I almost never shoot videos, but recently got some interest in that taking into account all video capabilities in recent cameras especially for high quality 4K.
If it is there why not to try using that ?
I was occasionally using video on Sony a7s and a7r2 , mostly HD which was good enough for me and because I did not want to waste disk space on my laptop for huge 4K video files. Never used my former 1Dx for video - it was just useless for that.
With 1Dx m2 situation has changed drastically.
Few days back did some tests with 1Dx m2 video and was pleasantly surprised with the quality of video both for HD and 4K. I like color rendering from 1DX m2 much better than from Sony a7S or a7r2. it just comes out almost perfect (just natural -as you see it with your eyes with no need for any post processing adjustments ).
1DX m2 4K MJPEG is using 4:2:2 format which is not available internally in other cameras. May be this also contributes to excellent quality and color rendering for 4K video.
On Sony there is always some color shift/cast in artificial light which is not very pleasant to eyes (in daylight it is better) and some post processing is always required to correct that.
1DX m2 4K videos was just amazing to my eyes, I could not believe that, the only problem is huge MJPEG files, this was discussed on the forums multiple times. But camera has ability to play video frame by frame and grab required frames directly in camera. After that huge MJPEG file is not required.
So to save space when storing video on my laptop I tested MJPEG conversion to H.264 and H.265 - input from CFAST card to video formats converter and then output to the required location on PC.
Conversion to H.264.allows to compress original MJPEG clip in average 4 times (e.g. 8Gm MJPEG is converted to 2Gb H.264). But this is still too big.
Conversion to H.265 gives very impressive results - almost 14:1 compression ratio. Original 8Gb MJPEG file converted to 554MB file size with the same quality as original file. So with that I have much less concerns about space consumed by videos on my laptop. So now I am happy to use 1DX m2 for 4K video clips and save results as H.265 file on my laptop, though it requires some time for conversions . Still did not find any fast standalone MJPEG to H.265 converter for Windows which could use exclusively NVIDIA GPU /CUDA for image format conversion process. There are some standalone converters for MAC that could be found on WEB but I do not know how good are they.
The other option could be use of dedicated conversion devices - I still need to check that, may be ATOMOS can do that quickly.
What is good for 1DX m2 (and probably for other Canon cameras) that for video the same picture profiles are being used as for JPEG shooting so each video frame is as good as JPEG when shooting stills.
I found that neutral picture style is almost perfect for most situations - it gives natural color rendering with no need for post processing. Possibly also thanks to very good in-camera Auto White balance.
For those who need to have color rendering that looks more close to S-Log - one could use one of the custom picture profiles which could be set to have minimal saturation and minimal contrast to have more room for adjustments in post processing. Also sharpness could be reduced to have more film look and muted noise when video done in low light.
In addition to that as 1DX m2 has better DR it is also possible to use (-1 or-2) EV adjustments to preserve highlights and then do required tone mapping (raise shadows and mid-tones) in post processing, this could provide better simulation of C-Log for 1DX m2.
One more thing which I like more in 1DX m2 for video compared to Sony that each video file has unique name compared to others , the same as for JPEG files whereas on Sony (A7S and A7r2) each video clip starts from 000 after erasing images on the card which is extremely inconvenient and as each time one needs to rename video files when importing them on PC.
Using 1Dx m2 camera LCD monitor is not good for doing videos so for that I use Sony CLM-FHD5 LCD HD 5 inch monitor attached to camera Hotshoe. It is very light and it is extremely convenient for videos, LiveView shooting and also quick AFMA lens checks. It has focus peak mode as well as false color mode to indicate level of illumination on different parts of the image which is also useful sometimes.
Hope that all above could be useful for other owners of 1Dx m2.
If it is there why not to try using that ?
I was occasionally using video on Sony a7s and a7r2 , mostly HD which was good enough for me and because I did not want to waste disk space on my laptop for huge 4K video files. Never used my former 1Dx for video - it was just useless for that.
With 1Dx m2 situation has changed drastically.
Few days back did some tests with 1Dx m2 video and was pleasantly surprised with the quality of video both for HD and 4K. I like color rendering from 1DX m2 much better than from Sony a7S or a7r2. it just comes out almost perfect (just natural -as you see it with your eyes with no need for any post processing adjustments ).
1DX m2 4K MJPEG is using 4:2:2 format which is not available internally in other cameras. May be this also contributes to excellent quality and color rendering for 4K video.
On Sony there is always some color shift/cast in artificial light which is not very pleasant to eyes (in daylight it is better) and some post processing is always required to correct that.
1DX m2 4K videos was just amazing to my eyes, I could not believe that, the only problem is huge MJPEG files, this was discussed on the forums multiple times. But camera has ability to play video frame by frame and grab required frames directly in camera. After that huge MJPEG file is not required.
So to save space when storing video on my laptop I tested MJPEG conversion to H.264 and H.265 - input from CFAST card to video formats converter and then output to the required location on PC.
Conversion to H.264.allows to compress original MJPEG clip in average 4 times (e.g. 8Gm MJPEG is converted to 2Gb H.264). But this is still too big.
Conversion to H.265 gives very impressive results - almost 14:1 compression ratio. Original 8Gb MJPEG file converted to 554MB file size with the same quality as original file. So with that I have much less concerns about space consumed by videos on my laptop. So now I am happy to use 1DX m2 for 4K video clips and save results as H.265 file on my laptop, though it requires some time for conversions . Still did not find any fast standalone MJPEG to H.265 converter for Windows which could use exclusively NVIDIA GPU /CUDA for image format conversion process. There are some standalone converters for MAC that could be found on WEB but I do not know how good are they.
The other option could be use of dedicated conversion devices - I still need to check that, may be ATOMOS can do that quickly.
What is good for 1DX m2 (and probably for other Canon cameras) that for video the same picture profiles are being used as for JPEG shooting so each video frame is as good as JPEG when shooting stills.
I found that neutral picture style is almost perfect for most situations - it gives natural color rendering with no need for post processing. Possibly also thanks to very good in-camera Auto White balance.
For those who need to have color rendering that looks more close to S-Log - one could use one of the custom picture profiles which could be set to have minimal saturation and minimal contrast to have more room for adjustments in post processing. Also sharpness could be reduced to have more film look and muted noise when video done in low light.
In addition to that as 1DX m2 has better DR it is also possible to use (-1 or-2) EV adjustments to preserve highlights and then do required tone mapping (raise shadows and mid-tones) in post processing, this could provide better simulation of C-Log for 1DX m2.
One more thing which I like more in 1DX m2 for video compared to Sony that each video file has unique name compared to others , the same as for JPEG files whereas on Sony (A7S and A7r2) each video clip starts from 000 after erasing images on the card which is extremely inconvenient and as each time one needs to rename video files when importing them on PC.
Using 1Dx m2 camera LCD monitor is not good for doing videos so for that I use Sony CLM-FHD5 LCD HD 5 inch monitor attached to camera Hotshoe. It is very light and it is extremely convenient for videos, LiveView shooting and also quick AFMA lens checks. It has focus peak mode as well as false color mode to indicate level of illumination on different parts of the image which is also useful sometimes.
Hope that all above could be useful for other owners of 1Dx m2.