Chroma key test footage - Nano vs. AVCCAM

B

Barry_Green

Moderator
Just ran some footage off to let you folks compare the NanoFlash external recorder, against the AF100's native AVCCAM footage. Scenario was a simple mannequin head, using both blonde and redhead wigs, against both blue and greenscreen.

Recorded at PH 1080/24p mode in-cam, and 280mbps I-frame-only in the Nano. 400 ISO, f/2.8 on the Voigtlander, detail/v-detail -4, coring -3, cine-V gamma, master ped -4, norm2 matrix.

I leave it up to you to decide what you prefer, whether one keys better than the other, or whether the price of an external recorder is justified by the improved performance and the larger bandwidth. I just wanted to make some footage available so that those who are interested can make an informed decision, and experiment with the footage on their own to draw their own conclusions.

NanoFlash footage:
http://www.mediafire.com/?vccrbpiw2cepff9
http://www.mediafire.com/?s0dajavi7pa3b06
http://www.mediafire.com/?7catth3pba2aor2
http://www.mediafire.com/?eaq0s7cbx61eu7w

AF100 native footage (zipped up PRIVATE directory):
http://www.mediafire.com/?ivwcig2gjbpaoho

The footage was recorded simultaneously. The onboard footage seems to start recording sooner than the Nano does, so you may have to shave off some frames off the front of the AVCCAM footage if you want to make them line up frame-accurately.
 
Yup, I shoot green screen on the AF-100's internal codec all of the time.

Especially once I compared it to the RED (at 1080).

 
without raylight, how can i get the MXF's into FCP? I tried mimicking a P2 card structure .. but it didn't work.
 
jmarkham said:
without raylight, how can i get the MXF's into FCP? I tried mimicking a P2 card structure .. but it didn't work.
Click to expand...
They're XDCAM-MPEG422 compatible MXF files. I don't know what you'd use to make 'em FCP-compatible, but FCP supports the codec natively... hopefully a Mac-oriented Nano user can give you the proper advice, I don't know...
 
Yea . the Nano stuff I've done before I set it to MOV format (as opposed to MXF). Convergent has a MOV to MXF converter .. but I don't
believe the other way round...

jeff
 
Thanks for the info Barry.

I can't import to AE on my pc. Any chance of a different format upload or maybe some stills?
 
Are you running CS5? I dragged 'em straight into the timeline on Premiere CS5, surely they'd go into After Effects too?

Looks like you can use Sony's XDCAM Transfer software (version 2.10.0) to convert the MXF files to MOV files, according to the Convergent Designs website.
 
Barry, this is something I've been noticing as a theme. The PH codec on the AF100 (4:2:0, 21mbs) is comparing favorably to the XDCAM HD codec (4:2:2, 50mbs). In some cases, I have been preferring footage from the AF100 PH codec over the high end XDCAM cameras. To be fair, I sometimes miss the XDCAM 4:2:2 color in select shots. But that's what the HD-SDI external recording option is for! As Philip Bloom put it, "the AF100 is a more powerful camera with external recorder." Thanks for sharing your footage.
 
Barry

Without me downloading and looking at your results...

What was your conclussion on the test you did?
 
Thanks for the stills Barry. I ran a few tests, here are my results. Pulled with keylight in AE CS4.

nano
nano-full.jpg

avc
avc-full.jpg

nano
nano-zoom.jpg

avc
avc-zoom.jpg
 
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nano definitely looks better in terms of color
artifact wise, avccam is nicer & smoother in details
definitely you can see the color in avccam is lacking
if ever an avccam 4:2:2 comes out... it would look awesome
 
Any links to the Sony utility? It has eluded me so far .. I've got the XDCAM L&T
plug-in ... but, that requires the media folder structure in order to be
recognized.

jeff
 
PaPa said:
Man, there must be a science to using keylight, cause im trying to get a good key in CS5 and i jus can't get anywhere near what you have... Would it be at all possible for you to please screencap your settings?
Click to expand...

The image has to much green spill to pull a clean matte with one click. It's a two pass key. first pull a solid core matte, then duplicate the footage and pull an edge key for detail.
 
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