Video Quality - Help!

[Connect1]

I am an established pro property stills photographer using Canon products.

I am now starting to shoot video using a Canon 90D (I also have a 5D MkIV, but this is a little heavy) on a Ronin RS3, and I am looking for sharp, clear results.

I have shot interiors at FHD at 50fps, f5.6 @ 1/100 sec ISO AUTO with the histogram right of centre (the format is MP4 which is fixed), but the footage straight out of camera looks like a low resolution JPG.

What are the settings I should use for the best quality video output?

 

[Andrew S10]

Canon DSLRs shoot very soft video, but you'll get the best results out of the 5D in 4K.

You can try the Prolost flat profile to hold a little more dynamic range.

It's imperative that you dial in your metering mode and exposure compensation when using auto ISO.

You can try unsharp mask sharpening or upscaling algorithms like Lanczos4 to try to improve the footage you've shot.

Export your video as UHD Prores, Cineform, or DNxHR, as YouTube will recompress it, and you'll get a higher bitrate assigned to a UHD file than an HD file.

 

[BobKo]

The footage you shot should look decent, if not spectacular. If it is as low-res as you describe, it sounds like you may have the camera set to give you a low-res "proxy" file in addition to the full-resolution HD video. And that you are looking at the proxy file.

When you look at the files on the card, is there just the one file you shot? Or are there multiple files? Do you have Windows or Mac? If you have Windows, do a right mouse click on the file, then click on "Properties". When the Properties window comes up, click on the "Details" tab. That will give you all the details of your video, including its resolution, frame rate, bit rate, audio encoding, etc. What does that tell you? What is the resolution?

 

[Connect1]

Canon DSLRs shoot very soft video, but you'll get the best results out of the 5D in 4K.

You can try the Prolost flat profile to hold a little more dynamic range.

It's imperative that you dial in your metering mode and exposure compensation when using auto ISO.

If I am shooting FHD @ 50fps, the shutter is at 1/100, for exteriors f11, interiors f.4 - what else is there?

You can try unsharp mask sharpening or upscaling algorithms like Lanczos4 to try to improve the footage you've shot.

Where is 'unsharp mask' and how to I access Lanczos4?

Export your video as UHD Prores, Cineform, or DNxHR, as YouTube will recompress it, and you'll get a higher bitrate assigned to a UHD file than an HD file.

I am using Final Cut Pro: do you know where these options are? Why do you mention YouTube? Final video files will be sent to the client as .MOV or .mP4 files.

 

[Connect1]

The footage you shot should look decent, if not spectacular.

What footage? I didn't share any...

If it is as low-res as you describe, it sounds like you may have the camera set to give you a low-res "proxy" file in addition to the full-resolution HD video. And that you are looking at the proxy file.

There is no proxy on the EOS 5DiV

When you look at the files on the card, is there just the one file you shot?

One file

Or are there multiple files? Do you have Windows or Mac?

Mac

If you have Windows, do a right mouse click on the file, then click on "Properties". When the Properties window comes up, click on the "Details" tab. That will give you all the details of your video, including its resolution, frame rate, bit rate, audio encoding, etc. What does that tell you? What is the resolution?

By clicking command+I, the only info is the file (a.mov file) and the file size (401.3MB)

 

[Off The Mark]

By clicking command+I, the only info is the file (a.mov file) and the file size (401.3MB)

Probably the easiest and fastest way for us to help you would be if you upload a soft-looking clip to dropbox (or some other file sharing site) and post the link here so we can download it and examine it.

 

[Gary3000]

Export your video as UHD Prores, Cineform, or DNxHR, as YouTube will recompress it, and you'll get a higher bitrate assigned to a UHD file than an HD file.

I am using Final Cut Pro: do you know where these options are? Why do you mention YouTube? Final video files will be sent to the client as .MOV or .mP4 files.

Sometimes Final Cut can create a low res proxy as well.

Maybe check to see what the footage looks like when you open it up with Quicktime Player

 

[Andrew S10]

Canon DSLRs shoot very soft video, but you'll get the best results out of the 5D in 4K.

You can try the Prolost flat profile to hold a little more dynamic range.

It's imperative that you dial in your metering mode and exposure compensation when using auto ISO.

If I am shooting FHD @ 50fps, the shutter is at 1/100, for exteriors f11, interiors f.4 - what else is there?

If I understand you correctly, you're not familiar with metering modes or exposure compensation. Please consult your camera's manual, and maybe some photography articles on exposure. If either of your cameras have zebra stripe exposure gauge, that will be a much more perseise way of setting exposure than using the histogram.

You can try unsharp mask sharpening or upscaling algorithms like Lanczos4 to try to improve the footage you've shot.

Where is 'unsharp mask' and how to I access Lanczos4?

An unsharp mask is applied in your editing software and it increases the edge contrast to enhance the perceived sharpness. Lanczos4 is an upscaling algorithm commonly found in compositing software.

Export your video as UHD Prores, Cineform, or DNxHR, as YouTube will recompress it, and you'll get a higher bitrate assigned to a UHD file than an HD file.

I am using Final Cut Pro: do you know where these options are? Why do you mention YouTube? Final video files will be sent to the client as .MOV or .mP4 files.

I assumed that the client uploads the videos to YouTube, as it's the most popular video sharing platform. You should export to one of the aforementioned intermediate codecs, otherwise you are needlessly applying an extra heavy round of compression that will degradate the quality, however, the file sizes will be much larger.

I haven't used Final Cut since version 4.5, and they changed everything in version 10, so you'll have to consult the manual or find a tutorial.