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jcs

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Everything posted by jcs

  1. jcs
    Well done!
  2. jcs
    So far the most complex encoder for an external recorder is Sony MPEG2 (LGOP high bitrate 422) in the Convergent Design Nanoflash, yes? The F55 can do 4K XAVC (2K for F5). So high bitrate XAVC should be possible with an external recorder today (hopefully with the CD 7Q at some point). H.265 takes 5-10x the compute complexity. If it can be parallelized and run (at least partially) on a GPU, perhaps something will be possible in the next few years (iPhone 5S has a powerful 64-bit processor and GPU today; an Android phone (Acer Liquid S2) supports 4K H.264).
  3. jcs
    H.265 was designed to produce H.264 quality at 50% the bitrate. To really show H.265 improvements, compare the same footage to H.265 with a high-quality encoder such as x264. As of July 2013, H.265 is not quite hitting the 50% less than H.264 target: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/162027-h-265-benchmarked-does-the-next-generation-video-codec-live-up-to-expectations Embedded devices (cameras) aren't likely to use H.265 in the near term due to CPU complexity requirements. XAVC is the nicest balance of quality/filesize we'll have for a while.
  4. jcs
    np. I don't have a Pocket Camera: Resolve should work great with it (both BM products). Have an FS700 in addition to 5D3's: waiting to see more footage from Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q before considering doing RAW with the FS700. More interested in 4K RAW from FS700 to 1080p compressed 10/12-bit via 7Q: super high quality 1080p and manageable workflow. FS700 + 7Q 2K RAW supports continuous up to 240FPS slowmo: that's going to be a crazy amount of data to manage. If the ARRI Amira comes in closer to $20k- will probably sell the FS700 and skip the 7Q. The Amira does up to 200FPS, ProRes up to 444 12-bit, 14 clean stops, and no messing around with RAW: super-high quality in-camera de-Bayer and the best skin tones and highlight roll-off in the industry (same as the Alexa).
  5. jcs
    I checked out RAWTherapy which includes all the latest open source de-Bayer methods. DCB and Amaze are right up there with ACR, perhaps even better, however I'm not aware of an efficient workflow. Resolve 9 de-Bayer wasn't as good- Resolve 10 is much better, but again no NR for Lite, and not clear if NR is at the de-Bayer stage vs. after. Colors coming out of ACR look excellent. ACR's Achille's heel is it's slow unless run on monster hardware. I prefer to edit with de-Bayered footage vs. RAW DNG- always runs fast, no massive storage requirements. I think high bit-depth lightly compressed footage is the sweet spot for editing right now.
  6. jcs
    If you want to correct based on a different frame than the first, you can open it with Camera Raw Sequence unchecked, correct it, Save Settings (in drop down right of Basic bar), then open the sequence with Camera Raw Sequence checked and Load Settings. You can do full color correction after de-Bayering.
  7. jcs
    The color of the 5D3 RAW footage after ACR processing looks spectacular. (9Kb file size limit?) After WB is set so far everything's looking good with not too much tweaking. In your Resolve example the color has shifted from too much green to too much magenta. Whites aren't white: they're green or magenta. Adobe AE is indeed somewhat slow, however on a 12-core machine transcoding to ProRes or DNxHD runs 1/4 real-time. Resolve is much faster and now has improved de-Bayering (and now de-Bayer sharpening) however I suspect ACR might still do better initial color processing. Resolve Lite has no noise reduction. I de-Bayer+de-noise+sharpen in ACR+AE and transcode to DNxHD/ProRes: editing is real-time and file size is manageable. Resolve is getting better; not quite up to ACR yet in quality (especially if comparing the Lite version with no NR).
  8. jcs
    I have seen that, even at 24mm- try adjusting the infinity focus. Be careful, apparently the screw is fragile. Instructions on MB site.
  9. jcs
    4K will become more interesting to consumers when affordable 100+"  ultra-thin wall-mount TVs are available (OLED, etc.). For those with the room, 4K projectors will provide noticeable quality improvement over HD.
  10. jcs
    I picked up a Sound Devices USBPre2 (with a USB battery) and DR100mkII (has digital in). Sounds the same as a Sound Devices 702 only much lower cost. That said, I never used this combo as it's too complicated and fragile. As a computer interface, the USBPre2 provides amazing quality. For field work the 702 is looking more appealing.   The JuicedLink gear works however the Sound Devices gear sounds better (MixPre-D is a good choice).   This preamp might be a good compromise ($349): http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1012401&is=REG&A=details&Q=
  11. jcs
    The best camera right now is the ARRI Alexa. It shoots 2.5K (F65 is best for 4K; Red Dragon should also be competitive when released).   If I could shoot 4K 10-bit 422 XAVC I would (as with F55): can downsample for excellent detail, reframe, zoom in post, stabilize, etc. The Sony FS700 will get reasonable cost 4K with the CD 7Q. 4K sampled down to 1080p will look much better than the in-camera 1080p (in camera downsample from the 4K sensor is lower quality than can be done in post).   For the big screen, 4K is awesome- very noticeable improvement in quality- totally worth it.
  12. jcs
      Gene- currently AE with ACR provides the best results for RAW (have been using it with 5D3; probably will wait for the compressed codec option before 7Q purchase (for FS700). Resolve 10 does have a nice new de-Bayer sharpen option but not a de-Bayer denoise option (very important to do during de-Bayer vs. after). The ACR denoise of RAW does a better job than Neat Video (and is ultimately faster, workflow-wise).   On Windows I AE render to 175Mbit/s 422 10-bit DNxHD, which is excellent quality. Would only use 444 if doing green screen (DNxHD 444 is 440Mbit/s (10-bit)). ProRes HQ should be fine unless doing green screen (even HQ might be overkill (220Mbit/s vs. 145Mbit/s regular). ProRes 4444 is VBR, looks like around 440Mbit/s and up to 12-bit. After fixing highlights and shadows in ACR, I have found 10-bit to be plenty good for final editing.   In AE make sure to set the project bit depth to 16 (bottom of Project Pane next to trashcan icon). You can add all of your ACR adjusted clips to the render queue, then fire it off in one batch.
  13. jcs
    De-noise, sharpen, and de-Bayer in ACR. Defaults are pretty good- tweak to suite your taste (including minor color correction, WB, etc.). Render out with size/codec of choice for editing (I use DNxHD (Win7). On OSX ProRes is also good).
  14. jcs
    When you load a DNG sequence in AE, ACR will pop up (same for Photoshop). Neat Video is excellent, however ACR's de-noise and sharpen during de-Bayer works very well.
  15. jcs
    I'm not aware of a stand-alone ACR. It's part of Photoshop, Lightroom, and After Effects (I use After Effects CS6 to convert DNG to DNxHD (a good balance of compression and quality)).
  16. jcs
    The FS700 with (or without) Speedbooster provides higher resolution vs. 5D3 RAW (ACR de-Bayer (the best right now)), whereas the 5D3 RAW provides amazing color. That said, I was able to cut the two together and match them fairly easily. De-noising and sharpening in ACR produces great results with 5D3 RAW footage. Using Neat Video on FS700 footage (low light) loses a lot of detail. When I ask the 5D3 to shoot slomo or pro-audio, the battery pops right out the bottom of the camera. (visible) FS700 compression artifacts can be eliminated using an external recorder (I use a Nanoflash).
  17. jcs
    Adobe Camera Raw's (ACR) de-Bayer is one of the best in the industry (better than Resolve). It also performs excellent nearly artifact-free de-noising and sharpening. I used After Effects CS6 with CinemaDNGs which uses ACR to convert to DNxHD 10-bit 422 for editing. This isn't too bad on a fast machine to process (about 1/4 real-time). The resulting quality is excellent- detailed, sharp, and fantastic color with low noise (even better than Neat Video in terms of preserving detail after de-noising).   Cineform's current de-Bayer isn't in the same class as Resolve or ACR. De-noising and sharpening while de-Bayering also helps improve final quality (as with ACR). I haven't seen or heard of any solution yet which matches or surpasses ACR for 5D3 RAW.
  18. jcs
    MBP Retina Screen- did it fast; figured 'good enough'. Surprised by score- 0 (no errors).
  19. jcs
    Pretty cool!
  20. jcs
    ARRI Alexa and C300 (and lots of CGI): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979320/technical?ref_=tt_dt_spec
  21. jcs
    Probably more clear to talk about light performance in T-stops vs F-stops since DOF won't change.
  22. jcs
    I have an FS700 and 5D3's. 5D3 RAW is amazing, though a bit of work to process and no pro audio. FS700 looks great with or without SpeedBooster (similar to FS100). That said, from your list, C100 for great images, fast workflow, and pro audio.
  23. jcs
      Not too long ago resolution was the top topic around here  ;)   It's all important, once past a threshold of usability. Canon resolution was weak before RAW, now it's just good enough, and along with color depth and associated DR, gives new life to these cameras. RAW forces us to be more efficient with planning, shooting, and editing, as the workflow is demanding. This can be good or bad depending on what we are trying to shoot (good for a short film / movie, not good for R&G / ENG / Quick-turnaround).
  24. jcs
    Played with the DNGs- Canon just handles colors better. I can tweak the KineRAW to look closer to the Canon, but takes a bit of work (a lot more than saturation). Same thing happens when I shoot with the FS700 and 5D3... Use the 5D3 shots to try to get the FS700 to color match (FS700 has better resolution, slomo, pro audio but can't match 5D3 colors).
  25. jcs
    All the shimmering pixels, especially in the trees, are aliasing. Per Nyquist, the sensor must sample at 2x the target resolution (along with a sufficient optical low pass filter) to prevent aliasing (that's not happening here). When aliasing is gone, the image looks filmic. When present, the image can look sharper, but is false detail and makes moving images look digital (vs. film-like).   This is what the frames look like:  If alias free, would look like this:    Images from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_anti-aliasing
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