MJPEG high bit rate footage-stills & comparisons.

I need a little advise. I'm ready to pull the trigger on the GH1, my first DSLR. I've shot with a Z1u and FX1 for the past 4 years. These cams only were capable of 3 lux @18db and 1.6, OK but not great. There are video cams capable of much better (ie. 1 lux). I just read an article today at DigitalCamerainfo that rated the GH1 at a minimum 17 lux. and the 7d at 8 lux (I didn't spot the lens info anywhere??). Am I missunderstanding something? These are both bad by comparison to the state of video cams. Please help, I really want to take the plunge

Thanks
 
GMancusa said:
I need a little advise. I'm ready to pull the trigger on the GH1, my first DSLR. I've shot with a Z1u and FX1 for the past 4 years. These cams only were capable of 3 lux @18db and 1.6, OK but not great. There are video cams capable of much better (ie. 1 lux). I just read an article today at DigitalCamerainfo that rated the GH1 at a minimum 17 lux. and the 7d at 8 lux (I didn't spot the lens info anywhere??). Am I missunderstanding something? These are both bad by comparison to the state of video cams. Please help, I really want to take the plunge

Thanks
Click to expand...

The GH1 smokes nearly any video camera in low light with a fast prime on it.

I had a Z1 and my GH1 with a Canon 50mm f1.4 is like shooting with nightvision compared to the Z1u.
 
short question: you resize 1280x720 MJPEG to 1440x1080 in camera to sqeeze it to 1920x1080 in post, is that correct?
why dont you resize it to 1920x1080 im camera directly? too much bitrate?
thanks
 
ATL Media Group said:
The GH1 smokes nearly any video camera in low light with a fast prime on it.

I had a Z1 and my GH1 with a Canon 50mm f1.4 is like shooting with nightvision compared to the Z1u.
Click to expand...

Finally, thats exactly what I wanted to hear and from a Z1 user as well. I have a canon FD 1.4 and 1.8 primes. Thank you very much Alt Media Group.
 
sirk said:
short question: you resize 1280x720 MJPEG to 1440x1080 in camera to sqeeze it to 1920x1080 in post, is that correct?
why dont you resize it to 1920x1080 im camera directly? too much bitrate?
thanks
Click to expand...

Were not sure if its 1080 or 720P to start off. The 1080's appear to have more definition. As to why the DVCPROHD/Hdcam squeezed format; it's Mbits are to much at 1920x1080 with these setting.


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GMancusa said:
Finally, thats exactly what I wanted to hear and from a Z1 user as well. I have a canon FD 1.4 and 1.8 primes. Thank you very much Alt Media Group.
Click to expand...


You are welcome. =)

I shoulda mentioned... I also owned an HMC150 which was better than the Z1 in low light. Picked up an HMC40 as a B cam and it was so good in good light that I replaced my HMC150 with the GH1. The GH1 was better than the HMC150 in lowlight with a fast prime and now with the higher bitrates with the hack it's even better! I love the GH1 Now.. it was good before, now it's awesome.
 
In PTool, the custom width & height settings for MJPEG state not to go higher than 1920 and 1080 respectively, but I can confirm going wider the 1920 works fine for me. I shot some anamorphic footage today at 2160x720 (after seeing some screenshots on EOSHD) and it came out nicely, except that I remembered later that my anamorphic is a 2x so I really want 2564x720, or maybe just 1920x540. I'll test that out tomorrow, but I figured I'd throw this out there for anyone else who wants to try.

One really cool side benefit is you can look at the MJPEG clips afterwards and they have the squeeze already done (so you can check out your unsqueezed composition, although playback doesn't work).

Still hope there's a way to unlock a 1440x1080 mode that is true 4x3 (full height of sensor) for anamorphics!
 
Oedipax said:
In PTool, the custom width & height settings for MJPEG state not to go higher than 1920 and 1080 respectively, but I can confirm going wider the 1920 works fine for me. I shot some anamorphic footage today at 2160x720 (after seeing some screenshots on EOSHD) and it came out nicely, except that I remembered later that my anamorphic is a 2x so I really want 2564x720, or maybe just 1920x540. I'll test that out tomorrow, but I figured I'd throw this out there for anyone else who wants to try.

One really cool side benefit is you can look at the MJPEG clips afterwards and they have the squeeze already done (so you can check out your unsqueezed composition, although playback doesn't work).

Still hope there's a way to unlock a 1440x1080 mode that is true 4x3 (full height of sensor) for anamorphics!
Click to expand...


Yeah, I tried this, and it was cool. I focused on getting a good 1080P and 720P. However this is another approach that gave me interesting results. I shot some stuff in Newport Beach, however the expanded frame size stopped the camera. So I went back to the 1080P mode.


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Pappas, In post 93 above I notice the info on the top image says the duration of the clip is 13 seconds and the data file is only 119MB. How is this? When I patch my camera with your settings I get a little more than 2 minutes on one 4GB card, which is basically telling me 2GB/minute. How are you getting so much time in so little space? Could I be doing something wrong? Even unpatched, MJPEG HD mode (720p) gives me only 8 minutes on a 4GB card.
 
Oedipax said:
I really want 2564x720, or maybe just 1920x540. I'll test that out tomorrow, but I figured I'd throw this out there for anyone else who wants to try.
Click to expand...

very interested in hearing about the 2564x720 tests! what about 2848x800? that'd give a perfect 2.4:1 1920x800 image... any indication yet how the cam is actually generating the extra 'resolution' ? ..this is all so crazy! and I havent found a minute to be able to start testing things myself yet.. but soon.
 
Here is a frame grab from a rehearsal test at 1600iso with a Nikon 35mm @ F1.4 @ 1/40th in 1080P high bitrate mode. This was a grit test shot in low light, and set for warmer balance.

Picture31.jpg


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Mike@AF said:
Pappas, In post 93 above I notice the info on the top image says the duration of the clip is 13 seconds and the data file is only 119MB. How is this? When I patch my camera with your settings I get a little more than 2 minutes on one 4GB card, which is basically telling me 2GB/minute. How are you getting so much time in so little space? Could I be doing something wrong? Even unpatched, MJPEG HD mode (720p) gives me only 8 minutes on a 4GB card.
Click to expand...
119MB * 8 bit/byte /13 = 73.2 Mbit / sec. Seems about right. 2Gb / minute is ~267 Mbit/sec. This can't be. Check the actual sizes on MJPEG files. What's happening here I think is that you don't have 4Gb on a card (it's going bad).
 
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svecher said:
119MB * 8 bit/byte /13 = 73.2 Mbit / sec. Seems about right. 2Gb / minute is ~267 Mbit/sec. This can't be. Check the actual sizes on MJPEG files. What's happening here I think is that you don't have 4Gb on a card (it's going bad).
Click to expand...

In AVCHD mode is say 31 minutes recording time available. Flip over to MJPEG and it says 2 minutes. I can record enough to fill the card in AVCHD and it all plays back just fine on the camera and on my computer before and after transoding. I get the same results with all six 4GB cards I have. So my guess is it's not a bad card. I can't actually record the MJPEG though because my card isn't fast enough.
 
Mike@AF said:
In AVCHD mode is say 31 minutes recording time available. Flip over to MJPEG and it says 2 minutes. I can record enough to fill the card in AVCHD and it all plays back just fine on the camera and on my computer before and after transoding. I get the same results with all six 4GB cards I have. So my guess is it's not a bad card. I can't actually record the MJPEG though because my card isn't fast enough.
Click to expand...
I think that camera's remaining time estimation functions don't work [correctly] with modified bitrates.
 
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