1080 30P Concerns

[Bill Binder]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

True. Neoscene isn't a converter at all.

I thought NeoScene could actually convert to 24p if you force it to, it will just pretty much suck because taking 30p to 24p, well just pretty much sucks in general regardless of the converter. Their 24p conversion, if I have this correct, was more for removing unflagged pulldown from cams like the HV20, and for converting 60i sources, which convert to 24p much better than 30p converts to 24p. I think I even remember them saying that there were better options out there for 30p > 24p than HDLink, but that none of them were that good regardless. Anyway, I'm not sure it's entirely accurate to say Neoscene won't convert to 24p, but beyond that, you should pretty much act like it doesn't -- so on that point I wholeheartedly agree with you John! <SMILE>

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

so we can edit quickly, and get lower resolution proxy views as needed on the fly.

I think in general, Cineform is used for intermediates more than proxies, but surely it's used for both. But more importantly, it's worth mentioning that neoscene CANNOT resize to lower resolutions as far as I know. For the 5D2, it's 1080p to 1080p whether you like it or not. This is one of the reasons I'm not using Neoscene actually. I'd like to convert to Cineform at 720p, but I'm not pro enough to want to spend the money to get NeoHD or whatever product will do that -- which sucks because I love Cineform. I'm actually building my 720p Cineform intermediates using batch rendering out of Vegas 8 right now (which has a very old version of Cineform built in, but good enough for web work).

[Jon Fairhurst]

Originally Posted by Bill Binder

I think in general, Cineform is used for intermediates more than proxies, but surely it's used for both. But more importantly, it's worth mentioning that neoscene CANNOT resize to lower resolutions as far as I know.

Because Cineform uses wavelet technology, you can extract 1/2 size (1/4 area), 1/4 size, 1/8 size and so on directly, while reading only 1/4, 1/16, or 1/64th the data. So, it works as an intermediate format, and provides proxies for free.

But yeah, 1/2 size does not 720p make.

I wish NeoScene had the option to scale on the fly, but even more so, I wish that I could turn on or off the conversion to 29.97. For my audio tests, I've been using the old version of NeoScene which slows the video to 29.97, but doesn't touch the audio. I then have to manually reset all of the clips to 30p. Certainly, PAL users would rather start with 30p than 29.97 as well.

[Fred Meon]

Originally Posted by Daniel Ridicki

I recently made a video spot for a jazz singer friend of mine, in a jazz club, static, her sitting on the high stool, basic jazz trio setup, not much movement. All shoot with EX3 and MkII with 85 lens, full aperture, soft focus. Non frame drop was detectable, perfect sync. That would suggest - you being shooting intws - somewhat similar setup, the person being interviewed will most likely not move too much, so you should not have problem. Just - if I may advice - avoid if at all possible any lines and highly detailed background, to avoid codec artifacts.

Thank you for your advices and experience sharing Dan. That's exactly what i meant : the ability to do cut shots with an mk2 while most of the filming would be done with my EX1, for a documentary for example. I guess, after reading all these posts that you can't count on an mk2 to do all the video work. That's not my intention. After all, this is a camera, not a camcorder. But it's good to know it can help also in professional video stuff.

[Daniel Ridicki]

You are right. MkII is a video tool, but not universal. And as long as you are aware of its limitations, you should be fine. As a young photographer, sometimes I used to go to assignments only with one body and one lens: my favorite 35mm. my friends asked me if I was not reducing my potentials and possibilities making that choice. On the contrary! I fond that often limitation can be creatively turned into an advantage, because it forces you to think harder and therefore find new solutions, often better then if you had backing of variety of lenses in your bag.
Then - what I discovered - mixing of MkII and EX1/3 is good thing, since the mixed footage 'hide' MkII imperfections: you see artifacts in one shot, but there are non in the next shoot, so it is a sort of 'covering'. Do some testing, especially experiment with the contrast level: low contrast is by far better then high, tele lens is generally better then wide etc. If you are in Final Cut Studio, you can pretty much adjust MkII footage to the EX1/3, and it is not too complicated process. Anyway: best of luck!