Torrent file with around 30 MTS files (PAL format)

[EdMcLeodJones]

I thought some people would like to see some raw footage of a variety of shots, so I've put a torrent file with around 30 MTS files up.

http://gh1footage.s3.amazonaws.com/AVCHD-070609.7z?torrent

The first 25 or so are 1080x25p files and the remaining are 720x50p.

Nothing amazing shot wise, but might be helpful for those looking to examine some footage in depth. There's some zoomed in and wide angle pans in there for people interested in looking at the 'mud' issue. This is the footage I used for the video here: http://vimeo.com/5076887

Please seed the torrent file once you've downloaded to save me some bandwidth :)

The files are in the original AVCHD folder structure as well. It's compressed using 7-Zip.

Cheers,

Ed
http://vimeo.com/edmcleodjones

[akaloith]

most of them are very usable
i think that the camera could use 24mbit/sec and have very good results

1) please do us a favour and shoot 1080 25p and 720 50p with all the settings turned to their lowest (-2) sharpness contrast etc

2) also do us a favour and shoot the exact same scene at 1080 and 720
a static one and a non static one

3) also do some autofocus checks at avchd 1080 and 720 and motionjpeg 720 to see if there is a difference

Thanx a lot

[EdMcLeodJones]

Here's a little test I shot at lunchtime. Just a quick tilt and pan against some leaves, to get a feel for the codec break up in different shooting modes.

00000.MTS - 720x50p - Standard Film mode, unmodified
00001.MTS - 720x50p - Smooth Film mode, film mode options all at -2
00002.MTS - 720x50p - Nostalgic Film mode, film mode options all at -2
00003.MTS - 1080x25p - Nostalgic Film mode, film mode options all at -2
_1020223.MOV - 720x30p - Nostalgic Film mode, film mode options all at -2

All shot at f7.1, 1/100 shutter on a 25mm Olympus 'pancake' prime, auto wb, iso 400, iExposure on High, no image stabilization.

http://gh1footage.s3.amazonaws.com/AVCHD-110609.7z?torrent

My thoughts after examining the footage (frame mode in Photshop CS4):

* 720x50p still shows plenty of 'mud' in fast movements, but not as bad as 1080x25p.
* 720x30p holds up a lot better in movement, but the compression is very blocky.
* Different Film Modes don't see to help the mud as much as I had hoped, but subjectively they seem to hold a bit more detail than Standard.
* Smooth film mode is better than Standard: in terms of detail, and ease of grading (slightly more dynamic range maybe?)
* Nostalgic film mode is too washed out, might try it again without the film mode options turned down.
* Still a bit of rolling shutter wobble in all the modes, but nothing I can't live with.

To be fair, I don't think the mud is too awful in 720x50p mode, and I think I'll settle on shooting that mostly, it seems a good compromise of detail and compression, and also looks sweet interpreted as 25p for over-cranking. Then there's 1080 for mainly static hero shots, and the MJPEG option for motion shots (still a pita that it's 30fps though, just doesn't make any sense).

One nice thing about the MJPEG mode is that it snaps a single jpeg file before the movie starts, so you get all the EXIF info about which settings you've used. Quite useful.

Would love to hear other's opinions.

Cheers

[akaloith]

try to exposure correctly
the last ones are overexposured
try to find a scene with many colours not only green, a wider more complex one, and a shot you would actually shoot

in 3 videos just use all settings min, default, max
and in other videos change the video modes
dont change video mode and settings cause we cant understand which impoves and which makes quality worse
one at a time (video settings, or video mode)

thanx for your tests, waiting more

[EdMcLeodJones]

Thanks for your suggestions.

Note that the first three files are changing film modes, then the last three are changing the resolution (with the same film mode).

The last ones (Nostalgia film mode) are a tad overexposed I guess, but mainly look that way due to the Nostalgia film mode itself, which is very desaturated and lacking contrast, and the fact that I had Sat/Contrast turned down to -2 on top of that.

I was aiming to find the best setting to get the widest dynamic range for post, but looks like Nostalgia is just too desaturated, and Smooth is the best bet.

Might try some different ISO modes next, to see if it makes any difference to the mud issue.

[akaloith]

I think that some have tried to change the iso etc and no luck
I believe that tests should be done to see which film mode is the best
and which settings

the mud will be there if you shake the cam like in a blender

Maybe more important would be to see the best possible settings - film mode for normal shots and not artificial mud creating shots

I would like to see a less prossesed, smoother, more filmic gh1
and that can be archieved by using some settings
he did it
http://vimeo.com/5033677

so please do some more tests with settings and film mode
Also try to keep your shutter speed at 1/50 while shooting 1080 25p