Chad.Rivers Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Hey there I'm very new here so apologies if this is in the wrong place or anything. Im just looking for some answers. Iv got a 5d mark 3 and have been testing out the video as I'm shooting a short film but the footage seems incredible soft and lacking detail. even youtube clips of test footage seem more detailed. iv also compared it to some of my old mark 2 footage for a few years ago and it just totally lacks detail. its like looking at 720 next to 1080. Iv tried three lenses and manual focusing and its still terrible. could the picture profiles affect it this much? is sharpening meant to be done afterwards? Maybe i just expected the stock footage to look better. phones shoot 4k now (obviously smaller sensor) so atm im feely pretty bad about my new camera. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Bourke-Velji Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Most people use a lot of sharpening in post its just part of using a 5d/canon to shoot with i'm afraid... they have terrible codecs. The Raw hack makes it better but I think a lot of mainstream people shooting DSLR's will be moving onto the Blackmagics/ Sony A7S and GH4 once they cotton onto how much better the codecs etc. are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Punk Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 If shooting a flat picture profile with regular .h264 and in camera sharpening is dialled right down, then yes - it's normal to add sharpening in post. Best results by far are from shooting raw video using Magic Lantern and processing in Resolve...the sharpening/ colour correction and grade results are still incredible, even when the image is upscaled for projection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axel Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Most apply sharpening in post, i.e. in Premieres sharpen effect around '25'. Afterwards the image looks no longer that soft.Anyway, we shot the same motifs with C300, BMPCC and 5D MIII, and it's clear that of these three HD cams the 5D resolves the least detail. Not to speak of a comparison to 4k cams, as seen here: However, the winner is not so clear if the 4k is compared with raw through Magic Lantern: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5fafQQddg However, we need to see a comparison to GH4 plus Shogun 4k 10bit, which is also much easier to use. Raw with 5D ans ML means still a lot of trouble!BTW: Since this site was overhauled, many things don't work well (my layout gets torn apart for what reason ever), apart from being offline very often ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ebrahim Saadawi Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Don't feel bad about your new camera, it's one of the best professional devices out with tens of thousands of incredible photographers and videographers producing Higgins work with it, so enjoy it. To the point: yes the 5D mk III is softer than the competition, like the gh4 and nx1, but it is a larger sensor with FF aesthetic and ve high lowlight performance in video mode, so to get around the sharpness issue there are a few things you can do, try this: 1-Turn on in-camera sharpening in the picture style menu to +2 2-Stop down your lenses a bit from their maximum aperture. 3-Still if it's not sharp enough, try applying a sharpening filter in post. 4-Still not enough, shoot RAW with Magic Lantern 5-Still not enough, get an nx1 or something Notes on these: -in the picture style parameters, most people on the web will tell you to strictly follow the good'old Neutral PS with sharpness and contrast all the way off and saturation at minus two. I don't agree with that being the ultimate profile, for example when shooting people using the portrait PS makes a very big difference that can't be replicated in post, and the sharpening added in camera is also not re-creatable in post as it is a proprietary Canon algorithm and occurs BEFORE compression, so it doesn't sharpen noise and codec artefacts as post-sharpening does. In short, the in-camera sharpness is very good and worthy of exploring even just for trying, try +2 and compare to 0 and see which one you prefer, I find +2 gives much sharper and more pleasing images. So try Neutral or Portrait for people with (Sharp. +2 Cont. all the way off and saturation at middle and Color Tone at middle). - The reason for your problem might be simply that your lens is soft, there are very soft lenses out there, and even the good lenses are soft when wide open, so use a good lens and stop down a bit, for example if you're shooting with a 50mm 1.8 don't set it to 1.8, instead set it to f/2.8, makes the image much sharper. Nearly any lens will be softer wide open at maximum aperture and sharpest closed one or two stops. Close it a bit. -The 5D images respond really well to post sharpening for some reason so don't be afraid to try it in your NLE. -I find Neat video an invaluable tool for Canon DSLR footage, it removes all the noise & codec nastiness and applies a very sophisticated sharpening filter on top giving the overall quality and sharpness a big boost. Try the Demo version at least to see how much of a difference it makes and whether you like it. If after trying all of these you still find it too soft, Google Magic Lantern, download it onto your camera, get a very fast CF card, and shoot in 14bit RAW DNG. It's a very detailed image if you want to love with heavy workflow and tinkering with a hack (very safe and stable though) If it's still not enough and you want to have a detailed image on an 84" 4K TV, get an nx1 or something, very, very sharp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caseywilsondp Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Ebrahim has a great way of reducing the amount of replies needed, because all the information you need is right there in his post! It's full of great advice particularly for your camera. Count me as +1 of shooting RAW on the mark 3, it's still one of my favorite images produced by any camera (including the alexa, dragon, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad.Rivers Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Thanks so much! Thats great info. I'm gonna give have a tinker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Hughes Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 You might also want to try and borrow a 5Diii from a friend if you can. Do some tests using the same lenses/settings just to make sure you don't somehow have a bad camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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