NEX 5 video work flow

[Stef.]

Hi everybody,
My name is Stef. and I am new here. I have been working in photography/video for the last 25+ years, but have only now ventured into HD video, thanks to my brandnew Nex 5. I am still using Mini DVs and am used to that format in my workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5.

I had and still have problems in understanding the sense of HD if one does not follow the HD format all the way through from input to output. If you capture HD video on your camera, then work on the AVCHD files in a programm that can deal with the file format and finally if you then put the video out onto blue ray discs or back onto video tape to watch the final product on your HD TV, than and only than can I see the advantage of using HD.

What I really do not understand- and please do correct me, should I go wrong here, is that one captures HD on i.e the Nex camera to then convert it via i.e. Adobe Premiere to a lossy format, for i.e. web use.

My question actually is: I would like to find out what the most "sensible" way is to deal with HD files? I have downloaded the free HD converter "Koyote" that can convert AVCHD files to pretty any other format. My understanding is that this should be done firstly, if your programm can't deal with AVCHD files. It gives me quite a few presets, but I am not sure what to set the fps conversion to? 29,97/30 or 60? Also what audio bitrate? 256?

I guess I would like to find out what are you doing with your AVCHD files from the Nex 5 cameras? How do you process them to keep highest possible quality preserved? I am on Windows.

Any tips and hints are very much appreciated.
Thanks

Stef.

 

[Cindy Flood]

Hi Stef,
Welcome to the forum. I have a NEX5, but have not done any video with it. Have you looked in the video forum? http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=50
I think you might find some info there. There is a link from there to Uwe's site and his work with the Sony NEX-VG10 Camcorder.

 

[ustein]

I hope my article can answer this:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/CONTENT_2007_01/section_Video_for_Photographers/20100822_Codecs_Transcoding/index.html

In short:

1. THe HDSLRs start with lossy
2. Avoid in the process to lose more
3. Finally target your output device (web, Blu-Ray)

 

[Stef.]

Thanks Uwe and Cindy. I had actually already read your article, but was wondering what the best setting was to convert the AVCHD file to keep as much quality as possible. Is Mpeg 4 better than i.e. AVI (considering that I will import the file after conversion into Adobe Premiere for further editing)? Does it make quality wise a difference if I set the frame rate to 29,97 or could I leave it at 60?

This is the website from which I downloaded the conversion program:
http://www.koyotesoft.com/indexEn.html

Thanks again for your help!
Stef.