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For the past 25 years we have been helping customers like you and now we're here to help you get the best & most efficient video editing workflow with your new DSLR!

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Videoguys'
Guide to DSLR workflows

The past year has been an interesting one in the camcorder market. We have seen more consumer models move towards HD resolutions and watched an influx of new devices for direct video to the web. The professional camcorder market has also changed dramatically and there has been a revolution of sorts combining professional video with high-end photography.

Today, consumers can capture video on cell phones, Flip Video™ Cameras and even pocket digital cameras. The consumer side of the camcorder market has been dominated by the introduction of small, lightweight HD camcorders recording in the AVCHD format to even more affordable flash memory cards or internal hard drives. These AVCHD cams record spectacular HD video in what the industry calls full HD, meaning 1920x1080 image sizes. While these camcorders are fantastic for point and shooters, home videographers and prosumers, they do not offer the ability to control the image composition that professionals need.

Several years ago the folks over at RED® announced a new breakthrough in professional camcorders. They would deliver the image quality and controls of camcorders costing over $50K for half or a third of the price. RED started a revolution and made a permanent impact in the industry before they ever shipped an actual unit. While RED kept on refining, re-designing and re-launching their product line, the camera folks like Canon®, Nikon®, Panasonic® & Sony® got busy as well. The first DSLR camcorder with HD video recording capabilities to have a significant impact was the Canon EOS 5D Mark II which was launched over a year ago. Then, last year, Canon introduced the 7D at around a $1,500 street price. The revolution had begun!

Over the past year Canon has produced and shipped tens of thousands of DSLR camcorders worldwide. With so many of these getting into the hands of such a wide range of videographers, from home users, to event videographers, independent filmmakers and now even Network TV shows and Hollywood movies, the impact has been dramatic. At Videoguys.com, we are getting calls and emails and reading new forum threads each day asking us what is the best way to edit and work with the footage created from these revolutionary devices. We hope this guide, written by Gary Bettan (the Videoguy himself) and Herb Ricco (our resident creative-guy and experienced Avid®, Adobe® & Apple® editor) will help!

We contacted some of our friends at Canon and told them about our idea for the guide. They loved it! In fact, they sent us over a pair of DSLRs to evaluate and use for this guide. As you might guess, we were pretty excited when a Canon EOS 5D Mark II arrived complete with an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens kit, along with a Canon EOS 7D Digital with an EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens kit. We can't thank them enough for the opportunity to get all this hands on time with them. Our only regret is that they needed to be returned.

What makes Digital SLR Special?

The biggest advantages of DSLR cameras are the flexibility to change the lenses and to control depth of field. We've been shooting DV and HD footage with camcorders using the built-in digital zoom for so long that we've just accepted that even HD video looks flat. You just can't easily create the depth of field with standard camcorders that you can with a DSLR equipped with the proper lens. While 3D technology is coming on strong in Hollywood and soon in our living rooms, it's amazing to me how one dimensional typical HD footage looks.

However, put one of these DSLR cameras in the hands of an experienced shooter who understands the equipment and you'll see them create videos that have such a rich depth to them. While it's not film, you can instantly tell that it's not your typical video either. Whether the footage was shot in 30p or 24p mode, the final production is going to have a rich, film like quality that clearly sets it apart from others. This has already made a major impact on the wedding and event videography market. In fact, check out this excerpt from the latest update to the Videoguys' Wedding & Event Videography Guide.

Helpful Tools & Rigging
One rule of video editing that is also true with a new DSLR camera is that quality of your final, edited production may only be as good as the footage with which you start. Therefore, it's important to know what tools you need to make your video shoot go as smoothly as possible.

When shooting video with the Canon DSLR cameras you have to use the fixed LCD monitor on the back of the body. This works fine when you are indoors and the camera is mounted on a tripod but it's not so great when you are shooting outdoors under a bright sun or if you need to be able to move around while shooting. Fortunately, there are several rigging options available to help make it easier for you to get the best footage in every environment.

Zacuto makes a cool little rig called the Z-Finder that includes a magnified eyepiece that you mount over your camera's LCD screen. The Z-Finder mounts to your camera quickly and easily and is an excellent base-line rig.

Another rigging option, and Videoguys' recommendation, is to connect one of the iKan LCD monitors for a much larger, high-definition image preview. The Ikan V5600 is small, lightweight 5.6" LCD monitor with a fantastic picture and HD display resolutions. Of course, if you need a larger screen, iKan has several other monitors available in their product line. We have heard from customers using the 8" V8000 model and even the new 8.9" VX9 model in the field, all with great results.

Finally, Canon includes the EOS Digital Solution Software that allows you to use a PC Laptop as your field monitor, by attaching the DSLR via USB. This is very cool indeed, because you get full access to the control panel via your laptop. Here is a link to a YouTube™ video demonstrating this capability. How cool would it be if Canon or someone else developed an App for the new Apple iPad™ to do this!!

Another issue with DSLR cameras that you must consider while setting up your rig is audio quality. DSLR cameras are equipped with just the most basic microphone and the sound is just okay, at best. If your talent is more than 6 feet away from the camera your audio quality will diminish quickly. Fortunately, the Canon DSLR cameras are all equipped with a mini-jack microphone input and we recommend adding a stereo microphone like the Azden SMX-10 or for more professional applications an Azden SGM-series zoom mic; or a wireless microphone system like the Azden 105LT that includes the wireless receiver, bodypack transmitter and lapel mic.

Many of our customers who are event videographers have also decided to add a field audio recorder like the Edirol R-44 to their system. The R-44 is a great little unit. It records four channels simultaneously on solid state storage. That means you can hook in wireless mics, a zoom mic, and even a feed from a soundboard if available. The RS-44 also has 2 built in mics which are perfect for grabbing ambient soundtracks.

DSLR Editing Workflows
First the VERY GOOD news. All of our professional video editing applications are able to import and edit footage from your new Canon DSLR camera!

Following the links below for more detailed information about DSLR suggestions for the Video Editing System of your choice!

• Apple Final Cut Pro® 7
• Avid Media Composer® 4
• Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4
• SONY Vegas Pro 9
• Grass Valley® EDIUS®

Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4, Apple Final Cut Pro® 7, Avid Media Composer® 4, SONY Vegas Pro 9 and Grass Valley® EDIUS® can all edit your DSLR footage in all its HD glory. However, there are some suggestions we will make to further tweak your workflow and get optimum results.

The Canon 5D and 7D record photos and video to a Compact Flash Card. In our review we used a high-speed, 32GB SanDisk Extreme III CF Card. Of course, there are always advancements in CF card sizes and speeds and at the time of this article there are cards as large as 120GB available.

In order to get full HD 1080p 1920x1080 on a CF card the Canon DSLR camera's use a highly compressed (but still excellent quality) H.264 format. The problem with this is that most video editing applications, including Apple Final Cut Pro, have a very difficult time editing this footage. The H.264 compression just gums up the works! So, the footage needs to be converted into a more useable format and here are the Videoguys' recommendations based on the editing software you're going to use:

Apple Final Cut Studio 3 Apple Final Cut Studio 3 Upgrade $949.00 Reg. $999.00 $279.00 Reg. $299.00

Start by connecting the Canon DSLR camera to your Mac via USB and download the video files to your computer. When you connect a camera to your Mac, Apple's iPhoto opens by default but you can change that in your system preferences. Videoguys' recommends Apple's built-in Image Capture utility to get the job done.

Now that the H.264 files are on your Mac you'll need to convert them so that they may be easily edited. Luckily, Final Cut Studio comes with it's own compression software appropriately named Compressor. We have done several tests and found that ProRes422LT is the perfect format to convert to for your DSLR footage. It maintains the video quality while keeping the file sizes reasonably small. Plus, it's a native Apple format that was added to Final Cut Pro 7 and optimized to work perfectly. If you are still using Apple Final Cut Pro version 6 you can use Apple's ProRes422HQ but your file sizes will be a bit larger.

Click here for more info on the ProRes format

Compressor runs as a standalone application on your Mac. All you have to do is import the files from your hard drive, and choose a destination and a format. In our case the ProRes422LT format. And hit submit. Compressor will take a little while to get going, but you will soon see the progress bars start to advance on each of your files.

This conversion process can be time consuming depending on how much footage you gave it to convert. And, don't fret if Compressor takes 2 to 3 minutes to start after you hit submit. It's just buffering. One of the great things about using Compressor is that you can output to multiple formats at the same time! So, if you would like to export a few clips in ProRes422LT as well as a format that is multimedia friendly you may choose any of the built in presets for YouTube, iPod®, iPhone® and more.

There are several other software based conversion options available as an alternative to Compressor. The speed of the software conversion will depend on your Mac's processing power but when we tested them on our 8-Core Mac Pro with 2GB of Ram we did see some advantages.

One of our favorite software encoding tools is actually FREE! It's MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5. This freeware utility is a joy to work with, and it's fast!!

There are a few settings you'll have to tweak to get the most from MPEG Streamclip

• First, move the quality slider all the way to the right for the best quality.
• From the drop down menu choose ProRes422LT.
• Since this footage is 1080p (progressive) we need to UN-check the de-interlace option. And we want to leave the image size and frame rate to "same as source". We'll get into frame rates in minute.
• Once you have all of that set, just hit submit and go get some coffee. Well, you may not have time for coffee because this software is fast!!

Another popular software encoder that we had the opportunity to review (and our favorite paid application) is CineForm's NeoScene. NeoScene handled the 24p format from the Canon DSLR with impressive quality and speed and brought all of the video into CineForm's intermediate CODEC optimized for editing with Final Cut Pro. We also used NeoScene a lot with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 so we'll go into more details on this tool a bit later.

When we started writing this article there were some rumors on the internet that Canon would be releasing a plug in for Final Cut Pro that would streamline the conversion process. Just as we are wrapping it up, Canon has released the EOS Movie Plugin-E1 for Final Cut Pro. This plug in is a huge time saver and workflow enhancement. In short, this plug in allows Final Cut Pro 7's Log and Transfer tool to import Canon 1D, 5D Mark II and 7D H.264 QuickTime files and transcode to any of the ProRes formats.

Click here to watch Chris Fenwick's 5 minute tutorial on how it works at Studio Daily!!

Ok. So, we have successfully transferred our footage to our Mac, and have successfully converted all the files to Apple's ProRes422LT format. What's next? EDIT!

Open up Final Cut Pro and start a new project. Right-click in the bin, or option click if you don't have a two button mouse on your Mac, and select import. Select your clips and click import. The clips will show up in your bin. Once you load a clip into the viewer window you will be able to scrub back and forth with ease, no stuttering position lines, no waiting for the position line to catch up, no jerky footage. Just beautifully smooth, full 1080p footage! Once you put a clip on the time line Final Cut will most likely tell you that the current sequence and the source footage do not match. Don't worry, Just click yes and Final Cut will conform the sequence to the source footage. Edit away!

One caveat with the Canon 5D is that this camera shoots at 30FPS, while the 7D shoots in 24p so if you want that 24p look and feel. You will have to convert your footage to 24p. it has been my experience that converting your whole sequence to 24p when you are completely done with your edit, is the best way to go. There really is no need to convert to 24p for editing, the process is a little time consuming, and just keeps you from getting your footage in and out. So convert to 24p after the fact. (Revision Canon has release a firmware update to the 5D mark II that includes the 24p frame rate!) you can download it here. Still have a read through following conversion process, it may be useful to you at some point in your editing.

If you need to convert to 24p I suggest using Apple's built in utility "Cinema Tools"

• First, it is best make a copy of your timeline and paste it into a new sequence. This is the best way to preserve the audio, if the audio is critical to your production. If you are going to add audio or music later on, you can skip this step.
• Send your timeline to Cinema Tools.
• Choose conform to 23.98.
  Conforming the video is different than converting it. Cinema Tools is leaving the same number of frames in the footage but changing the time base. This will slow down your audio by a few frames which is why we made a copy of our timeline in the first step. When you re-import the footage back into Final Cut you'll have to speed your audio back up to match the video and that is easy to do with Final Cut's re-timing tool.

Don't worry if this sounds like a lot of work just to get the footage in and out of the machine. It's really not. When I first started reviewing these cameras I expected to be tied up with converting and reconverting, and exporting and importing, but once I got the workflow down it went very fast. I compared it to working on a non-tapeless workflow where you would have to digitize tapes, and batch capture, and offline and online footage. The DSLR workflow is actually much faster than that.

Once you have edited your ProRes files in Apple Final Cut Studio you will want to use Compressor again to encode the files to your deliverable format and there are some great products on the market to help speed up this process! Most notably Matrox's line of MXO2's with MAX technology. The MAX Technology is the key here. The Matrox® MXO2™ Mini, MXO2 LE and other MXO2 products are all available with Matrox MAX™ and the Matrox Compress HD is an internal PCIE card that allows you to add Matrox MAX to any Final Cut system. This will speed up your conversion to H.264 to faster than real-time!! We used a Matrox MXO2 Mini with MAX for this article and it reminded us why it was picked as a Videoguys' Top 10 Product of 2009. While we were editing in Final Cut Pro we used the HDMI output from Matrox MXO2 Mini to view the DSLR footage in all it's HD glory on our flat-screen LCD HD television monitor. When we were done editing the hardware accelerated encoding to H.264 with Matrox MAX technology impressed us even more.

Avid Media Composer 4

Avid Media Composer 4 Avid Media Composer 4 Upgrade $2,495.00 $495.00

Like Apple Final Cut, you'll need to convert the footage from your Canon DSLR camera for use in Avid Media Composer. Avid Media Composer has a few proprietary DNxHD Codecs to choose from and we found the DNx115 to be our Videoguys' recommendation. Avid's DNx115 Codec is an excellent compromise offering exceptional video-quality in a manageable file size.

You can read more about the other DNxHD options in this PDF whitepaper from Avid

Unlike Final Cut, where you have to use Compressor or a third-party conversion software, the Avid Media Composer DNxHD conversion process is built right into the import options!! This makes the workflow a lot easier to master and understand.

• Open Avid Media Composer and start a new project.
• Create a new bin for your footage.
• Right click in the bin and choose import.
• On the bottom left of the import window you will see options for choosing which DNxHD codec you would like to use.
• Select the files from your Canon 5D/7D and click Import. Media Composer will begin the conversion process and when it is all done the files will show up in your bin ready for editing.

Alternatively, you may use the MPEG Streamclip freeware mentioned above with Final Cut Pro but, in our tests, Avid's built in DNxHD converter was actually much faster and we always prefer to stay within the manufacturer's workflow unless there is a compelling reason and significant advantage with other tools.

On the Avid Community Forums we just read a post from "Cagey" (aka Keith) about this new AVCHD/DSLR workflow for Avid using CineForm® NeoScene! While we wait for AMA support of AVCHD there is an improvement that I found that some may know but I thought I would share it here for those that missed it.

Step one - Convert AVCHD (.mts etc.) file to .avi using CineForm NeoScene. This $100 product is gaining a lot of attention because other NLEs are beginning to support the CineForm Codec natively. This works with cameras like the Canon 5D/7D too. It converts the color space to 4:2:2, handles 24p correctly and is considered visually lossless. It is fairly fast too. I know that there are a lot of TMPGEnc fans out there (and there are others) but there is another reason for using CineForm.

Step two - Open MetaFuze (a free Avid product - download latest version at www.avid.com/metafuze) and open the .avi file created in step one. Yes the CineForm codec is supported in MetaFuze when you have the free Neo Player or the NeoScene product installed. Choose your flavor of DNxHD and point the output directory to the Avid MediaFiles directory of choice. Add any pertinent meta data as needed. Then transcode. It allows you to dedicate multiple CPUs as needed, and group files to batch process.

Step three - Fire up Avid Media Composer, open a project, then use the media tool to locate the files you created in step two. Drag them to a bin. Your files are immediately ready to use. That beats a fast import any day.

How amazing would it be if Canon would release an Avid version of the EOS Movie Plugin-E1 for Media Composer that supported Avid AMA! Now you would be able to edit your DSLR footage natively inside Media Composer. Who knows - NAB is just a few weeks away and we've got our fingers crossed!

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 PC - $799.00 Mac - $799.00 Click here for Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Upgrades

Adobe CS4 Production Premium PC - $1,499.00 Reg. $1,699.00 Mac - $1,499.00 Reg. $1,699.00 Click here for Adobe CS4 Production Premium Upgrades

Like Avid Media Composer, the Adobe Premiere Pro software is available for both the PC and Mac. But, since we used the Mac Pro for Final Cut and Avid we decided to change gears at this point of the review and play with our latest PC build - the Videoguys' DIY7.7. On this Core i7 machine we were able to import and edit the .mov files directly from the CF cards and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 can edit these files in their native format, but it wasn't what we would call a productive workflow - it was actually a bit clunky. While the straight cuts played back fine, when we created our timeline with PIP and graphics everything slowed down a lot.

NeoScene to the rescue!
We knew we needed a little help with the Adobe workflow so we used CineForm's NeoScene to import the files into the CineForm Intermediate CODEC. WOW! The images looked great and now Premiere Pro was able to handle our timeline, including PIP and graphics, with ease. When it came time to work with 24p footage from the Canon 7D camera, NeoScene shined even brighter. We were also excited to hear CineForm's newest announcement that came in while we were writing this guide - NeoScene fully supports the new Canon EOS Rebel T2i!

Note: Just as we were wrapping up this article Canon released the new 5D firmware that supports 24P. We did not have permission to install this upgrade on the 5D on loan to us from Canon but we're confident that the results will be the same with NeoScene.

Mighty Mercury
Adobe has been leaking a ton of information about the new Mercury playback engine coming in CS5. This new feature will tap into the NVIDIA® CUDA™ technology found in high-end Quadro® graphics cards. We've seen the demos and they are pretty amazing. See it for yourself with this Sneak Peek video on Adobe TV. The NVIDIA Quadro FX3800 graphics card with support for the Adobe Mercury playback engine will be able to run multiple layers of native AVCHD or Canon DSLR footage in real-time! While we have no official information on Adobe Creative Suite® 5, we know that it will be announced and NAB on Monday, April 12th and shipping shortly there after. We can't wait for NAB! In the meantime, follow all the buzz on the Adobe CS5 Launch site or by using this tag to the Videoguys Blog.

Matrox MXO2 Mini and MXO2 LE and your Adobe workflow
One of the things you are going to want the most to go along with your DSLR workflow is the ability to preview your timeline, while you edit in all it's HD glory. The Matrox MXO2 Mini is the perfect solution. For under $500 you get HDMI output that is full resolution, full speed on any off the shelf HDTV with HDMI or component inputs. The MXO2 Mini is also available in a version with Matrox MAX technology that adds faster than real-time encoding to H.264 for final output to Blu-ray Disc™, YouTube or Flash. If you're workflow requires SDI, the Matrox MXO2 LE gives you all of the capability of the MXO2 Mini plus the addition of SD/HD SDI I/O for under $1,000. Like I said, anyone editing DSLR or AVCHD footage with Premiere Pro MUST check out the MXO2 family of I/O solutions. They are such a great value.

Sony Vegas Pro 9

Grass Valley EDIUS and Neo 2

Grass Valley EDIUS Neo 2 with AVCHD Booster Grass Valley EDIUS v5 with FREE Upgrade to v5.5 $199.95 Reg. $229.95 $749.95 Reg. $799.95

Grass Valley EDIUS 5 and Neo 2 both handle the footage from the DSLRs very well. We used the importer to encode the footage into the Canopus HQ CODEC. The footage looked spectacular and even more important, we are able to handle multiple layers of video, graphics, titles and effects with ease. One of the most powerful features in EDIUS is it's ability to rip through timelines with mixed HD footage. The AVCHD Booster that is now included in EDIUS Neo 2 and has been announced as a new feature in EDIUS 5.5 (official launch date April 12th) allows you to edit the DSLR footage natively.

We used the EDIUS Neo 2 w/ Booster for our DSLR footage tests and it ripped through the footage NATIVELY! No conversions required. We just put it on the timeline and started editing with it. Up to 3 layers and it still stays real-time!!

At NAB 2010 Grass Valley will unveil the latest updated version, which now includes real-time, full resolution AVCHD editing already released for the EDIUS Neo 2 Booster package. This new feature is ideally suited to the professional and prosumer videographer who shoots and/or edits AVCHD video and desires native real-time performance when editing material compressed with the AVCHD format. In addition, EDIUS 5.5 is now fully Windows 7 compatible.

Aside from EDIUS, no other NLE on the market offers native, full-resolution, real-time editing of multiple layers of AVCHD material. With the new Grass Valley AVCHD engine, EDIUS 5.5 can edit more than three layers of full resolution, full frame-rate AVCHD in real-time.

Current users who have registered their EDIUS (5.0 or higher) software can download and install the update with Win 7 support and this new AVCHD support at no additional charge. Upgrading will bring all the benefits of EDIUS 5.5, including bonus software, GPU fx, partial clip transfer, Blu-ray disc writing and more, in addition to this new AVCHD editing capability and Windows 7 support.

Web sites, Online Forums, Articles and Resources
related to the Canon 5D and 7D DSLR Cameras

Canon Website

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II | Canon EOS 7D specs, download drivers, firmware, software and manuals
• Canon EOS HD Video - Interactive website loaded with videos about the EOS series of cams and their HD Video capabilities
• Canon EOS 7D: On-Camera Tutorial Videos - Canon On-Camera Tutorial Videos explore a specific feature or technology of the EOS 7D. These instructional videos are designed to be viewed at your convenience: Watch them online, on the go, or even on your camera's rear LCD screen -- so you can follow along, every step of the way!
• Sample EOS 5D Mark II Video: Reverie - Incredible production shot entirely on the 5D. REVERIE, an independently-produced video by Explorer of Light Vincent Laforet.

DSLR User Forums, Blogs, Communities and Groups

• Cinema5D.Com - A forum for DSLR Filmmakers. Excellent user forums with video tips, and examples. This has been our top resource while working with the DSLR cameras.
• Planet 5D Blog - An online news blog dedicated to the Canon DSLR cameras updated daily.
• DVinfo.Net Canon HDV, AVCHD & EOS Camera Systems Forums
• Vimeo Group: Canon 5D MKII - Video sharing channel dedicated to 5D MKII
• Vimeo Group: Canon EOS 7D - Video sharing channel dedicated to the Canon EOS 7D
• Videoguys Forums - DSLR & AVCHD Editing - Our new forums dedicated to discuss editing workflows, production tips and the latest new models

Articles used in our research for this article:

• DVX User has a great article on "aliasing" that every DSLR user should read
• Creative Cow HDSLRs for Video - Beyond the Hype
• Digitalfilms Easy Canon 5D post - Round II
• Digitalfilms Canon 5D Avid FCP roundtrip
• EventDV In the Field: Producing SDEs with the Canon 5D and 7D
• Videomaker DSLRs That Shoot HD Video - A Different Kind of Camcorder
• EDITBLOG on PVC Canon finally releases their DSLR plug-in for Final Cut Pro's Log and Transfer tool
• DSLR News Shooter Johnnie Behiri shoots National Geographic "Earth explore" desert adventure on 7D
• Videoguys Blogs & Guides - Keep up to date on all the news and article with the Videoguys' Hot Tag search "DSLR"

Other DSLR Rigs & Accessories:

• RedRock Micro
• Kessler Crane KC Lite Crane and Jib Arm
• Zacuto DSLR Camera Accessories
• Canon5D Tips - Check out this video for a great little rig for under $350.00 and a bunch of other cool tips for the Canon DSLRs