7D 7D workflow. I know its been done, but I can't seem to find on that relates. Soz...

P

parklins

New member
Hi, I have recently bought a 7D and been messing around a bit and i'm really enjoying the look of the footage but its time to do some editing and I'm struggling with formats.

I have FCP 7 and Prem Pro CS5. I am quicker with Prem Pro i'm happy to go with either for now, till I start seeing some results. I have a MBP Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz with 3GB ram. This used to be fast but is probably a pup now (i'm totally new to HD video but comfortable with DV and swapping proxy files when using really tired old machines).

Prem Pro is struggling with H.264 at 1080p. I've changed playback res but its still boring to use. I used to use Prem 6.0 and it was basic with no live preview but it handled DV PAL files with no effects really well and it is basically that level of responsiveness that I'm after: quick scrubbing, immediate playback on space or 'L', things like that. As i'm outputting to DVD I may as well just transcode to a SD format for editing. Whats the best, least hungry one?

(In fact, can I record in SD 25p in the first place? I can't see an option, but that seems weird. Is there any reason not to when outputting to DVD?)

Otherwise, I'm aware that FCP uses Prores but how it gets the files seems unusual. Do I still need to copy onto my drive or do I trancode whilst importing into FCP, so I dont end up having to delete all the H.264. Or are they better as masters? that is, can you re transcode to make proxy files later if you have to?

I realise this is a really flabby post so If anyone could point me to a few links with various workflows I can suss out my favourite then i'd be very grateful, or perhaps there is a book?. Its a shame but its giving me a headache and i was very enthusiastic to begin...
 
I duno anything about FCP but if u have a Nvidia graphics card thats compatible with the mercury engine in cs5 you can edit 7d files with no prob in real time. Add effects and colour grade and playback in real time. So i'd suggest looking into a graphics card.
 
Buy Cineform NeoScene for $129. Import h.264 files from card. Open files in Cineform & transcode. Import .avi files to Premiere Pro. Delete original files or copy to a different drive for archiving.

Editing the Cineform .avi's is smoother than HDV, and almost as good as DV with CS3 on my 3-year-old 2ghz Core 2 Duo Laptop with 4GB Ram. It's smoother than buttter on my i7 Desktop.
 
deltoidjohn said:
Buy Cineform NeoScene for $129. Import h.264 files from card. Open files in Cineform & transcode. Import .avi files to Premiere Pro. Delete original files or copy to a different drive for archiving.

Editing the Cineform .avi's is smoother than HDV, and almost as good as DV with CS3 on my 3-year-old 2ghz Core 2 Duo Laptop with 4GB Ram. It's smoother than buttter on my i7 Desktop.
Click to expand...

While this may work, there are cheaper methods which will work. Try encoding your footage to ProRes. It's got 10bit 4:2:2 color. The files will be big but will playback smoothly.

If you want to use the Adobe Suite, encode to ProRes, edit in Premiere Pro and then import the project into After Effects to grade, sharpen, and for VFX.
 
parklins said:
Hi, I have recently bought a 7D and been messing around a bit and i'm really enjoying the look of the footage but its time to do some editing and I'm struggling with formats.

I have FCP 7 and Prem Pro CS5. I am quicker with Prem Pro i'm happy to go with either for now, till I start seeing some results. I have a MBP Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz with 3GB ram. This used to be fast but is probably a pup now (i'm totally new to HD video but comfortable with DV and swapping proxy files when using really tired old machines).

Prem Pro is struggling with H.264 at 1080p. I've changed playback res but its still boring to use. I used to use Prem 6.0 and it was basic with no live preview but it handled DV PAL files with no effects really well and it is basically that level of responsiveness that I'm after: quick scrubbing, immediate playback on space or 'L', things like that. As i'm outputting to DVD I may as well just transcode to a SD format for editing. Whats the best, least hungry one?

(In fact, can I record in SD 25p in the first place? I can't see an option, but that seems weird. Is there any reason not to when outputting to DVD?)

Otherwise, I'm aware that FCP uses Prores but how it gets the files seems unusual. Do I still need to copy onto my drive or do I trancode whilst importing into FCP, so I dont end up having to delete all the H.264. Or are they better as masters? that is, can you re transcode to make proxy files later if you have to?

I realise this is a really flabby post so If anyone could point me to a few links with various workflows I can suss out my favourite then i'd be very grateful, or perhaps there is a book?. Its a shame but its giving me a headache and i was very enthusiastic to begin...
Click to expand...


Cineform and or Prores create files 4 to 5 times the size. My last one week shoot documentary project was 250GB of H-264 files which would have added up if I went that route. I have between 50 and 100GB of new H-264 files to deal with every week so the storage is already a big with 2 sets of backup files to archive.

I transcode to Apple M-JPEG 720p at the default setting of half quality with streamclip (which is also a free download) for offline, then import the 720p files and scale to frame size in a 1080 project. The files are half the data size of the H-264 and it edits like there is nothing on the timeline. Plays with any correction and move without rendering and impossible to hang the computer no matter how fast you edit. Really fast.
My PC is a fast i7 but I still run CS4, better with CS5 I'm sure. It should work on any computer even an old dual core.
When I'm done I make the files offline and link to my camera original H-264 files in matching folders for grading and export to uncompressed quicktime.

Many here prefer to go with Cineform or Prores which I don't doubt it works well, but you will need a large supply of hard drives with the massive file size.

I would caution anyone deleting the original H-264 files. That's like throwing out the film neg. These Prores and Cineform transcoded files will soon become obsolete as with everything else today and you will most likely want to return to the original camera files in the future when the next miracle program is released from Cineform and Prores.

Before anyone trashes my workflow, (It's been done by many here before) please give it a try first, then feel free to trash it after.
 
Last edited:
H.264 isn't an editing format and it takes a lot of processing work for the software to work with it. I prefer transcoding first - it takes time, and uses disk space, but it makes the editing itself quicker and slicker. I use FCP, so I transcode to ProRes. You don't lose the original files - they're still your archive. If you wanted to, and had time, you could try different approaches (small clips, I suggest), to see what you like best.

I'm aware of the fact that ProRes files are much bigger, but disk is cheap, so I'm not bothered. I have a 3GB external FireWire 800 drive that handles it very nicely indeed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top