p.17 #1 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
dj63401 wrote:
I also posted this in it's own post.
Two clips showing how the tracking did for me recently. I was shooting video of Bald Eagles, and the first clip starts with the Eagle about 360 feet away. I followed it as it flew out to the Lock and Dam 21 on the Mississippi River. It was about 1800 feet at that point. It only lost focus lock for a second or so that I can detect near the Lock and Dam, even with many other eagles flying close by. Second clip is a different Bald Eagle coming into a tree with its catch, and it followed it from open sky up to the tree with lots of branched in between us. It did a very good job following, but not perfect in my opinion.
Gear and settings were Canon R5 MKII, RF200-800 at 800mm. 1/250 sec at f11, auto ISO. 4k 4.2.2 120 fps slow motion. Autofocus settings were Movie Servo AF, AF Area: Whole Area AF, Subject to detect: Animals, Eye Detection: Off, Movie Servo AF speed +2: Movie Servo AF track sensitivity -2.
Processed in DaVinci Resolve with very light stabilization, and minor sharpening only on 1st clip. Second clip has some added exposure on Eagle along with Stabilization and sharpening.
Review: I shot with the R5 before shooting with the R5 MKII.
The R5 MKII seems to detect the subject much faster, is stickier and does not lose focus anywhere near as often. A big improvement on an already very good camera.
Dave
Amazing Dave. Quick question since I don't have my camera on me - it seems you've played with AF servo speeds and you have yours at +2. Is this the same AF speed setting that would relate to Rudy's rack focusing test above? In other words, if you did the same test as Rudy your rack focus would be very quick and glitchy compared to Rudy's which I'm guessing is a negative setting. I don't recall is there's more than one AF speed setting for servo in Movie mode.
p.17 #2 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
artsupreme wrote:
Amazing Dave. Quick question since I don't have my camera on me - it seems you've played with AF servo speeds and you have yours at +2. Is this the same AF speed setting that would relate to Rudy's rack focusing test above? In other words, if you did the same test as Rudy your rack focus would be very quick and glitchy compared to Rudy's which I'm guessing is a negative setting. I don't recall is there's more than one AF speed setting for servo in Movie mode.
I'm not really sure. Rudy is shooting the R5 and I am shooting the R5 MKII. The menu's are different and some settings are quite a bit different. My playing with settings is watching several different of the pros? on youtube. They don't all agree. I went with what seemed right, and it has worked out. I have only got a real good test the last 3-4 weeks, and I am happy with the results.
Dave
p.17 #3 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
artsupreme wrote:
Amazing Dave. Quick question since I don't have my camera on me - it seems you've played with AF servo speeds and you have yours at +2. Is this the same AF speed setting that would relate to Rudy's rack focusing test above? In other words, if you did the same test as Rudy your rack focus would be very quick and glitchy compared to Rudy's which I'm guessing is a negative setting. I don't recall is there's more than one AF speed setting for servo in Movie mode.
Brett,
Sorry I've been kind of MIA lately and absent from the forum discussions, I had some family things to take care of but I'm finally back in the saddle again.
Regarding your question about the Movie Servo AF Speed function of the R5ii: I did some Googling on Youtube and found a video that shows and talks about this function on the R5ii and it appears to be exactly the same as in the R5 with 7 minus settings for slower speeds and 2 plus settings for faster speeds. He explains that the resultant speeds are also affected by which lens you're using and by the shooting situations. This is what I have discovered when experimenting with rack focusing on my R5 with my RF50 f1.8. If you go to the time 51:16-35 in this video you'll see it:
What I did to get the smooth, slow rack focusing in the video I posted on the previous page was I experimented with the Movie Servo AF Speed settings while using my RF 50 f1.8, I shot in 4K120 in order to slow things down and also to reduce camera shake because I wanted to be able to do this technique hand-held in the field without needing a tripod. I just played around with the speed settings until I got a pleasing result. In various tests like the one in my office where I placed a Canon lens cap on my knee I found that the speed was also affected by the length of travel and by how close the closet object was to the camera. In this case the lens cap was very close to the camera so the final focus in the rack travel was quite slow, but thankfully it was very smooth. By the way, in this clip there was originally quit a bit of focus breathing which I fixed manually in Davinci Resolve. It's pretty easy to do.
So we probably need to do a little experimentation for every rack focus shot we do in order to find the best settings for our video format, lens and distance between the objects, but thankfully we don't do very many rack focuses in any given video so it's not a hardship.
p.17 #4 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
Rudy Pohl wrote:
Brett,
Sorry I've been kind of MIA lately and absent from the forum discussions, I had some family things to take care of but I'm finally back in the saddle again.
Regarding your question about the Movie Servo AF Speed function of the R5ii: I did some Googling on Youtube and found a video that shows and talks about this function on the R5ii and it appears to be exactly the same as in the R5 with 7 minus settings for slower speeds and 2 plus settings for faster speeds. He explains that the resultant speeds are also affected by which lens you're using and by the shooting situations. This is what I have discovered when experimenting with rack focusing on my R5 with my RF50 f1.8. If you go to the time 51:16-35 in this video you'll see it:
What I did to get the smooth, slow rack focusing in the video I posted on the previous page was I experimented with the Movie Servo AF Speed settings while using my RF 50 f1.8, I shot in 4K120 in order to slow things down and also to reduce camera shake because I wanted to be able to do this technique hand-held in the field without needing a tripod. I just played around with the speed settings until I got a pleasing result. In various tests like the one in my office where I placed a Canon lens cap on my knee I found that the speed was also affected by the length of travel and by how close the closet object was to the camera. In this case the lens cap was very close to the camera so the final focus in the rack travel was quite slow, but thankfully it was very smooth. By the way, in this clip there was originally quit a bit of focus breathing which I mitigated manually in Davinci Resolve. It's pretty easy to do.
So we probably need to do a little experimentation for every rack focus shot we do in order to find the best settings for our video format, lens and distance between the objects, but thankfully we don't do very many rack focuses in any given video so it's not a hardship.
Thanks Rudy, this makes sense. I can look later at both the R5 and R5II to compare. As for your light pole rack focus test, do you remember which speed setting you used on the R5? If I remember correctly, I think I was using -3 on the R5II when I found a speed that I liked. The 0 setting is just way to fast for video IMO, but like you said it might depend on which lens and how much racking you are doing.
p.17 #5 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
artsupreme wrote:
Thanks Rudy, this makes sense. I can look later at both the R5 and R5II to compare. As for your light pole rack focus test, do you remember which speed setting you used on the R5? If I remember correctly, I think I was using -3 on the R5II when I found a speed that I liked. The 0 setting is just way to fast for video IMO, but like you said it might depend on which lens and how much racking you are doing.
Brett, it was either -4 or -5, not any slower. Using 4K120 makes a big difference as the camera simply focuses more slowly in that format than in 4K24/40/60.
p.17 #6 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
An old favourite by a snow-bound Canadian longing for Spring. Yesterday we had a foot and a half of snow dumped on us here in Ottawa with another foot and a half coming on Sunday.
It's making me think about a warm sunny evening early last Spring when I shot this video at one of my favourite spots near the Ottawa River.
...
.
p.17 #8 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
Rudy Pohl wrote:
An old favourite by a snow-bound Canadian longing for Spring. Yesterday we had a foot and a half of snow dumped on us here in Ottawa with another foot and a half coming on Sunday.
It's making me think about a warm sunny evening early last Spring when I shot this video at one of my favourite spots near the Ottawa River.
...
.
Enjoy!
Rudy
Rudy,
What a great way to start my morning.
Very nicely done, music seemed written for your video!
Hope your snow leaves soon so you can make more of these.
Dave
p.17 #10 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
Four Bald Eagles each stick their landing in trees.
Near sunrise, along the banks of the Mississippi River below Lock and Dam 21 at Quincy, Il, Bald Eagles show their skill in landing.
Last clip is the best.
Captured on Jan 24, 2025
Canon R5 MKII RF 200-800 120 fps slow motion
p.17 #11 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
Beautiful work! Looks like an amazing trip and an incredible experience.
artsupreme wrote:
Well, I set a deadline for myself of Feb 1st to try and get something exported from Resolve and I missed it by a few days. But last night I was able to finally export a mashup of some of my clips from Indonesia. This is in no way a final edit, but simply a sample test for a youtube quality check as I've never uploaded anytihng to youtube. I would normally never upload a sample that's nowhere near complete but I figure this is progress for me to have finally have finished the whole process from Davinci import to Youtube upload. Some notes:
- The note about 4 men becoming true surfers is an inside joke to a few friends
- After uploading I see I have an aspect ratio issue which was the purpose of this test
- There was no stablization done and I was filming handeld on a boat so that explains some of the shakiness
- You can see the rivers of trash at the beginning which are flowing into our oceans on a daily basis
- The music thing is going to kill me and probably prevent me from sharing on youtube. I'm super picky with music for my slideshows as it's just as important as the visuals. Like Howie said above, I don't see myself searching for free music that I like as I already have my favorite music that I want to use and it won't be allowed on Youtube. IMO, the music/audio is what brings the edit together as I will be syncing my cuts to it and pacing the clips with music, so this will be tough to do for Youtube. As for this sample I just added a place holder chant to run for the whole 16 minute test
-Learning Davinci is quite fun. I still have no idea what I'm doing in there but at least I know the basics of how to cut/arrange clips now. As for color grading, I'm totally clueless and need to learn how to use the color tab so I can dial in the footage. I used a bunch of different color settings in this video for different scenes. Anyone know if there's a way in the color tab to put the playead on one frame and then scroll through the different luts wtih a simple L/R key stroke? Right now I'm having to click on each lut thumbnail for a preview and I'm hoping there's a more efficient way to scroll through Lut previews.
Anyway, the goal of this sample clip was to watch it on a large 4K TV to check video quality and it looks pretty good on my TV's. My TV adds a lot of contrast so I'll have to navigate how to process for viewing on different devices. I'm going to leave it up for a few days for some friends to watch and then probably take it down and start learning the things I need to start a final edit. It's long and repetetive but definitely serves it's purpose for a quality check on a large TV. If anyone has a chance to view on their large TV let me know your thoughts on video quality. Changing the youtube settings to 4k (2160) is key as Youtube defaults to 1080p for most players. The audio is going to be quite a task to figure out but for now you can mute it or play your own music instead of the place holder chant I have in there.
"TOAL" is a term I use for "trip of a lifetime"...little did I know it happens to be the name of a goth band on Youtube
Gear used:
R5, R5II, DJI Mini 3 Pro, RF 70-200 2.8, RF 14-35
Clog2 & Clog3
24fps and one clip of 120fps
4K DCI (during the process realized my drone doesn't match this format so I need to learn how to change in Davinci)
This 16 minute 4K export only took about 5 minutes on a baseline M4 Macbook Pro that I used for this. Uploading to Youtube took almost an hour for a 5.87GB file. Not sure if I'm exporting the correct format but that's it for now.
p.17 #12 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
Formation flying and chasing are a couple of my favorite Bald Eagle activities to try to film. Three short clips with that, and an unexpected fish drop in the last clip. Captured below Lock and Dam 21 on the Mississippi River near Quincy, IL on Jan 24, 2025.
R5 MKII RF 200-800 4K 120fps
p.17 #13 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
From catch to tree! Bald Eagle catches fish in the middle of the Mississippi River. It then flies towards shore and right by me, giving a good view. It then lands in its favorite tree near the banks of the river. Below Lock and Dam 21 at Quincy, IL, Jan 24, 2025.
R5 MKII RF 200-800 4K 120 fps.
p.17 #14 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
American White Pelican flying towards me with what looks like jewels hanging from its neck. It turns, giving a great view, and heads back out towards the turbulent water of the River. The below freezing temps allowed some water to freeze and make dangled ice jewels flapping in the wind. Captured over the Mississippi River below the Lock and Dam 22 at Saverton, Mo. on Jan 24, 2025.
Since 911, there is an 8-foot fence with barbed wire around all Lock and Dams. This video was shot from a pickup backed up to the fence, with a step stool project ladder(5 foot) in the back. On the 2nd step, my head would be just over the barbed wire, giving me a clear view (somewhat). I used a monopod with monogimbal, very short, and rested it on the platform at the top of the ladder for tools and paint cans. Shot with Canon R5 MKII RF 200-800 4k 120 fps. Also, used 1/500 sec shutter due to time of day and brightness.
p.17 #15 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
Bald Eagle protecting catch. This Bald Eagle has to protect and evade as other Bald Eagles chase, slam into it and try to steal the fish it just caught. It then flies close by and shows the fish it kept. Over the Mississippi River below Lock and Dam 22 at Saverton, MO. January 24, 2025
R5 MKII RF 200-800 4k 120 fps 1/500 shutter due to time of day.
From back of pickup truck on short ladder due to 8 foot fence. Monopod and monogimbal
p.17 #16 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
This Bald Eagle sees a fish, puts on the brakes, dives, catches the fish and eats it on the fly. Below Lock and Dam 22 on the Mississippi River at Saverton, MO. on Jan 24, 2025.
Canon R5MKII RF200-800 4k 120 fps shutter 1/500 due to time of day.
p.17 #18 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
American White Pelicans! These massive birds, bigger than Bald Eagles, put on a show for me. Landings, slow motion flybys and turns with great views of these neat birds. In the background you can see the large numbers and a few eagles. Four minutes and just keeps getting better. Video captured at Lock and Dam 22 on the Mississippi River near Saverton, MO. on Jan 25, 2025.
R5 MKII RF200-800 Handheld with Beanbag support on top of A frame ladder to clear 8 foot fence. 4k 120 fps with some additional slowing on closeups. DaVinci Resolve 19 Studio
p.17 #19 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
dj63401 wrote:
American White Pelicans! These massive birds, bigger than Bald Eagles, put on a show for me. Landings, slow motion flybys and turns with great views of these neat birds. In the background you can see the large numbers and a few eagles. Four minutes and just keeps getting better. Video captured at Lock and Dam 22 on the Mississippi River near Saverton, MO. on Jan 25, 2025.
R5 MKII RF200-800 Handheld with Beanbag support on top of A frame ladder to clear 8 foot fence. 4k 120 fps with some additional slowing on closeups. DaVinci Resolve 19 Studio
Hi Dave,
The Pelicans in slow motion look good and the super-slow-motion footage looks fabulous, great job! I tried that method using Warp Stabilizer in Davinci Studio this morning and it works great. Thanks for the tip.
p.17 #20 · Canon video thread for hybrid shooters...
Things are moving forward quickly in the video department at my house!
When I made my first introductory post in this new forum 2 months ago on January 1, 2025, I was using a 13-year old HD monitor, I was not shooting in log, and was using the free version of Resolve which can't import log files without it first being transcoded (a big pain in the petootie).
I'm happy to report that as of yesterday all three of these deficiencies have been rectified: I recently bought a good-quality, colour-accurate 4K monitor, I just bought Davinci Resolve Studio 19 on sale, and with the Studio version I am now able to import and edit canon log footage without the hassle of having to transcoded every file. Yeah!
