p.1 #1 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
I'm mostly going to be shooting videos when I'm traveling and when getting together with family and friends. Will 4K/30p or 4K/60p give me the highest possible bitrate to get the highest movie quality?
Which LOG profile should I be using with the A6700?
Which other settings on the camera will help me maximize movie quality?
p.1 #2 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
He's kind of on the entertaining side (as opposed to excessively serious) but Jason Vong on You Tube does a lot of content with Sony and video and might be a place to start. I'm just getting familiar with video so don't have much to share. (Lots of others out there, too.)
I believe one can go up to 4K60 10 bit 4:2:2 (which I can't explain) which is perhaps the "best" but results in very large files and some of the free or inexpensive editors won't handle it without other conversions. The more data, the more quickly one might run into heating issues.
The Log settings choices, I guess, can vary depending on how much you want to be engaged in post processing, the intensity of your intended video creations, etc. I believe I've got mine on PP11 for S-Cinetone for simplicity so far. There are advocates for various other settings, too.
p.1 #3 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
Davinci Resolve natively supports Sony and Canon logs 1/2/3. It's in the project settings under Timeline color space. No need to mess with LUTs. The free version is limited to 60p which is probably plenty for you.
Don't shoot 60p unless you really want 60p or you want to slow down your output. If you need just 30p - shoot 30p and pick whatever maximum bitrate you see in the menu. Slog3/S-Gamut3, 4:2:2 at 10 bit XAVC S-I 4K would deliver the best quality suitable for editing/transcoding. Slog3 looks the best if you overexpose by roughly 1.5 stops. Slog3/S-Gamut3.Cine has a slightly narrower color space, but it renders better skin tones. If you're planning on serious highlight recovery - do not overexpose but be prepared to deal with noise in the shadows. If you want HDR output - pick REC2100 ST2084 in the Output color space. Hope this helps.
p.1 #4 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
Craig Gillette wrote:
He's kind of on the entertaining side (as opposed to excessively serious) but Jason Vong on You Tube does a lot of content with Sony and video and might be a place to start. I'm just getting familiar with video so don't have much to share. (Lots of others out there, too.)
I believe one can go up to 4K60 10 bit 4:2:2 (which I can't explain) which is perhaps the "best" but results in very large files and some of the free or inexpensive editors won't handle it without other conversions. The more data, the more quickly one might run into heating issues.
The Log settings choices, I guess, can vary depending on how much you want to be engaged in post processing, the intensity of your intended video creations, etc. I believe I've got mine on PP11 for S-Cinetone for simplicity so far. There are advocates for various other settings, too.
I have been hearing concerns about file sizes and computing power for as long as I have played with computers and digital cameras. I'm just going to say what I have always said on the internet that I don't worry about any of it. I have shot in RAW and always buy the highest-resolution cameras that I can afford. Storage continues to get cheaper. Imagine if I took the horrible advice of not shooting in RAW or shooting in RAW, but with lower resolutions. So no, I want to shoot with the highest quality settings.
p.1 #7 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
lsquare wrote:
I have been hearing concerns about file sizes and computing power for as long as I have played with computers and digital cameras. I'm just going to say what I have always said on the internet that I don't worry about any of it. I have shot in RAW and always buy the highest-resolution cameras that I can afford. Storage continues to get cheaper. Imagine if I took the horrible advice of not shooting in RAW or shooting in RAW, but with lower resolutions. So no, I want to shoot with the highest quality settings.
Video takes it to another level, though.
Try shooting both and see if you need 60p before you needlessly end up with large video files taking forever to pp.
p.1 #8 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
AmbientMike wrote:
Video takes it to another level, though.
Try shooting both and see if you need 60p before you needlessly end up with large video files taking forever to pp.
Isn't 60p 60 frames/sec for action?
Or 2.5x slow motion.
File size in terms of cards and drive space is a legitimate concern for video shooters. Anybody who says otherwise doesn’t shoot high end video. Bitrates in newer cameras (300-600Mbps in All-I) are no joke. Bitrate typically scales by framerate so 60p and 120p are heavy formats that.. in the case of something like an A7SIII can require 600Mbps and 1200Mbps is you want to shoot in an intra frame format for ease of editing.
File storage is cheap yes but V90 and CFExpress Type A cards aren’t. Most people don’t need to shoot 4K60p+ though. For sports and wildlife sure, but for the majority of other content it’s overkill.
The issue people constantly run into at the moment is not being able to edit 10-bit 4:2:2 footage on their computers. If you have an Apple device with an M-series SoC then you’re fine, but otherwise you’ll need a decently capable and relatively new PC. I bought an M2 Max Mac Studio for video editing to replace my i7 8700K, 32GB, GTX 1080 Ti SLI PC since it struggled with footage coming out of my A7SIII and A7IV.
p.1 #9 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
LAARILEY wrote:
Or 2.5x slow motion.
File size in terms of cards and drive space is a legitimate concern for video shooters. Anybody who says otherwise doesn’t shoot high end video. Bitrates in newer cameras (300-600Mbps in All-I) are no joke. Bitrate typically scales by framerate so 60p and 120p are heavy formats that.. in the case of something like an A7SIII can require 600Mbps and 1200Mbps is you want to shoot in an intra frame format for ease of editing.
File storage is cheap yes but V90 and CFExpress Type A cards aren’t. Most people don’t need to shoot 4K60p+ though. For sports and wildlife sure, but for the majority of other content it’s overkill.
The issue people constantly run into at the moment is not being able to edit 10-bit 4:2:2 footage on their computers. If you have an Apple device with an M-series SoC then you’re fine, but otherwise you’ll need a decently capable and relatively new PC. I bought an M2 Max Mac Studio for video editing to replace my i7 8700K, 32GB, GTX 1080 Ti SLI PC since it struggled with footage coming out of my A7SIII and A7IV. ...Show more →
I’m getting tired of repeating myself. Yes, videos are a different story, but HDD prices are cheap. If I say I'm not worried about storage space and costs, then this is the end of the discussion as far as I'm concerned. I will have a 256GB V90 card.
p.1 #10 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
lsquare wrote:
I’m getting tired of repeating myself. Yes, videos are a different story, but HDD prices are cheap. If I say I'm not worried about storage space and costs, then this is the end of the discussion as far as I'm concerned. I will have a 256GB V90 card.
That’s for you to worry about. 256GB will get you ~170 minutes using 10-bit 4:2:2 4K60p recorded in XAVC HS @ 200Mbps, or ~56 minutes in 10-bit 4:2:2 4K60p recorded in XAVC S-I @ 600Mpbs. If you are shooting high frequency scenes with lots of movement, the latter is the better codec, and Intra-frame footage is typically easier to edit without proxies, both both are extremely demanding.
S-I is recorded in H.264, and HS is recorded in H.265, hence the huge difference in bitrates when recording the same resolution and framerate. In a very general sense, it’s hard to distinguish between them in terms of image quality. Unless you’re shooting scenes with lots of moving foliage or other high frequency detail, HS is your best bet in terms of maximizing your image quality vs. file size. S-I uses less efficient compression and can appear noisier, so it isn’t as simple as “big bitrate = best quality” as the countless comparisons on YouTube have shown in the years since Sony introduced the HS format.
60p vs 30p is also irrelevant as the bitrate scales by framerate. 200Mbps for 60p in HS and 100Mbps for 30p. 600Mbps for 60p in S-I and 300Mbps for 30p. Bitrate should be chosen based on what you want your shots to look like. 60p is too fluid for me so I don’t use it unless I’m using speed ramps or just 2.5x slo mo. 24p produces the most aesthetically pleasing motion to my eye, but everybody’s tastes are different. Depends what you’re shooting I guess.
What picture profile you shoot in should be determined by how comfortable you are exposing log footage and how much colour grading you want to do in post. If extensive post work isn’t something you want to deal with, S-Cinetone provides excellent results out of the camera that will require minimal tweaks. Slog3 will get you more dynamic range, but only if you expose your scene properly. And you should ignore the drivel people recommend about over exposing by 1.7-2 stops when shooting Slog3 as it no longer applies to the current lineup. This guid le breaks down how to expose Slog3 perfectly in cameras released after the A7SIII.
Also try and avoid using Sony’s automatic white balance as even though it is certainly better than it once was, it’s still far from perfect and you will get noticeable colour shifts even in the same environment.
p.1 #11 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
lsquare wrote:
Does anyone here know which settings will require a V90 SDXC card?
4k 120p and FHD 240fps require v90 cards.
You can record 4k 60 4.2.2 with v30 cards.
p.1 #12 · Maximize movie quality on the Sony A6700?
lsquare wrote:
I’m getting tired of repeating myself. Yes, videos are a different story, but HDD prices are cheap. If I say I'm not worried about storage space and costs, then this is the end of the discussion as far as I'm concerned. I will have a 256GB V90 card.
you're somewhat contradicting yourself, if storage is cheap, you would have got 512 v90's if you're using higher bitrates.
