5D and APPLE PRORES

Sadaiel

Member
Converting in PRORES from native 5D H264s gives some choices.
Which is best ?

It seems to me PRORES PROXY is not different from LT, in color, noise, straight lines, and PROXY is quite the same in MB as the original footage; LT is 2X or even more the original SIZE and gives same colors and no more details or noise.

5D H264 works around 40 Mbit/s
PRORES works around 150 Mbit/s
PRORES LT works around 90 Mbit/s
PRORES PROXY works around 45 Mbit/s

So, maybe, PROXY is enough, although it is born as OFFLINE HD codec !
Do you agree that it is not necessary to use PRORES or PRORES LT with 5D ?

Thanks for attention
 
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In my own experience I don't find an advantage transcoding 50 Mbit/s 5D footage to 150 MBit/s Prores. Tried LT and that's good, not tried Proxy yet - that's probably better for saving disk space.

Personally I don't use Prores any more. I like XDCAM EX 35 Mbit/s better as it gives a punchier colour which is closer to the original in-camera footage, at least it does on my system.
 
There are some issues using quick time, because it changes gamma, even if you use the same codec. It happens to many people and setting quick time preferences is not helpful.
I know about Xdcam codec, the only problem is that in my system it cause a very little more noise, I noticed converting HI iso footage. While the color matches the original in the same way, using both prores and Xdcam (maybe XDcam changes a little the reds). I made several tests, with side by side comparison : single colors and shapes, details and bokeh.
For now I'm happy with Proxy.

...on the opposite side, I find out how LOW is my welloved 5D video quality ! ;-)
 
Yep Quicktime gamma changes happen to me as well. XDCAM EX is the closest I can get to the original gamma off the bat. It embeds an HD 1-1-1 colour profile in the transcoded Quicktime file.

I notice the little more noise, but I don't think it's ADDING noise. I think it's boosting the chroma, saturation or gamma - whatever - and revealing more of the noise that is already there? I may be wrong but I've never heard of a codec that adds noise to transcoded footage. Noise makes the filesize larger.
 
done all the pro res tests. LT is the sweet spot for 5d footage. no difference with SQ, HQ, and 4x4. proxy there was noticeable quality loss in sharpness and the highlights.
 
> LT is the sweet spot for 5d footage.

Did you also try strong color corrections? Here a 10bit codec should fare better. But otherwise I use LT too.
 
Yep Quicktime gamma changes happen to me as well. XDCAM EX is the closest I can get to the original gamma off the bat. It embeds an HD 1-1-1 colour profile in the transcoded Quicktime file.

I notice the little more noise, but I don't think it's ADDING noise. I think it's boosting the chroma, saturation or gamma - whatever - and revealing more of the noise that is already there? I may be wrong but I've never heard of a codec that adds noise to transcoded footage. Noise makes the filesize larger.

yes, it's more logical thinking about the noise that is already there, it's just a slight gamma changing. It's so strange but in my and other system all prores matches original H264 colors, while XDcam doesn't. I suppose it's due to QT, referring to Leopard 10.5.8. I know Snow Leopard changed system gamma.
I know Proxy should be too low quality, but I can't see any difference in any way. I'll be making some other tests to confirm.
 
> LT is the sweet spot for 5d footage.

Did you also try strong color corrections? Here a 10bit codec should fare better. But otherwise I use LT too.


typically when i get 5d footage in ( i don't actually own the camera, i edit and get it in frequently ) i typically do a one light pass unless the footage is very problematic. HOWEVER i have down proress hq and LT tests with grading. it really doesn't make much of a difference. referance source is 4:2:0, and tops out at 45 mbps. if the information wasn't there to begin with, transcoding it to a superior codec isn't going to bring anything back, it just maintains what the original source as. at 95 mbps, 4:2:2, and intra frame, it's lossless (other than the gamma shift issue which there isn't any avoiding unless i tweak the transcode settings which isn't worth it in my opinion cause i can just recorrect it later) and you get to save hard drive space.
 
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