3200FPS?! Getting the most from the Nikon 1 Series cameras

The new Nikon 1 series has the distinction of being the only camera in its price range that can shoot 400FPS at 640×240. Now that doesn’t sound like much resolution, but for web delivery – it can be usable.

The way the camera comes stock, you wouldn’t want to use the high fps mode, the sharpening makes the image look like it came out of a barbie cam. Aliasing and Moire are present as well -but there’s a cure. Take advice from other video shooting large sensor consumer cams, and lower the sharpening. It not only reduces the sharpening artifacts, it also lessens other artifacts as well. No its not perfect, I wouldn’t even say that its pretty, but its the only option for $599.

Here’s the methodology of my madness. First, we have only 640×240 pixels to work with – we need to make the most of them, so shooting around it in anamorphic, or cropped 16:9 is a must. Secondly, we need to get those few pixels as accurate and neutral as possible. Fortunately, the sharpening setting fixes this perfectly. It makes a usable image from something once unusable.

Next we need to add information. At best this footage is going to look like DV transferred 16mm film. I’m ok with that, so were going to need to add grain in most cases – and evaluate how much on a case by case basis. Were also going to need to add a bit of diffusion. Both of these will be added in a 1080p timeline, so that the downsampled footage will have more information.

Workflow if more FPS needed: Add to 1080p timeline, and use twixtor. Render grading and effects on footage on a second pass so you have more options to work with. Additionally, you never want to add a grain effect before using a program like twixtor, especially with footage with so little information.

GH2 Hack – 720p upgraded to 28mb with B-frames

Thanks to mpgsvcd in this thread: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/335/ptool-3.60d-gh2-avchd-encoder-settings/p1 We now have a greatly improved 720p mode for the GH2, and the first useful bitrate hack for the camera. Play the video below in “Original” quality on youtube to take a look at how the windmill motion is captured. For the most part, this will remove the macro blocking that was evident in this mode due to the low bitrate before the hack.

 

 

 

 
Here is a capture of the actual datastream of the windmill shot.
 

More Anamorphic Super Slowmotion


Twixtor retiming testing the limits of the lowly 17mb 720p codec of the gh2 and the LA7200.

There are some shots in this near 50mm in EX mode with the LA7200 combined with the 14-140.

Guess the camera!

One camera is a Hacked GH1 at 100mb, the other is a GH2. One camera is cropped to 2:35.1, the other actually has the anamorphic lens. They are mixed almost exactly 50/50 …

Cry Macho – The new Arnie film


Below is the real info – from IGN
Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to return to the big-screen, but not in a fifth Terminator flick as recently rumoured, but rather in an adaptation of the 1975 novel Cry Macho.

According to Deadline, the film will feature Arnold as “a horse breeder who won the Kentucky Derby but whose wife and child get killed. He sinks into an alcoholic depression and winds up working for a hedge fund jerk who offers him a choice of getting fired or bringing back the rich guy’s son living with the ex-wife in Mexico.”

There’s no indication as to whether it’s a comedy, drama or action flick, but the story claims that the film will feature a road trip element as well as several plot twists.

Deadline reports that Arnie will pocket $12.5m plus 25% of the first dollar gross, with the financiers taking the project to the Cannes Film Festival next week in the hopes of closing the deal.…