Video Catch-all: Cameras, filming, editing, and more

chaosmos wrote:
fleabagmatt wrote:

Buuump!

What happened to all the new gopro owners? I wanna see some vidjas!

I made a video from my trip to Belize back in January. If I can figure out how to embed a vimeo link I will add it later.

I downloaded a trial copy of Final Cut Pro X for this. It's definitely a big change from Version 7 that I use at work. It's just about unusable on my ancient iMac, though, I pretty much gave up trying to edit to the music. Playback was very choppy.

Make sure you select "Create Optimized Media" when you import your footage before you completely give up on your ancient iMac. Playing certain video formats natively is a real haul for older processors, but if you let it transcode to ProRes it goes a lot smoother. Sometimes.

You know, now that you mention it, I don't think I did that. I always convert stuff to ProRes at work. I guess I'll have to get back out and shoot some more video to test it out.

Matt, I'm obliged to point you to the Compression Guidelines page - https://vimeo.com/help/guidelines - that page has tutorial videos and specs you should be exporting your videos to for Vimeo. If you're using FCX you can upload directly to Vimeo by going to Share > Vimeo.

Also obliged to point everyone to Vimeo Video School to learn more - https://vimeo.com/videoschool

I'm an audio guy, but I just forked over for Adobe Creative Cloud. Now I can media all the things.

I'm not a video guy, but I have some digital camcorder footage that I'd like to edit together and give to somebody. The problem is that it filmed in a pretty goofy resolution: 704x480, 29 fps, 48 kHz audio, .mpg format.

What's the best course of action here? My plan was to convert all the source material up to 1080 or 720 (so's it can be played back on a regular TV) using Adobe Media Encoder and then edit my video together in Premiere. No matter what preset I use in Premiere it never matches quite right and the aspect ratio is off, so it best to convert first?

Michael wrote:

I'm an audio guy, but I just forked over for Adobe Creative Cloud. Now I can media all the things.

I'm not a video guy, but I have some digital camcorder footage that I'd like to edit together and give to somebody. The problem is that it filmed in a pretty goofy resolution: 704x480, 29 fps, 48 kHz audio, .mpg format.

What's the best course of action here? My plan was to convert all the source material up to 1080 or 720 (so's it can be played back on a regular TV) using Adobe Media Encoder and then edit my video together in Premiere. No matter what preset I use in Premiere it never matches quite right and the aspect ratio is off, so it best to convert first?

When you say you want it so it can be 'played back on a regular TV' what do you mean? Like on a set-top box or what?

I haven't used Media Encoder in awhile (let alone the Creative Cloud... ugh) but it sounds like it's stretching the video to fit a standard 16:9 aspect ratio. Not sure what your endgame is, but there should be an option to change the resolution you're exporting; ideally you'll want to match the resolution of your source material, in this case 704x480.

I'd like to give it to someone and have them watch it in 1080p on their TV, be that via disc or their HTPC.

I was able to wrangle AME to do what I want - the original footage now exists in 1080p with black bars on the sides. And Creative Cloud is pretty nice, IMO. I already owned Audition CS6, so it's only $20 for... everything.

Michael wrote:

I'd like to give it to someone and have them watch it in 1080p on their TV, be that via disc or their HTPC.

I was able to wrangle AME to do what I want - the original footage now exists in 1080p with black bars on the sides. And Creative Cloud is pretty nice, IMO. I already owned Audition CS6, so it's only $20 for... everything.

I haven't looked into Creative Cloud yet, but as a video editor who knows all the major software EXCEPT Premiere, I'm thinking it might be a great way to dip my toes in.

What's the deal you got? It was only $20 because you already owned some Adobe software? Or is that one of the standard pricing tiers?

I've owned Audition for years, back from when it was v1.5. I took some of my recent editing income and updated to CS6 last year (and it's awesome) and have been very happy with it. I had been hemming and hawing about CC but saw that they have a promo going on where you get a full subscription for $20/mo for 12 months IF you already have a valid license for a current CS6 Adobe product. It's $50 month normally, but they usually have some kind of promotion going on.

So I signed up and got started and it's pretty darn cool. It's basically Steam for Adobe products. There's a little client and all of the products are listed with an "install" button. Want Illustrator? One click - go have a sandwich and it's there when you get back. Photoshop? Premiere? After Effects? One click away (each). They're all the full versions, no restrictions.

In my case I don't have a terribly awesome business reason for it, as most of what I want to do is personal. But the cost is less than one hour of side work a month, so I bit. After years and years of using GIMP I'm finally using Photoshop and yeah... GIMP ain't no Photoshop.

Arise!

We have gotten a GoPro recently and have just started playing with it. I am hoping to get some good family videos of my children having fun etc. It looks like there is going to be a great need for editing in the future if the handful of videos I have recorded are any indicator. Are there any other family GoProers out there that are filming their kids with a GoPro?

Well here is my first attempt at video editing.

I realize there is a bunch of room to improve and welcome pointers. It was done it GoPro Studio with some GPU music I found in a couple minutes of looking. Thoughts? Tips for a newb?

I did a tourism spot shot almost completely on GoPros. I'll post it tomorrow.

Couldn't find any more recent threads, so figured this was the best place to put this. 4 months of traveling cut down to a 4 minute video, all filmed on my GoPro Hero4 Silver:

Vimeo Link

My first proper video edit in a long time, pretty happy with how it turned out.

ARISE!

My wife and I are looking to get a waterproof camera to take long on vacations and kayaking and such. We had a waterproof Fuji camera that started leaking and broke, so we're looking for something more rugged, hence looking at Gopros.

The thing we're worried about is using it without a viewfinder. The Session ones that are out now don't have the option to have a viewfinder other than the app. How realistic is it to use one of these as a snapshot still camera without a viewfinder?

Anyone know of a good resource for finding a good Digital SLR camera? It's exclusively going to be used for taking pictures indoors with good lighting in order to use said pictures to sell products for my SO's new business.

Budget-wise I know she wants to stay as far south of $1k as possible and still put out nice photographs for online customers.

Chaz wrote:

ARISE!

My wife and I are looking to get a waterproof camera to take long on vacations and kayaking and such. We had a waterproof Fuji camera that started leaking and broke, so we're looking for something more rugged, hence looking at Gopros.

The thing we're worried about is using it without a viewfinder. The Session ones that are out now don't have the option to have a viewfinder other than the app. How realistic is it to use one of these as a snapshot still camera without a viewfinder?

Don't do it. You won't be able to frame your shots. Get one that has an LCD. You could also get one that isn't waterproof but put it in a case.

I have one of these with a case that I take snorkeling and biking. Remember that action cameras have fish eye lenses so your going to get some shape distortion around the edges. Works great for scenic shots but won't be as good for people photos.

Well, that sucks. The only gopro that's currently available that has an LCD is the highest end one, and the other option is to find an old one with the LCD add on.

My previous experience with waterproof point and shoots makes me really hesitant to get another. I want something that's proven to be rugged, which is why I was thinking gopro.

What about the Yi camera that I linked?

Edit: Also I think the reason action cameras are considered to be more rugged than standard cameras is because they are light and they have no moving parts. Aside from that they are just another piece of electronics. My buddies Gopro 3 audio stopped working after a drop from a table. If you put them in a case their durability goes way up though.

I've just never heard of Yi before? I guess I also liked the idea of the Gopro session being waterproof on its own for $150. The Yi one is $230 when you add in a waterproof case.

I bought a 3rd party waterproof case for the Yi for around 12 bucks. Yi cameras are made by Xiaomi / Mi company. People often refer to them as the Chinese apple partially because they make quality stuff and partially because their original phones looked an awful lot like iphones .

I found this guy that seems to be what we're looking for. LCD built in. That version doesn't include the mounts or the two extra backdoors that are less waterproof, but let you use the touchscreen through the case, and the battery isn't swappable. But the extra doors are $12, and since we'd be using it for stills and occasional video vs constant recording, I think that should be okay?

That looks like it would be fine although I'm not sure what the "backdoors" are.

It's just the back part of the case that flips open.