jnorman34 Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 just took a trip to phoenix, az, and visited Taliesin West. I purchased a Gopro hero 4 the day before the visit, and ordered a Feiyu G4 3-axis gimbal which arrived about 1 hour before I left for Scottsdale to visit frank Lloyd wright's home there. so I was charging the batteries in the car on the way there, and literally turned it on for the first time when we arrived at Taliesin. I had no experience with a handheld gimbal before and did not know what to expect from 4K from the Gopro, compared to my GH4.I had problems getting smooth walking footage with the gimbal, and the gopro needed calibration, but I had no opportunity to reshoot anything, so it is what it is.I would appreciate any comments, feedback and advice on how to get the best results from the Feiyu and how to get the best quality footage from the Gopro. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnorman34 Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 I am noticing some blocking and artifacts in the greenery during moving shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr041 Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 I am noticing some blocking and artifacts in the greenery during moving shots.Don't you think that is likely due to YouTube compression, which is always pretty bad? Or it could be what bitrate the video was rendered at. In any case, it would be great if the you could tell us if this is a problem in the original and what the rendered video specs are. I thought the video was impressive - the wide view of the GoPro was well-suited for looking at the architecture, and the camera movements were smooth, although the still shots seem to tremble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnorman34 Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 thanks for the comments mark - the rendered bitrate is 60mbps. and yes, most of what I am seeing seems to be due to youtube compression. still shots are a major problem with the feiyu gimbal, and stabilization in post does not seem to be able to correct it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr041 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Just for comparison I shot a 4K test video using my GoPro 4 Black on the Z--One Pro 3-axis gimbal. The video includes vertical and horizontal pans, walking while shooting and stills, including close-ups. No stabilization was applied in post: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I really liked both videos. The gopro 4k looks awesome. What are your guy's workflow? I am thinking about picking up a silver for 2.7k. I have an idea for a short that this camera will be perfect for, but the workflow seems questionable. I know a lot of people are transcoding to cineform, but do you need the studio version of the software for that or can you do it with the free version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr041 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I really liked both videos. The gopro 4k looks awesome. What are your guy's workflow? I am thinking about picking up a silver for 2.7k. I have an idea for a short that this camera will be perfect for, but the workflow seems questionable. I know a lot of people are transcoding to cineform, but do you need the studio version of the software for that or can you do it with the free version?I edit in Sony Vegas Pro 13. There is no need to transcode; the files are standard H264 MP4. The workflow is no different for the GoPro than for any 4K video camera. But you can use the free version of Cineform (GoPro Studio) if you wish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I edit in Sony Vegas Pro 13. There is no need to transcode; the files are standard H264 MP4. The workflow is no different for the GoPro than for any 4K video camera. But you can use the free version of Cineform (GoPro Studio) if you wish.Thanks, I usually convert everything to prores but from what I have read, the gopro footage works well with Cineform. Are you just editing it as 4k, or do you downsample it to 1080p in Vegas, if Vegas even does that... I use Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzynormal Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I should upload footage I've shot with a EM5II and a $30 stabilizer. It's pretty much on par, maybe a bit better, than these examples.How much is a Feiyu? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr041 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Thanks, I usually convert everything to prores but from what I have read, the gopro footage works well with Cineform. Are you just editing it as 4k, or do you downsample it to 1080p in Vegas, if Vegas even does that... I use Mac. I do not downsample 4K video. I see no need (of course Vegas Pro can do that - it is one the most powerful editors). I also see no need to convert to intermediate codecs of any kind. If you have the right computer/software, you can edit natively 4K video clips and play 4K video as well. The videos I upload are all 4K. 4K videos look great on HD monitors and HDTV's. They scale fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr041 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I should upload footage I've shot with a EM5II and a $30 stabilizer. It's pretty much on par, maybe a bit better, than these examples.How much is a Feiyu?You should, to backup your claim!And the Feiyu I think is inferior to the Z1-Pro. A major reason is that you can use the GoPro lcd back on the Z1 Pro, so you can actually see what you are shooting. It seems nuts to shoot video blind. The reason you can use the lcd back is that the Z1 Pro (and its clones) has more powerful motors (but they are quiet and efficient - 4 hours of use per charge). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I do not downsample 4K video. I see no need (of course Vegas Pro can do that - it is one the most powerful editors). I also see no need to convert to intermediate codecs of any kind. If you have the right computer/software, you can edit natively 4K video clips and play 4K video as well. The videos I upload are all 4K. 4K videos look great on HD monitors and HDTV's. They scale fine.So you don't notice any loss in quality editing the h.264 files natively? I guess you're not doing much grading? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzynormal Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 You should, to backup your claim!I will. I helped out a colleague on a local video just for the excuse to play with the EM5II and cheap-stabilizer setup. She's using a few shots in the cut. When she's done with the edit I'll put up a link.My only compliant so far is that the cheap fly-cam rig does't have much mass, so you gotta be careful with the vertical motion. Honesty, the EM5II would work better on a Glidecam 2000 and some big wide Canon mount glass. Like my sigma 10-20mm. That extra weight would smooth out the moves.Here's a video where my job was to get her shots with the Glidecam, Sigma 10-20mm, and GX7. Nothing fancy but for basic corporate video it does the trick: https://vimeo.com/114590984 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnorman34 Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 mark - the feiyu G4 will accommodate the display mounted on the back of the Gopro Hero 4.for some reason, my original post is showing a video of the union street bridge (also done with the gopro/feiyu), when it should be showing the Taliesin west video. here is the link to the Taliesin video: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr041 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 So you don't notice any loss in quality editing the h.264 files natively? I guess you're not doing much grading?You lose quality by converting (re-compressing). You maximize quality (everything else the same) by not re-compressing twice and editing natively. Here is a video showing my color grading using the GoPro software, shooting Protune flat and editing natively (although we are getting off track!): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr041 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 mark - the feiyu G4 will accommodate the display mounted on the back of the Gopro Hero 4.for some reason, my original post is showing a video of the union street bridge (also done with the gopro/feiyu), when it should be showing the Taliesin west video. here is the link to the Taliesin video: Thanks for the correction; perhaps I was thinking of the G3. Did you use the stabilizer with the LCD back (my video was)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnorman34 Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 Mark- I shot it all with no display. Shooting blind :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 markr, the grade looks nice. Protune seems good. Can't wait to work with it. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnorman34 Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 can anyone recommend a really good stabilizer plugin for powerdirector 13? if I could find a way to effectively stabilize still shots from the gopro/feiyu setup, it would solve most of my problems. as an example of the problem, please look at the shot of the statue at the 5:00 mark in the Taliesin video linked above. thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr041 Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 I think that more experience with using the gimbal to reduce shake might still have payoffs. In this more recent video I get much more stable "still" shots, including close ones like the statue clip, on my gimbal without any resolution-degrading stabilization in post (having less wind helped): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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