GoPro or POV camera forum?

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Dan Brockett

FCP is behind the times.

Well, it's like the early days of HDV - I prefered AIC until the hardware caught up. And even then, all renders were in ProRes.

I'm treating GoPro footage like HD-DSLR footage by taking it through MPEGStreamClip to get ProRes LT footage from the get-go, with an occasional dip into Cinema Tools to get things from 50 or 60 fps down to 25. Ditto for timelapse sequences.

Right now, I'd rather edit, process and transcode from ProRes LT fottage, and retain the flexibility of shooting slomo than to be forced into editing H.264. And of course your mileage may vary - not wishing to impose my workflow on anyone, just saying there's different strokes.

[Tim Kolb]

Originally Posted by Matt Daviss

....I'd rather edit, process and transcode from ProRes LT fottage, and retain the flexibility of shooting slomo than to be forced into editing H.264.

I'm not sure I understand this statement. Does shooting H264 somehow prevent you from doing slomo?

[Matt Davis]

Nope - just my unclear prose style. It's QuickTime being so very helpful.

If I take 720p60 H.264 movies and put them into a 720p25 sequence, FCP will, because of its QuickTime roots (albeit hastily bolted on roots), drop frames from the 60fps movie to make it the same duration as it would be at 60fps so as to match the audio, and thus the sequence.

Edit: That last sentence is even more unclear. So: 10 sec shot at 60fps - duration 10 secs, 600 frames. Put into FCP sequence that's 25fps, frames are dropped so the duration is still 10 secs, but there's only 250 frames in that shot, doing a fairly intelligent job of which frames to drop to retain smoothness, but not perfection by any stretch of the imagination, and it's not slomo.

QuickTime movies contain a bit of metadata which lists the fps or frame duration. Therefore, whatever the FPS, QuickTime will always play it back at the correct speed (which is why it's QuickTIME - as in time based media - not QuickVIDEO). But I'm rambling.

The point is, Cinema Tools can change that data so forcing the movie shot at 60fps to play back at 24fps or 23.97 or whatever. Once you've done your H.264 or transcoded movie to your desired frame rate, it will import into FCP as slomo. No dropped frames.

I think I'm making matters worse....

[Tim Kolb]

No...I have it now.

Isn't there something in FCP like "interpret footage" in PPro?

I can right-click and tell the clip to change its framerate in the bin...so, if I have my 720p60 "overcrank" GoPro clip (did this just recently actually) and want to place it on a 24p timeline, I just tell the clip that it is now 24 fps...voila...overcrank.

Can you access the clip parameters in the bin somewhere?

[Matt Davis]

Yes, you can get clip properties, but FPS is fixed. You can look but can't touch.

Unless, of course, I am missing something... And that's happened before.

[Tim Kolb]

Actually I did a web search, and it appears that most tutorials on doing this involve Motion or Compressor, and are really slomo-interpolation kinds of operations, not setting framerate for the "overcrank" scenario we've been discussing.

I've only used FCP a couple times, so I'm interested in its capabilities...but every once in a while i get an FCP user who tells me about the "toy" editor I use... and yet, I keep running into scenarios like this.

No perfect solution i guess.

[Pete Bauer]

Originally Posted by John Abbey

I do read the official go pro forum site...just bought the flat port version of the housing to correct the out of focus problems when shooting underwater that myself and many others were having and it does work much better now..all and all a fun little cam.

John, two questions:

I don't see that GoPro has its own official forum, although by searching the net I found a privately owned GoPro Users forum, run by a guy who calls himself Rambo, that is allowed to use their logo. Is that what you are referring to, or does GoPro have a well-hidden forum of their own somewhere?

Is the flat port an official product from GoPro, or a home-brew work around, as described in the privately owned user forum?

[Carlo Zanella]

I have two GoPros...Amazing little cameras for the price. We just came back from Italy where we shot over 200M of driving shots (obviously as B-roll). Installed correctly, it will give you great smooth footage. We use it primarly in 720p 60fps. 172 angle of view, to me the overall picture quality is better than 1080p. Look at the example we shot in Italy of this cool BMW "fully enclosed" scooter! at The Santa Fe TV Show.
The video is in the front page and it is called: AN ITALIAN BUSINESS MAN IN A HURRY. WE used a commercial grade suction cup and we attached it to the HUGE windshield of this odd looking (but cool!) scooter...
In a few days I will post some off-road footage shot here in New Mexico. Again, placed correctly, the video you can get out of it is simply amazing considering the price point!

We even shot underwater footage. We, by our mistake, also got water in to the camera (salty Mediterranean water)...Let it dry for a few days, and, camera came back alive again!

And by the way, the GoPro should get its own forum here, at DV Info.

Carlo Zanella
The Santa Fe TV Show

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Matt Daviss

If I take 720p60 H.264 movies and put them into a 720p25 sequence, FCP will, because of its QuickTime roots (albeit hastily bolted on roots), drop frames from the 60fps movie to make it the same duration as it would be at 60fps so as to match the audio, and thus the sequence.

Edit: That last sentence is even more unclear. So: 10 sec shot at 60fps - duration 10 secs, 600 frames. Put into FCP sequence that's 25fps, frames are dropped so the duration is still 10 secs, but there's only 250 frames in that shot, doing a fairly intelligent job of which frames to drop to retain smoothness, but not perfection by any stretch of the imagination, and it's not slomo.

As it SHOULD be. A 10 second clip SHOULD run 10 seconds in ANY timeline it is dropped into as a default. I WOULD however agree that an easier way to reassign frames for slow or fast motion WOULD be welcomed - for example, in the Speed setting, it would be nice to have a tick box saying "Use all available frames of Source Material" or something RATHER THAN having to manually remap AN ENTIRE CLIP in Cinema Tools - WORSE YET, you remap the underlying MEDIA so all iterations of that clip become changed.

[John Abbey]

Originally Posted by Pete Bauer

John, two questions:

I don't see that GoPro has its own official forum, although by searching the net I found a privately owned GoPro Users forum, run by a guy who calls himself Rambo, that is allowed to use their logo. Is that what you are referring to, or does GoPro have a well-hidden forum of their own somewhere?

Is the flat port an official product from GoPro, or a home-brew work around, as described in the privately owned user forum?

yes that is the forum I refer too, run by Rambo. also the flat port is a third party work around that actually does work..if you search on youtube there are some videos that show you how to make you own if you want to.

[Alan Melville]

Originally Posted by Bill Ward

Really? I was able to import the MPEG4 clip right into AVID, no problem.

Now, .MTS files out of the Canon Vixia AVCHD...what a nightmare...and one I still haven't solved.

Bill,

I was trying to get it into Adobe CS4, had to open with Quick Time then save it as a .MOV file in order to get CS4 to 'see' it. Time consuming....maybe I'm doing something wrong.....wouldn't surprise me!!!

Al

[Alan Melville]

Originally Posted by Tim Kolb

It drops into a DSLR sequence in Premiere Pro CS5 seamlessly...no trouble...very fast.

Tim,
Thanks for the tip, I have CS4, I'll try it on Sunday...... and hope all will be :)

Al

[Laurence Janus]

I would like to see a generic POV section
I am especially interested in the HXR-MC1 and Nanoflash combination

[Matt Davis]

... then maybe we could convince the wonderful GoPro people, through sheer consumer-power, to

i) Supply the little chrome nuts (the domed ones) separately

ii) Glue the bolts into the plastic knurled knobs, and probably ditto on the nuts above

iii) Supply the tripod adaptor as standard in the bigger 'kits'

But maybe that's a subsection of a PoV section.

[John Abbey]

I glue all my little chrome nuts into the fittings, have lost some trying to change fittings while kayaking down a river or something similar..