Combine 4k and 1080p With Canon dSLRs With Multi-Cam Editing

Peter-Riding wrote on 5/9/2019, 12:03 PM

Hi, I'm using two Canon 5D-IV's and one Canon 6D-II when shooting some events. Normally I shoot in 1080p IPB. The ambient lighting is seldom good let alone ideal and the subjects are not actors or “talent” but rather simply participants in the event with no great interest in video. Therefore the best technical quality is not a top concern.

My preferred equipment is because I can readily switch between video and stills if appropriate without having to set up and break down two different systems. The 6D-II is specifically for video for the flippy screen use otherwise I'd use a third 5D-IV.

I am testing using one 5D-IV to shoot 4k at some points during the event, the other two staying at 1080p for practical (file size and editing) purposes. The chief advantage is that the 4k files can be used to grab decent quality stills e.g. a 4096x2160 can be cropped in Photoshop etc to 3:2 at 300ppi and printed at 10.8” x 7.2” without any interpolation as you no doubt already know. This is particularly beneficial where locked-off video is permitted but stills is not permitted but the clients want photos if they can.

I edit video on Vegas 16 v424. I always edit in multi-cam. Three cams or more plus some audio recorders work fine together on my main PC but 4k is way too much even on its own.

I have created a proxy file for a 4k file and this is fine when in Preview > Full editing mode in my default 25fps (PAL). It did take well over an hour to make the proxy of the 14 minute file.

Finally my questions – if you're still with me :- )

Would you regard Vegas 16 as a good choice to convert 4k files to 1080p. I see there are numerous other convertors some at just a few $.

I need to be able to edit in multi-cam from all three cams. In Vegas should I first render the 4k file to e.g. a high bitrate MP4 file at 1080p and then bring that file into the multi-cam and edit “as normal” from there. I would need to have cropped the 4k file to 16:9 anyway to match the other two cams. The Canon dSLR 4k files are monsters of course. Or is there a more appropriate intermediate file I should render to.

Comments

Musicvid wrote on 5/9/2019, 12:45 PM

The biggest advantage of including 4k scenes is cropping without losing sharpness.

A 1080p project and main camera.

A 4k camera for cutaways, zooms, ant tight crops and closeups in Post.

Deliver 1080p without cropping or zooming the main camera footage.

The "wow" factor is huge assuming the rest is in place.

Eagle Six wrote on 5/9/2019, 1:31 PM

Would you regard Vegas 16 as a good choice to convert 4k files to 1080p. I see there are numerous other convertors some at just a few $.
I need to be able to edit in multi-cam from all three cams. In Vegas should I first render the 4k file to e.g. a high bitrate MP4 file at 1080p and then bring that file into the multi-cam and edit “as normal” from there. I would need to have cropped the 4k file to 16:9 anyway to match the other two cams. The Canon dSLR 4k files are monsters of course. Or is there a more appropriate intermediate file I should render to.

@Peter-Riding from my experience with Vegas Pro, rendering an intermediate may save you disc space, but probably not much time savings over creating a proxy. I have some results, but you of course can easily test it yourself in your system, which will be more informative and accurate to you.

Taking a UHD/29.970p 10 bit source and writing a proxy in Vegas Pro 16/424 takes 25 seconds. Rendering that source to DNxHD 1080/29.970 10 bit in Vegas Pro 16/424 takes 19 seconds. Rendering that same source in DaVinci Resolve to DNxHD 1080/29.970p 10 bit takes 8 seconds.

My system specs are in my signature. Your results will mostly vary. Point being, I would probably setup a program to render intermediates in batch mode that would take advantage of my system specs and pickup some speed. If your system and chosen program to render intermediates from your 4K source is just marginal to the time it takes Vegas to produce proxies, that gain might not be worth the hassles of manipulating intermediates as proxies. On the other hand if you are never going to use the 4K resolution within your Vegas projects, such as cropping ( @Musicvid ), then you can just use the intermediates as the source and just load up the 4K to take snapshots of requested stills.

Myself, I would do everything I could to avoid intermediates and use the automated proxy function in Vegas. But, in the past there have been reasons I used intermediate files, and it became a part of my workflow. Copy files from camera storage to hard drive, batch render intermediates, then load into NLE for editing. Currently for me that is no longer necessary.

EDIT: add, original UHD source file size 1.11 GB, DNxHD 1080p intermediate file size 315 MB.