[photovan]

OK, I've placed a .mov up at yousendit.com, so you can download it from here. It's just under 40MB. yousendit host it for 7 days, so it will be available here until 21 December or 100 downloads, whatever comes first. If anyone is interested I can supply the export settings I used to make the file from iMovie. There were no filters or adjustments used.

[loftus]

OK, I've placed a .mov up at yousendit.com, so you can download it from here. It's just under 40MB. yousendit host it for 7 days, so it will be available here until 21 December or 100 downloads, whatever comes first. If anyone is interested I can supply the export settings I used to make the file from iMovie. There were no filters or adjustments used.

Good stuff, yes that's much better!

[Drew]

Darren
If you have a great than 2k dpi (real one not the normal printer marketing BS) I can send you some resolution test charts which you can print to test the video resolution. Just be ready for the moire you'll see
Did you have a conversion with iMovie or was it direct editing?

[photovan]

Darren
If you have a great than 2k dpi (real one not the normal printer marketing BS) I can send you some resolution test charts which you can print to test the video resolution. Just be ready for the moire you'll see
Did you have a conversion with iMovie or was it direct editing?

I have an Epson 9800 (max 2880) and some nice ilford hi gloss media if that would work for the charts.

With iMovie, I was able to drag the clips in, and place them in the timeline... no conversion up to that point as far as I can tell. Except iMovie indicates 1080i rather than 1080p

When I exported the movie, I used the following settings in the compression settings window
Compression type: H.264
Frame rate 30fps
Key Frames every 30 frames
ticked --Frame Reordering
Compressor qlty High
Encoding -- ticked best quality (multi pass)
Data Rate Restrict to 5000 kbits/second
Optimised for Download

then in the export size box:
1920x1080 HD
ticked -- Preserve aspect ratio using letterbox (if required)
ticked --- deinterlace Source Video

I think the result from playing the iMovie project may still look a little better than the QT .mov

[Drew]

1080i? Then iMovie is off since I used FCP and it recognized as 1080p. Will email you the res charts once I clear it with the peeps.

[photovan]

1080i? Then iMovie is off since I used FCP and it recognized as 1080p. Will email you the res charts once I clear it with the peeps.

OK just checked in iMovie HD v6.0.4 (OSx10.4) help -- wonderful new feature i found -- and it only knows of 1080i.
so I just checked on my iMac running OSx10.5 and iMovie '08 v7.1.1, and it too only knows 1080i.
So that's a real shame... i guess FCP will be the only answer then.

How about I provide .mov files straight from camera for the res charts.

[Drew]

The issue with Apple right now is that it clips the RGB at 16-235... which is within legal broadcast but obviously kills the full 0-255 range. Sigh new cameras!

[photovan]

... For eg, the Canon 5D2 H264 presently is limited to 16-235 RGB signal due to Apple's handling of the H264 codec. ....

so can i clarify Drew...
is this an issue just for Apple's IMovieHD and Final Cut Pro, or do you mean any NLE running on the Apple Mac?
ie would Adobe CS4 Production / Premiere running on a Mac be able to use a better range of the 5d mkii 's capture?
darren

[Drew]

I believe it's the Quicktime Codec and how it handles H.264. Some people have claimed that MPEG Slipstream can convert at 0-255 but I haven't had time to verify.

[photovan]

I believe it's the Quicktime Codec and how it handles H.264. Some people have claimed that MPEG Slipstream can convert at 0-255 but I haven't had time to verify.

There is some discussion about this issue on the dviinfo site in a thread called my FCP workflow.

They claim you can bring some shadow info back up in FCP Colour. What are your thoughts on those comments.

I shot some stuff yesterday in full mid-day sun with my user-defined "neutral/low contrast/low sat" picture style, and boy-o-boy the shadows in the out-of-the-camera .mov files look bullet-proof.

Hoping there is a solution to this soon....

[Drew]

I haven't had time to play with the .mov files. If the information is there, it's a matter of how H.264 in QT handles it. FCP should be able to recover it in 3 way color correction as well.

[photovan]

I haven't had time to play with the .mov files. If the information is there, it's a matter of how H.264 in QT handles it. FCP should be able to recover it in 3 way color correction as well.

Over on dvinfo James Miller has created some user defined picture styles using the Picture Style Editor, and posted the comparative results, and also the profiles themselves for download, which is very nice of him. They are mostly contrast reduction profiles. I will load these tomorrow and give them a try.

There is lotsa interesting stuff over there on dvinfo, including some good info from a Guardian videotographerlist (like my new word) Dan Chung.

This camera is making me stay up very late at night. And now I have to go and find some nikon (sorry, nikkor) lenses for my eos.....

Edited by photovan, 16 December 2008 - 09:40 AM.

[Drew]

Well I'm not geek enough to test the 1000 ways to work the camera until i have to shoot with it. I have a life

[Ferg42]

There's been some discussion on the crushed blacks issue on dvinfo. It seems that transcoding the files may sort out this problem (or at least help):

http://www.dvinfo.ne...workflow-2.html

There are some demos of the effectiveness of transcoding using carbon coder in there.

[photovan]

So i've uploaded "First Clips" onto Vimeo... (any other suggestions for better hosting would be great).
On my connection anyway it doesn't look very smooth, but playing the original using quicktime, it looks very nice.

An update... I've now enabled the "download original" feature on Vimeo, which allows you to save the 720p version of the clip to your desktop.

[photovan]

While it's not underwater videography as such, it is videography of things under the water.

I just had to get this thing amongst the fishies .

Please note --- in an effort to respond to the excitement supposedly needed in the doco market, the soundtrack is an ode to the BBC dumbing down thread...

Don't forget if you want to see it at it's best, use the "download original" link on bottom right of the Vimeo page so you can play it locally.

darren

[Maarten_NL]

Amazing quality, from a still camera I hope someone hacks videocapability into the 50D...

[photovan]

Amazing quality, from a still camera I hope someone hacks videocapability into the 50D...

Having done a bit with it now, I'm really hoping Canon implement 1080p in the 1 series cameras... along with a bit more manual control, maybe an option for 24/30fps for us in PAL land, and even if possible 48/60fps so we can do a bit of overcrank (is that the right term drew?)...

I was really surprised by the quality of the video through the perspex window at SeaWorld, I guess we can get away with a bit more in 1080p than we can in 22MP...

I found the camera handled the pans and movement nicely, the jelli-wobble not showing as an issue as far as i am concerned. Can't wait for a housing....

darren

[photovan]

So by some reports including this one on prolost, todays Quicktime 7.6 update fixes the 5dmkii "crushed blacks" issue. I haven't installed it yet, but sounds encouraging.
darren

[photovan]

Here is a link to Canon's white paper on the 5dmkii (and the 50d in the same doc). Sure it's Canon's line, but hey it's their camera...it's interesting to read their perspective on where the camera is positioned.

If nothing else it also reads as if Canon sees a future in it's hybrids. And underwater photographers even get a mention...

Edited by photovan, 22 January 2009 - 06:54 AM.