4:2:2 colorspace

S

Spdamf

Active member
I remember reading in the forum a while back that is possible to achieve 4:2:2 colorspace, but can't remember where I saw it. I think it was one of coffee's posts. Can anyone confirm that it is possible to get 4:2:2 out of this camera and if so how do you go about achieving this? thank you for your response.
 
Live component output to an HD capture card is normally how it works. That's the cheapest way.

Rent an expensive HD deck or Wafian/CineForm box would be another possibility.

The hope is that someday we will have a Firestore with component/SDI inputs that will do the encoding all on its own.
 
thanks for the info elton! much appreciated! I love everything about this camera. The last thing I would be interested in seeing is compositing and greenscreen samples.
 
I would love to see some greenscreen footage... not already composited, but some raw footage to test how well the footage keys.

Is there anything "cheaper" that will allow analog capture for the A1?
 
You do get the benefit of working in a 4:2:2 colorspace with CineForm once it's captured via firewire, however.
 
So, is there anything "cheaper" that will allow 422 analog capture from the A1?

Links to footage? Anything? I've heard lots of speculation as to what is "possible" but I've seen nothing that has been "done". Has anybody actually seen keyed footage from an A1?
 
I don't think there's anything cheaper than the computer-tethered solution, (Blackmagic card) currently.
 
im slightly confused .

So you connect your camera directly into a computer via these cards. These cards then need to be imported/captured directly into a program such as cineform, then you are ready to work with the 4:2:2 HD?
 
Only if you want *true* 4:2:2 color sampling from the original acquisition. You don't have to have a card if you want to capture native HDV via firewire and then convert to the CineForm codec...just to edit and render in a true 4:2:2 format.

Converting to CineForm from tape playback just gives you a smoother editing experience, (potentially) and more latitude for color correction, but it doesn't add any added chroma sampling that wasn't there to begin with. The only way to get *real* native 4:2:2 color is to convert the live analog signal (not tape playback via component analog) to a 4:2:2 codec.
 
According to all the Canon "techs" at Nab I've talked to, the component output from the A1 is 4:2:0....
But looking at Elton's footage and comparisons, I did see a slight difference (to the better) in the component output still...
 
I'm still wondering what the deal is with this.

I understand that the component output from TAPE on the A1 is 420

BUT: That component output from LIVE FEED on the A1 is 422

I still don't have the camera, so I'm not positive but I promise I will be doing some rather extensive tests once it arrives.
 
FWIW, I just ordered a Black Magic Decklink HD Extreme capture card. I will be testing it with the A1 next week in regards to capture from analog component and keying vs capture from FW and tape.

Should be fun....
 
I heard capturing uncompressed HD requires some pretty stiff hardware requirements such as RAID etc...

Does anyone know if having the cineform 4:2:2 codec can help in this case?
 
Great question. I'm 100% mac based on the capture side of my workflow so I can't even test that for you.

The setup here at the studio that we will be capturing from is a

G5 Mac / Quad 2.5 4GB RAM / 2TB U320 SCSI RAID from Huge Systems / and now the Decklink Extreme.

I'm not even sure where to start in terms of capture presets / codecs.
 
Todd, just for starters try DVCPRO HD 1080i 29.97 for a capture/editing preset. 24F uncompressed HD output is actually progressive 24p, but carried within the 1080 60i standard, and therefore needs to be captured at 29.97 fps. It's possible to remove pulldown after capture, but in general to get the full 4:2:2 color sampling you have to capture the 29.97 fps output of 1080 60i. It's only the HDV stream that can be captured as 23.98 fps...at least currently within FCP.
 
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