Comments on: Editing Canon 5D Mark 2 footage – tools and timings

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:18:17 +0000

I’m a little embarrassed to say I’m not 100% sure how I generated the clip — I’m pretty sure it was NOT Compressor because I don’t see an entry for it in the Compressor history log.

I most likely exported it directly from FCP using Quicktime conversion, H.264 codec at 3Mbps, scaled to 640×360, and dropping the audio channel. I’m using Quicktime to view it, rather than a Flash viewer.

By: Mark McGinnis

Mark McGinnis — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:52:02 +0000

Looking forward to the firmware upgrade for the 5D as well. I use a Canon Vixia HF S10 for B-Roll and with our home made glidecam stuff. Can you tell me how you got that extremely nice, crystal clear video clip on your site – and it does not seem to bog down even as much as a flash file would… Did you use Compressor or output an .mov file right from FCP? Thanks again.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:21:20 +0000

Hi Mark. I’m in awe of anyone working on a project of that scale (I’m tangentially involved with an environmental documentary and the work involved is crazy).

I also mix cameras (I shoot with a Canon XH-A1) but still grin and bear the differences. There are still a number of things the 5D doesn’t do well — particularly for 1-person crews like me. I’m very much looking forward to the firmware upgrade that will give us 60p and 24p — which should open up some more creative options with this beautiful hardware.

Best of luck!

By: Mark McGinnis

Mark McGinnis — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:24:17 +0000

This is a great and timely post. We are endeavoring to film a 90 min feature-length docudrama pretty much all with the 5D – and we are just now looking at some of our early shot footage and encoding options. The files coming from the 5D are so nice (and film-like) – that some of our B-roll (that used lesser 1080P cameras) looks almost silly in comparison. We’ll be re-shooting everything on the 5D. As to disk space – we are dedicating several fast 1T (firewire 800) dives so we don’t have to even think about the gobs of disk-space being eaten up. Since we are using the high-quality ProRes 422 at 1080p – it’s scary to see even small clips taking up many GB’s. Compressor is great and a big help to – along with your info above. Your clips are beautiful by the way. Thanks!