Working with DSLR footage, natively in premiere, doing all my color work there as well. I have an adjustment layer with 3-4 effects (various color/beauty filters) over the footage.

I am ready to make my master file, which I will then create an .mp4 from, should I export my master to HQ or regular Pro Res? Is there a noticeable quality difference with DSLR footage?

Also, would it be of higher quality to export an .mp4 directly from the timeline (using all the best settings in media encoder) vs creating it from the master file?

Thanks

I don't think you'll notice much of a difference between ProRes 422 and ProRes HQ with H.264 DSLR footage as your source (other than a much larger file size of course).

I routinely export my old DSLR masters as ProRes LT.