jonny360

What in the world is the difference between writing interlaced to tape and interlaced to solid state media??? How is writing progressive information to solid state any different than writing progressive information to tape??? Bit for bit, tape or solid state it is EXACTLY the same data. The datarate from the 5DMKII is ANYTHING but "low." 38Mbps .264 is low? Particularly in an I/P frame format? It's many times the compression of your HVX200 at 40MBps, maybe that's what you're making your comparison from? The HVX doesn't remotely approach the native/stored resolution, the level of compression, nor the complexity of the codec. That's one reason why DVCProHD is effectively dead. It's ancient technology. People in these forums (and other places, of course) are struggling with decoding full resolution AVCHD and AVC at a MAXIMUM of 18Mbps. Yet you purport that more than double that bitrate is low? And easy to decode at full resolution without transcode? What does moving to Elsinore have to do with me? I'm not discouraging anyone over the 5D. I do discourage anyone from believing it's a primary camera for general use. Maybe you know something that SMPTE engineers, DGA directors, and software developers like David Newman and David Taylor don't know. The software I've developed (AVCUpshift) has challenges with it, Quicktime has challenges with it, Neo has challenges with it, but you purport "it's easy." It's a great camera. Like anything on the bleeding edge, it requires an intentionality and understanding of codecs, workflows, and NLE/display device limitations. BTW, this is a skydiving video forum. The discussions revolve around relevance of cameras, technology, and techniques related to skydiving video and photography. Since you don't jump a camera...it's understandable you'd fail to see the relevance. You'll figure it out. You know what i started to write a reply to this and then decided your not worth my time. Your clearly just scrounging for dignity here. If you honestly don't know why video tape is only interlaced, read and written, while solid state can be anything you want than you have no business writing books regarding anything video. And if your just trying to win an argument by saying that its possible to write any digital data to tape than thats irrelevant since no cameras/decks work that way. Which just makes you a dick. Good luck with your future, i'll keep an eye out for your quality vasst tutorials on youtube...

What does skydiving with a camera have to do with tech talk vs any shooting whatsoever? My argument has been and continues to be, your making an argument and discouraging people about this camera over a non issue. Its not a problem, no one is asking why their footage looks interlaced. Your just coming out and saying its interlaced. And as with BMF i could find no info on these cameras writing in interlaced. I can completely see the issue with interlacing progressive footage when writing to tape, but i don't see a reason for it when writing to solid state. Especially when your talking about the low data rate of the h.264 from the 5d. Now again i'm not an engineer so i'm not saying it doesn't happen, i'm just saying that if it does its on the level of binary and its just a tech issue that honestly we don't need to worry about. Now if someone makes a post saying their 5d footage is interlacing and they are having issues, by all means please help them work out their problem. But at the moment i don't believe anyone is having that issue. On a side note i'm looking to move west soon and have checked out skydive elsinore. Our videography disagreements aside i'd still consider you a friendly face! Atleast till i get to know you in person

BMF i'm not an engineer so as i said i don't know or want to know the inner workings of every camera on the market. I couldn't find any information about data streams being packaged as 2:2 psf or whatever "interlaced stream" you wanna call it. But my point was , WHO CARES! If its truely saved in an interlaced stream its 2:2 which every video app i've ever used understands without me even having to do something. So its a non issue. Thats why I wanted DOUGLAS SPOTTED EAGLE to skip the tech talk because its like claiming "those aren't real pictures its actually just numbers, ok but who cares" it works fine and its not an issue for anyone. As far as i'd be concerned its progressive and thats that :)

No as stated we don't use a 5d for production. Again its gimicky in my mind due to its many pitfalls. Obviously this is not a videocamera. It is a still camera with video abilities, which in my mind makes it a gimick feature designed to hype it up and sell more. Now in the future could they use that technology to create some amazing and truely affordable cameras absolutely. But due to its many drawbacks including, inability to control iso, inability to control shutter speed, inability to attach external audio inputs, and low data rate/high compression to name a few we will continue to use our other means of acquisition. But do i still want to strap one to my head and jump out of a plane with it? Absolutely!

I didn't say it did, i said 1080psf. at 1080 24p the frames are recorded as PsF. Yes you can, i assure you, i've done it :) I gave you my machine specs perhaps your rig isn't capable of handling it though i cannot speak to that. I'd suggest maybe upgrading your post equipment but then if your using a 5d for principal photography thats likely out of your budget. Since were not dealing with film theres obviously a different workflow possible. Instead of sending your "raw" capture off to the lab for a DI you can take that raw h.264 view it right there and make your TC offline. You can then set the footage to transcode overnight and come in the next morning with a nice cup of coffee and being your online edit. Its the same workflow we use with the RED except we must use the QT reference movies generated by the camera for our offline, but thats a whole different discussion.

Oh and i searched your name on vimeo and only found 5 videos.1 is graphical, 2 of which state they are shot on something other than the 5d, and the other 2 do not say. Could you perhaps link to your 5d footage to make it easier to find?

I was referring to primarily tape based psf in that post. As i said before you won't really run into any interlacing issues with 2:2 as its basically a non issue and is understood by virtually all video applications. I have personally NEVER run into a 2:2 issue with any HD footage not specifing it was shot PSF, ie 1080psf from a panasonic hvx200. That is where my reference to 30p came from, referring to pulldown with a tape capture. As stated previously i thought perhaps i missed a post about interlacing not relating to the 5d. All of the footage i have worked with from the 5d has come across just fine with no issues of interlacing before or after trans coding to various formats. Or editing or playing the raw h.264 from the camera. I'm not sure what you mean by decoding. The camera will spit out an h.264 file ready to be played. It isn't like a p2 or other solid state camera that often gives you mxf files that need to be transferred into .mov or .avi video files. As for your request to view dailies from the camera. You should have no trouble viewing the footage directly in its h.264 format. You can make TC reference from that raw footage and create offlines. I'd suggest then transcoding to prores422 overnight. I'm not sure what machines specs your working with but my quad core mac pro will handle straightforward playback of the h.264 in a timeline just fine until you start to cut it up. But for just viewing dailies you shouldn't have a problem going straight after the raw h.264 files. We still prefer to use our hvx's or rent a quality camera at the moment. The compression, lack of basic control, and non adjustable frame rate make it simply a gimick at this point in my mind. Though it does excite me about how it will affect the future of video acquisition. My experience with the 5d has come from helping the still photography side of our studio play with it, here is a link to one of their videos on vimeo. http://vimeo.com/2710608

I don't understand why you say psf has nothing to do with 24p, it does indeed. In face that was why it was originally created, to get 24 frame per second films onto television in a 29.97 interlaced stream. The point of my post was that you engineers always go overboard on ur tech crap that doesn't matter. Will u run into interlacing problems with the 5d footage in a program? Maybe if your running it through an audio program or something wacky. But being as 2:2 is the most common pulldown nearly anything u use will accept it just fine. If your having problems with 5d footage your going to have problems with anything. SO in short going into the technicals of how the footage is transferred to its media and the put back together is pointless. You wouldn't see a reason to get down to the binary explanation of how digital anything works in an attempt to explain whether its progressive or interlaced would you? Of course not, neither do you need to put people through worries of deinterlacing the footage. It will be EXTREMELY more likely they will have no interlacing issues at all than they will run into them. And for the sake of argument the footage will come out progressive.

Interesting, but i'd prefer if you didn't talk over the heads of many of our members in an attempt to hock your book at them. 2:2 pulldown is a non issue as far as anyone who isn't an engineer is concerned. (that means basically everyone but you). The 5d records in an progressive format and without any work out the post side you will be working with progressive footage. (regardless of packaging this is the simple answer to how the footage is handled) No need to run pulldown removal or deinterlacer. So when BMFin asked why you needed to deinterlace progressive footage. The correct answer is "you don't" it isn't an issue like it is with 24p, 24pA, or 1080psf footage. So maybe don't scare the poor man?

So has anyone actually used the video function off the 5d in freefall yet? I have begun to think about just upgrading my dslr to a 60d when its released. But if the video quality in freefall is poor maybe i'll stick to a real video camera. It would just be nice to have an all in one unit. But i'm anxious to see some real world examples. And DSE did you run into interlaced issues with 5d footage? Maybe i missed a post but it seemed u were discussing pulldown removal? You shouldn't need any removal it is all progressive and not interlaced. Any PSF would only work in a 24 fps camera. As theres no way to write 30frames progressive in an interlaced format as all the frames are already being used and theres no "room" to split them up.

Anyone have any video from these yet? I'm still a student but have been wanting a helmet cam almost since i started training. I have an aiptek 720p camcorder i was planning on using until the recent dslrs came out with hd video. Now i'm thinking a better plan is to wait for the prices of used 5d's to come down or get a 60d when they are released. But was just curious if anyones shot anything yet?

Thanks! i'll do that tonight!

Ya thats kinda what i thought, i'm gonna head out early tomorrow morning and hope for the best all day. I don't have a SIM where do i get one? That is one thing about our DZ our main instructor is 78 and an awesome guy but i feel a bit more like hes a "suit up and go guy" than explaining everything. I've jumped with two other instructors and i felt i actually "learned" alot more with them. Unfortunately they aren't around very often. I'd love to get something to study, i think it would help with my confidence a bit as well, i still psych myself out a bit at times.

So i made my first jump about mid summer and was on a decent track to get my A before fall. But then work, weather, and life caught up with me. Now i haven't made a jump in almost 2 months. I have 10 logged and am onto my 15sec ff from starting at static line. The weather has been in the 40's rainy and windy. Saturday looks to be nice, 61, sunny and calm. But my thought is whether to keep making jumps this year or wait till next year. My worry is that i'll have to repeat one or a few jumps the next time i go. And if thats my last day before winter i don't want to have to repeat more in the spring. What do you guys think? Is it worth getting my jumps in regardless of whether they end up counting for my A or not?