[kadajawi]

I haven't seen any audio bar graphs on any of the Pentax's I've used.
Which, yes, also includes the possibility of them being there and me not having found them.

I think Mjpeg should actually be Easier to process then the h.264 - for starters, it's Intra and not Inter frame compression, so there's none of the Long-GOP and prediction math to worry about, only the Discrete Cosine Transform applied to each frame individually.
Frankly, I wouldn't be suprised if the FPGU's in most cameras could do Intra frame compression using Wavelet math instead of the DCT math.

HDMI may be hardware limited, but I doubt it. There's no good reason for the OEM supplier to make a chip that won't do all of the frame sizes and rates of a particular HDMI standard.
No, what I think the problem is, is that the HD signal is down converted for the live view, and it's that signal which is then fed to the HDMI chip, which locks to the incoming frame size and rate and outputs in the same format.
The Sensor's vision should be sent to the HDMI parallel to the processing that feeds the live-view LCD.

And yes, SR, just switch it back on.

I thought I read somewhere, in an interview with Nikon or so, that they couldn't do HDMI on certain cameras due to hardware limitations. But that could be my poor memory misguiding me...

I also thought I saw audio meters, which are useful with manual gain control, at least on some of their cameras like the K-1. But again, I can't say that for a fact. I thought that's how you adjust manual gain on the cameras without headphone, or when you haven't plugged in a headphone.

Btw, the AGC in the Pentax K-5 is beyond terrible. It doesn't just normalize everything... it makes the louder passages softer than quiet ones! As in, there is a 6-8 db difference between loud passages and soft passages. It also adjusts very fast.

@gbeaton: I think it depends on what you consider good video quality. The iPhone 6 is not bad... just watch Tangerine, which was shot on a couple of iPhone 5s. But there are certainly advantages to shooting with a DSLR or similar. If you want everything in focus, and sharp as a razor blade, then the iPhone is your weapon of choice. If you want to have control over what is in focus, and a more "cinematic" look, a DSLR will be better. Dynamic range is also something that DSLR can be better at.

[PiDicus Rex]

Btw, the AGC in the Pentax K-5 is beyond terrible. It doesn't just normalize everything... it makes the louder passages softer than quiet ones! As in, there is a 6-8 db difference between loud passages and soft passages. It also adjusts very fast.

Sounds more like a Limiter then.

And yes, levels are a savoir when you forget your headphones, but should be used anyway, as some equipment may clip at a precisely displayed level, even when the monitoring sound is not cliped.

[TomGarn]

The K5 got no headphone link ...

But I find the sound-automatics are surprisingly pleasing (K5 and K7)
Also very often you can read in product-criticisms that most cameras generate noise with different microphones. The 5 and 7 don't do this !
This is one of their few positivities ... beside the fact that for professional video the Pentax cameras are just impossible and idiotic freaks.

[kadajawi]

The K5 got no headphone link ...

But I find the sound-automatics are surprisingly pleasing (K5 and K7)
Also very often you can read in product-criticisms that most cameras generate noise with different microphones. The 5 and 7 don't do this !
This is one of their few positivities ... beside the fact that for professional video the Pentax cameras are just impossible and idiotic freaks.

I beg to differ:

You Tube

You Tube

I already tried to salvage the sound, but short of constantly adjusting the volume there's not much you can do (I'm open for suggestions to automate it). (And yeah, the color grading is intentionally gloomy and dark, as the song is about immigration).

You Tube

You Tube

Here I kept adjusting the volume (it was even worse than in the first video!), as the audio in quiet parts was very loud. Otherwise, after using a declicker, and an EQ to massage the sound into shape, I think it sounds pretty decent. Usable at least, of course no competition to an external microphone. If I could turn of ACG and limiter and just set it to the least sensitive setting, it'd be fine (the vocals were a bit too soft at the concert, I wouldn't blame the microphone on this). I heard better, of course, but also a lot worse.

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Last edited by kadajawi; 07-11-2016 at 11:29 AM.

[monochrome]

Let's be real here. The vast majority of video clips are shot on a phone, same as the vast majority of stills are shot on a phone. iPhone7 this fall will have imaging capabilities an order of magnitude better than current and they're going to push that very hard - but as we know, the interface is challenged. It also won't have an audio out plug so good luck monitoring levels. Everyone will have to upgrade their expensive Dr. Dre's to Bluetooth.

But your phone is always available - people aren't going to carry a dedicated Vidcam any more often than they carry a dedicated still camera.

Ricoh should spend their effort developing Theta video and transfer what they learn to Pentax. 360* video and still is starting to show up in places like historical house museum websites - it's where the pie is actually growing - and Theta has first-mover advantage.

[kadajawi]

Let's be real here. The vast majority of video clips are shot on a phone, same as the vast majority of stills are shot on a phone. iPhone7 this fall will have imaging capabilities an order of magnitude better than current and they're going to push that very hard - but as we know, the interface is challenged. It also won't have an audio out plug so good luck monitoring levels. Everyone will have to upgrade their expensive Dr. Dre's to Bluetooth.

But your phone is always available - people aren't going to carry a dedicated Vidcam any more often than they carry a dedicated still camera.

Ricoh should spend their effort developing Theta video and transfer what they learn to Pentax. 360* video and still is starting to show up in places like historical house museum websites - it's where the pie is actually growing - and Theta has first-mover advantage.

The Theta is an interesting product, I agree. I'm glad that Ricoh is in it, though Samsung has developed a competing product that might be better (Gear 360 IIRC). It seems to use a modified version of the NX1 processor, which was light years ahead of anything any other company had and has.

Not sure if this is going to catch up with regular consumers though. For businesses (but then the quality should be better) these cameras are interesting. Yeah. But you can't just look at 360 photos and videos, and they may capture stuff you might not want to show, etc. Editing is harder. I could go on and on and on.

[monochrome]

The Theta is an interesting product, I agree. I'm glad that Ricoh is in it, though Samsung has developed a competing product that might be better (Gear 360 IIRC). It seems to use a modified version of the NX1 processor, which was light years ahead of anything any other company had and has.

Not sure if this is going to catch up with regular consumers though. For businesses (but then the quality should be better) these cameras are interesting. Yeah. But you can't just look at 360 photos and videos, and they may capture stuff you might not want to show, etc. Editing is harder. I could go on and on and on.

In the real world these arguments apply equally to phones vs. dSLRs and phones vs. vidcams.