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Thread: Same quality from an HG20 and a DSLR? How?

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    Default Same quality from an HG20 and a DSLR? How?

    Hi,

    I made a mini documentary with some interviews made with an HG20 while filming details with a 5DMKii. Now someone's complaining that the quality is very different and I need to downgrade the quality of the 5D to match the HG 20...

    How do I do this?

    Thanks

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    You'll have to give us more info: exactly what does your commenter mean? Color? Contrast? DOF? Each has its own fixes. Are you sure it's not the other way around? In daylight without cinemode HG20 footage typically has higher resolution and higher contrast and to me looks cleaner and crisper (yes, more like video) than 5DII footage, especially if the footage has been been downrezzed, might look better to a lot of people. You might want to post some examples.

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    Quote Originally Posted by zalle View Post
    downgrade the quality of the 5D to match the HG 20...
    Waaaaaaa????

    I would export the 5D footage in a low quality format with low bitrate and then bring it back in... but that'll give you more of a pixelated/ webcam look... might work.
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    Maybe it could be sharpness, sharpness with the DSLR seems pretty high...

    Well guys, you can take a look at it here, password is "bright partners":

    Obviously they are both in a somewhat low res, but both the same. By the way, should I have used cinemode for these takes?

    HG20: https://vimeo.com/43675656

    5D MKii: https://vimeo.com/43639887

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    Password is incorrect.

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    Upppssss... Sorry: "bright academy"

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    FilmMaker Extraordinaire Daniel Rutter's Avatar
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    You might be able to get away with a slight defussion blur on the 5D footage, then pulling the skin tones on the HG20 footage towards the orange. For the 5D footage, add a touch of grain and make the 'chunkiness' of the grain about the same size of the pixels in your HG20 footage. This *should* get you a little closer to what you're after I would think.

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    Your HG20 footage demonstrates what I call the cinemode effect. I now belong to the "you should never ever use cinemode school". I think it absolutely destroys your footage for a very small gain in dynamic range. Other people think because its called cinemode it makes your footage look cinematic and gives you more room for color correction. That's their trip. But that isn't what you want in this type of video. You cannot recover the resolution you have lost and bring the HG20 footage up to the 5DII standard but you can ameliorate the look by sharpening. I've come up against this problem before, and found the best way to add cinemode to 5DII footage was to add a half pixel gaussian blur and drop the contrast three notches.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Daniel Rutter View Post
    You might be able to get away with a slight defussion blur on the 5D footage, then pulling the skin tones on the HG20 footage towards the orange. For the 5D footage, add a touch of grain and make the 'chunkiness' of the grain about the same size of the pixels in your HG20 footage. This *should* get you a little closer to what you're after I would think.
    Daniel's answer is quite good. I would add a small blur amount on the 5D footage but it's still, you won't get something "very" close to each other, as you have some shallow "DOF" in one while the other is like "everything" in focus. So they will obviously look different in the end.
    That being said, trying to match the colors, like Daniel said, would help a lot. Then add some blur on the 5D footage and finally, a layer of grain/noise on it (color noise preferably) would help to match both. But it can only be done by visually. And it all comes down to preferences. I could always try to see what I can do.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rainer View Post
    Your HG20 footage demonstrates what I call the cinemode effect. I now belong to the "you should never ever use cinemode school". I think it absolutely destroys your footage for a very small gain in dynamic range. Other people think because its called cinemode it makes your footage look cinematic and gives you more room for color correction. That's their trip. But that isn't what you want in this type of video. You cannot recover the resolution you have lost and bring the HG20 footage up to the 5DII standard but you can ameliorate the look by sharpening. I've come up against this problem before, and found the best way to add cinemode to 5DII footage was to add a half pixel gaussian blur and drop the contrast three notches.
    I did NOT use cinemode. Just plain "P" mode.

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    Sorry Zalle, misunderstood. "Should I have used Cinemode" can be interpreted both ways, and the answer in both cases is "no". The consensus still is that the HG20 footage is softer, which is a bit strange since normally it's sharper than the 5DII.

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    flatten and reduce the saturation a little and try to add a light grain to your 5d footage.and try adding sharpening to the gh2 might help you out also have both cameras on different timeline so its easier for you to switch back and forth to check out the differences

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    Quote Originally Posted by Burns Luciano View Post
    try adding sharpening to the gh2
    GH2?
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    Yeah I've seen this so many times... you'll never get it to "match"... some of the suggestions above to play with the color and add blur/grain/noise will get it a little closer, but I'm sorry you will never "match" those shots. You need a second 5DII to attempt a 2 camera interview shoot again or else shoot the interviews with the 5DII and THEN shoot your cutaways, B-roll, establishing and cover shots with the SAME camera.

    Do NOT try to use those 2 cameras together in the future... they're just too different to mix on a timeline together IMO.

    Personally, I'm done with DSLR (although the IQ is often brilliantly stunning) due to practicability, ergonomics, and the content I now shoot works better on ENG cameras (I can still fake/simulate shallow DoF with the telephoto end on occasion), so I currently multi cam with identical HF S Series cameras and will likely be picking up an XF100 as my 3rd (A) camera later this year, unless Canon releases something new (maybe 3 CCD?) before the year is out.

    Good Luck Bro!
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    Quote Originally Posted by hd-tography View Post
    gh2?
    lmao hg20

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    turn on the download feature for the 2 videos

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    Quote Originally Posted by zalle View Post
    Hi,

    I made a mini documentary with some interviews made with an HG20 while filming details with a 5DMKii. Now someone's complaining that the quality is very different and I need to downgrade the quality of the 5D to match the HG 20...

    How do I do this?

    Thanks
    There are many good suggestions here, but I would suggest that you do not downgrade the stunning quality of your DSLR footage. Kick up the HG20 contrast, work on color balancing and brightness, add sharpness, make it look as good as possible. If you can, disolve, don't cut, between the two cameras. I think you can make it look very good this way and still not lose the punch of that fine 5D footage.

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