[Steve.Ledger]

No inter frame compression should only help with editing, right? Otherwise it uses up more bitrate for the same quality. I've used up to 1000 frames between I frames and got good, constant picture quality. No degradation whatsoever.

Hi,
I didn't comprehend a word of that

[PiDicus Rex]

I saw no mention of improvements to video quality, only mention of the converter support.

No mention,... I'm going by what I observed with the hours upon hours of video footage I've shot.
Like I've said, the Macro-blocking errors disappeared, there seems to be some randomization of noise, and in 1.05 the banding seems less pronounced.

[Steve.Ledger]

I went ahead and updated earlier today, but honestly - I've seen no change yet.
If by macro-blocking you mean pixelation in areas of rapid random movement, then I still see this after updating and recording the wind blowing the foliage of trees along with other artifacts.

[PiDicus Rex]

Pixelation, not like regular break up, this was large blocky artefacts - you could call it pixelisation if the pixels were in 20x20 blocks

[Steve.Ledger]

Well, pixelation could be any sized area, but however you want to describe it is rather irrelevant. Point is, I see no change from upgrading the firmware from 1.04 to 1.05 - so nothing lost

[PiDicus Rex]

Let's just hope v1.06 includes the goodies we all really want.
I ain't holding my breath though,...

[Steve.Ledger]

Yes, they should continue to support it while there is no replacement.

[kadajawi]

Hi,
I didn't comprehend a word of that

I frames means the full frame is stored, without referencing any other frame. P and B frames are ones that refer backwards or in both directions. They help keep the bitrate stay low. In the past, when we had h263/Xvid/DivX, you could sometimes see the quality degrade over time. The I frame had the best quality, and then it would worsen until the next I frame came. That was fixed though in h264, at least in proper implementations. The quality should stay constant. Thus there is no need for all I frame videos being recorded in camera. It only helps with editing, but it massively drives up the bitrates needed to store the video. Basically you'd be doing MJPEG (but with an encoder that's better with stills).

[Steve.Ledger]

Thanks

[JohnnyXD]

Hi there

Here is the video I shot last weekend, nothing professional. Mostly handheld with tripod.

KDD Internacional Club Evo 2014 Zuera - Vìdeo Dailymotion

Shot with the K30, pentax 55-300, chinon 50mm 1.7, pentax 18-55+0.45x wide angle converter

Hope you like it. I did some colour grading, but not really my thing yet.

[grispie]

I watched it. But for some reason, when i play it full screen, it goes crazy... don't know why. Probably me.

Thought the colours looked fine & warm. But with the cars that were parked, I can't understand why you didn't set up you tripod to pan & tilt a bit around the details of the cars. Maybe take some more real spectacular shallow dof shots.
Maybe you didn't have the time..
and I'd avoid walking with the camera.

Overall enticing though.

[JohnnyXD]

I watched it. But for some reason, when i play it full screen, it goes crazy... don't know why. Probably me.

Thought the colours looked fine & warm. But with the cars that were parked, I can't understand why you didn't set up you tripod to pan & tilt a bit around the details of the cars. Maybe take some more real spectacular shallow dof shots.
Maybe you didn't have the time..
and I'd avoid walking with the camera.

Overall enticing though.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, the part with the cars parked was shot too quickly, I didn't have time to mount the tripod. I should have taken some shots outside, inside, etc, close ups, etc with the 50mm with a nice bokeh, but I didn't have the time. Looking back, I should have done it.

[MyTZuS]

There are several other threads on this very subject - inc a few discussions in the K-01 and K-3 rooms.

The K-30 and K-01 are nearly identical in respects to video shooting styles and results - I work with a K-30 owner on a semi-regular basis, and we get the same results out of our settings.

First, No, the High/Low key adjustment does NOT affect exposure. Exposure is set from your Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO, exactly the same as in a Photo.

Start with the Natural profile, turn down the Contrast a step or two with no other changes, and you'll be pretty close to matching the 'Cinestyle' preset available for Canon's.
(This is how we match footage across brands.)
Adjust your High/Low key to maximise correctly exposed content in a shot - it's not changing the exposure, it's changing the range from darkest to brightest that's included in that exposure.
In 'video' terms, the High/Low Key works similar to the Gamma Knee setting on an ENG Camera's CCU control.
Adjusting it shifts the point where the response curve bends more - Like being able to flex the curve in Sony's S-Log presets.


These two sentences are related.
First up, if you're just starting out, FCP-X will suit, and will grow with you as you learn more, but,.. Out of the box, it's no better then iMovie and is horribly limited.
Also if you're just starting out, FCP7 will overwhelm you - it's a complex app.
(I could add all sorts of negative comments here about crApple products,... but lets just say there are better solutions, experience will tell you when you need to move past the crApple products.)


Best settings - Muted profile, turn down the contrast two steps, turn up the Highlight/Key Adjustment one step, and turn down the sharpening one step.
From there adjust Highlight/Key to maximise how much of your shot is correctly shaped to be included in what is correctly exposed.
Do everything else in Post.
(Sharpening, Contrast, Saturation, etc)

I'm new, forgive my confusion but which setting are you adovcating? Natural or Muted?

I'm looking for a Cinematic look with some rich colors...I know there's only so much that can be done with an 8bit 420 codec but I'd like to find that setting that gives the maximum amount of room to play in.

Thanks.

[PiDicus Rex]

I'm new, forgive my confusion but which setting are you adovcating? Natural or Muted?

Both. But start with the Natural profile. See if it matches what you want to do, and turn down the Contast a few notches and adjust the High/Low to give you a well balanced image.
Once you've practiced your colour correction and colour grading in post-production, you will see the advantage of moving to the Muted profile for video.

It's something that a person really needs to learn and see for themselves, and to see what works best for their filming style.

Colour correction, and colour grading - small subtle changes reveal more in the final project then big sweeping changes.

---------- Post added 08-12-14 at 04:50 PM ----------

Here is the video I shot last weekend, nothing professional. Mostly handheld with tripod. KDD Internacional Club Evo 2014 Zuera - Vìdeo Dailymotion Shot with the K30, pentax 55-300, chinon 50mm 1.7, pentax 18-55+0.45x wide angle converter Hope you like it. I did some colour grading, but not really my thing yet.

Plays fine on mine
Good 'club level' video to share with the other members of the Evo club.

Looks good, tips for next time -
- Level the camera to the horizon in the frame, be that a distant road or the actual horizon. Except for deliberately stylised shots of course.
- Practice more smooth motion. If your tripod is a small compact unit, fold it up and tilt the head 90 degrees up, and use the tripod legs on your shoulder like an SLR Rig.
- Add in some closer stuff of people, such as marshals and club members watching the cars in action.
- Look for an action to do a focus pull on - such as the red car reversing in to frame when the rest of the row is in focus to begin.
- Don't be afraid of shortening the music. You don't have to edit in every shot, if you are not happy with a shot, leave it out and fade out the music earlier for a shorter but better looking video.

Filming background with large slabs of blues sky,.... are such a pain to colour grade, but are absolutely worth the effort when you get the post production right, so don't shy away from including sky in the background.
A reflector such as a slab of white plastic sided cardboard, or a proper Fleckie, will help balance the exposure of foreground talent with the back ground sky to make the post prod easier.


Adding - "Level to Horizon",... If there's no Level Bubble on the tripod head, tilt the camera up until your chosen horizon runs across the bottom edge of the frame, then adjust the legs length to square the bottom of the frame to the horizon, then tilt down to match the framing - generally no more then 1/3 sky.
You can add more sky if you have ND Graduated filters.

[Steve.Ledger]

Some good tips there..