Canon 550d Movie Crop Mode

The Canon 550d is an excellent photo camera with its 18MP(5176x3456 pixels) sensor, but the main reason that I purchased one was for its HD video modes. It is capable of shooting 1920x1080p at 24, 25 & 30fps as well as 1280x720p at 60 & 50 fps. In order to produce these frame sizes/rates while still using the full sensor area the camera "cheats" by skipping lines. When shooting 1080p for example, i believe that the camera is skipping every third line. The 550d has another video mode which doesn't use this cheat. It is called Movie Crop Mode which is interesting but in most cases not very useful. Check out this diagram:
The part of the image outline in red represents the entire usable pixel area of the 550d. Outlined in green is the 16x9 part of the sensor used in the HD modes with gray lines in half the frame to illustrate showing the line skipping occurs. The little blue box in the middle is the part of the sensor used in Movie Crop mode. The camera is cropping out the standard definition-sized center of the sensor to make videos of 640x480 resolution. This is essentially the same as taking a photo from the camera and cropping it to 640x480, except that it is 30fps video. What does this mean? The most apparent thing you notice when using this mode is whatever lens you have on is effectively 7 times longer. A 50mm lens becomes a 350mm lens. A 200mm becomes a 1400mm. It also means you have some incredible macro capabilities because the minimum focus distance of the lens doesn't change. Finally, it actually has less aliasing artifacts than the HD modes in the camera. As interesting as all of this is, it is not HD so it's actual applications are very limited. Here are some real examples:
 
iPhone/iPad compatible Youtube Link 

A few notes about this video: The camera has a normal 640x480 mode which is not included in the diagram at the top of the article. It works essentially the same as the HD modes by line-skipping. I included two HD clips at 100% to show that the Movie Crop really does resolve more information than the HD mode. The footage of the green bug was taken with an 80mm lens, which really shows off the macro abilities of Movie Crop. The baby foxes were shot at 3200 ISO, it is amazing that one can film in such lighting conditions even if it is grainy.

Movie Crop is a fun feature to have, but the lack of HD makes it mostly useless. It would have been nice for Canon to include a 1080p Movie Crop function which would give non-line-skipped footage with a crop factor. Maybe this is something that will be included in professional Canon HDSLRs in the future.

Questions? Comments? Contact me.

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TNT @ Cafe Henrici

On Tuesday, January 12 Cafe Henrici hosted the 2nd Tuesday Night Throwdown -- also know as TNT. TNT is a cappuccino art competition where the barista's only tool is a pitcher of milk. All of the designs are made solely while pouring the milk. It's cool stuff. Here is a video I made for them:
 
iPhone-friendly Youtube link 

Related Entries:
Need a Place to Play?
Photo Blog #48
The Cabaret Voltaire 

Everything You Wanted to Know About iPhone 3GS Video

The iPhone 3GS feature that I was most excited about was video. The very first thing I did when I got my phone was shoot Technologic Overkill, so I could put the video camera through it's paces. In the process I discovered quite a few useful bits information about how the video works. Here is random list of that information:

• The video quality is surprisingly good for a cameraphone. In bright daylight the camera performs excellently. Like most small video cameras, it performs worse in low light. The iPhone will automatically lower the framerate in low light to compensate. The Frame rate will not go lower than 15fps
• The iPhone shoots 640x480 at 30 frames per second. It records to the h264 codec at about 3700 kilobits per second. This equates to roughly 28 megabytes per minute. That's not too shabby. Audio is recorded in Mono at 44.1 khz using the AAC codec.
• Compression artifacting is not very prevalent in good lighting. I think this is where a device like iPhone shines over other small video cameras. It has a very good CPU comparably, which allows for higher quality compression.
• You can select your focus point in video mode by tapping, but only when you are not recording. When you begin recording focus is locked to the point you chose. This means you cannot rack focus while recording. This is a small gripe, but if you consider most tiny video cameras are fixed focus, it is still a big improvment.
• Close focus is the same as in still mode -- 10cm. This is a great feature. When you are filming at a macro distance you can achieve a pretty decent shallow depth of field look.
• Where you tap on the screen also 'guides' the exposure of the video. However, as opposed to focus, exposure remains on 'auto'. If your scene changes enough the exposure will automatically compensate.
• The video works very nicely in iMovie, which is expected. One thing I noticed is that you do not have to convert the video to use the slow and fast motion feature. The codec Apple uses is already suitable for that.
• The "Jelly" effect that most small video cameras exhibit is prevalent in the 3GS. This is due to a rolling shutter.

Here is a short video illustrating some of these points.

iPhone Friendly Youtube Link.

One thing I keep thinking about is how the iPhone 3GS video compares to my Flip MinoHD. In resolution, the Mino beats iPhone hands down -- the iPhone is not HD. However, the other features of the iPhone 3GS might just compensate for its lack of HD. Let's compare and contrast:

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From the Archive: Zürich, 30 Seconds

I made this while bored one day somewhere in the first few months of moving to Zürich. The only thing this video is really missing is the lake.

Pocket Cam: Stand by Me in the Niederdorf

 My Photo Blog is the result of having a photo camera with me at all times, but I also always have a video camera with me as well. In this Pocket Cam segment of my blog I will showcase entertaining bits of video I have captured during my day-to-day life.
Last night Karla and I were walking in the Niederdorf when a lively group of men began singing acappella tunes at random moments as they strolled down the street. Eventually I pulled out my Canon G9, switched into video mode, and captured this little gem:

The video from the G9 is obviously not the greatest quality, but there is something very charming about this grainy little video. I really like how the different people walk in and out of the scene, especially when the couple holding hands moves over the camera. I also really like the framing, with the Grossmunster in the background and the one street lamp backlighting the singers. A perfect first entry for Pocket Cam (although this post probably qualifies as well).

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The Ultimate Flip Mino HD Review

I have shot with the entire range of HD cameras -- from HDV all the way up to Genesis and RED. The first thing that people should know is that the FLIP MinoHD does not compete with these cameras in any way. You can't get professional quality(or even prosumer quality) for 200 bucks. The MinoHD is basically a toy. However, there is something very charming and unique about having a HD camera that will fit in just about any pocket you have. This blog called the FLIP MinoHD the Holga of video cameras. I can agree with that. I have spent several weeks playing with this camera. Here are my impressions:

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Tips for Better Youtube Quality

A while back I posted an article to my old blog called '6 Tips for High Quality Youtube Videos.' Well that site doesn't exist anymore and Youtube is quite a bit different now so its probably time I update that article.

When posting to Youtube the first thing to remember is that it will make your video look worse. No matter what. Youtube is compressing your video and compression makes things worse. Period. However, if you follow some simple rules, you can minimize this worsening, or 'Youtubeification', to the point where it is not noticable. Read on.

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Film is Dead.

Well, maybe not dead -- but the revolution definitely will not be shot on film. I had the pleasure to shoot with a RED ONE for the first time this weekend and it really is the game changer that everyone says it is. I have been a fan of shooting video for a long time (I guess I am just of the digital generation), but the RED ONE  is the first digital video camera to really compete with film in all categories. For the record, I would like to make comparisons between Common video formats(MiniDV, HDV, Digibeta, etc), Film and the RED ONE.

Resolution

• Video: Ranges from 640x480 pixels to 1920x1080 pixels with a variety of different pixel apsect ratios (rectangular pixels) thrown in there for good measure.
• Film: No pixels, but comparable to 4k. Though most digital intermediates are done in 2k resolution
• RED: 4k -- 4096 x 2304.

Recording Medium

• Video: Lots of tape formats, some proprietary solid state and hard disk formats.
• Film: 35mm or 16mm Negative Film.
• RED: High Speed Compact Flash, Raided SATA drives, anything that accepts HD-SDI

Dynamic Range

• Video: Varies wildly but averages between 4 and 6 f-stops
• Film: Depends on the stock, but reliably 11 stops.
• RED: Technically 11, but in reality around 9.

Image Plane Size

• Video: Anywhere from Tiny up to 2/3rds inch.
• Film: Super 35mm -- 24.89 mm × 18.66 mm
• RED: 24.4mm x 13.7mm

Hardware Cost

• Video: Starts from as low as a few hundred, tops out around 100,000
• Film:  A new Arri 435 is around 75,000 body only. Prices vary in the + 20,000 range
• RED: 17,500 body only.

Shooting Cost

• Video: Some tapes and hard drives for editing. Quite cheap.
• Film: Raw film stock, Film Processing, Telecine. Hard drives for editing. Quite expensive.
• RED: Some CF Cards, Maybe a RED RAID, Lots of hard drive space -- probably a raid for storage. Not cheap, but cheaper than film.

Frame Rates

• Video: Most commonly 24, 25 and 29.97. Some newer cameras can shoot up to 60fps
• Film: As fast as your camera will let you go. Ultra high speed cameras can shoot 10,000 fps. Up to 120 is quite common
• RED: Varies depending on resolution. Up to 30fps at 4k, 60fps at 3k, 120fps at 2k

In all these categories the RED is fairly equivalent to film, but beats film in terms of cost. A few other areas where I think the red wins are speed of use and safety of footage.

Ease of use: We shot a short film in 48 hours in 4k resolution this weekend. This would have been incredibly difficult with film. Film needs to be processed and telecined before you can begin editing. Both processes that would have taken valuable time. It probably would have been impossible here in Switzerland due to the lack of 24 hour facilities.

Safety of footage: Film advocates will say that a hard drive can crash or a CF card could fail. However, film is obviously more perilous to use than digital. Just one little light leak and your footage is ruined -- not to mention what can happen in the lab to make your work unusable. With file based digital shooting you can make as many back ups as you want on set. With film your camera original is all you have until you have a work print made.

One of the areas where I found RED more difficult to use than Film was focusing. The RED shoots 4k, but as of now, all of the monitoring options only go as high as 720p. This makes it difficult to see what is in focus. There is a pretty nifty focus assist that outlines in focus areas with red lines, but this is not perfect. That said, with a little practice, I was able to pull focus fairly well.

There are a few other great things about the RED: REDCODE RAW, Speed Ramping, Stop Motion, User definable buttons, Modularity, etc. Too much for me to go into right now.

I am ready to shoot on RED again as soon as possible. Last weekend makes my dread shooting HDV again.

PS. I know I left out cameras like the F23, the Panavision Genesis and the like. They have lots of the same benefits of the RED but so far none of them shoot 4K.