Filmed gravel with 60D, looks wacky

Filmed gravel with 60D, looks wacky

by Ryan Bercaw

on Apr 30, 2013 at 2:47:16 am

Hi everyone, over the weekend I shot a personal project at a dig site. I've never shot anything like this before and while the footage loks great overall, there are a couple shots where I'm relatively close to coarse gravel and it develops a crazy amount of what appears to be noise (I'm pretty sure it isn't, though). Here's a shot that really exemplifies what I'm talking about:

Make sure the player is set to 1080p, and past that, the Youtube video appears to make it look even worse by making it more jaggy. That clip was the raw, not the Prores. On my computer, the raws and transcodes are smooth and normal except for the gravel and some of the bone. I logged and transferred straight off the card onto FCP7 as Prores 422. I also have access to Compressor and Sorenson but I figured I'd ask for advice before screwing with it. All I tried so far was a standard odd field deinterlace and a reverse telecine deinterlace. Odd looked the same, reverse telecine made it look worse. Does anyone have any idea how I could possibly re-encode some of these clips to remove that gravel chaos or possibly a denoiser or something?

The footage was shot on a 60D,
1920x1080,
29.97 fps,
latest firmware,
1/30, f/11-13 (don't recall specifically), 100 ISO
Canon 24-105mm f/4L with a circular polarizer

Ingested to FCP7 as Prores 422

I saw there was another thread on the front page about 60D image issues but it didn't seem to be what I'm experiencing, and Google searches came up with nothing. Your help is very much appreciated!

Re: Filmed gravel with 60D, looks wacky

by Guy McLoughlin

on Apr 30, 2013 at 7:50:37 pm

This looks like aliasing of the fine gravel that travels with your focus.

I don't think there is anything you can do to correct this, short of shooting with a better camera, like a proper ENG video camera or a Canon C100/C300, which should handle the fine detail better than your 60D camera does.

Re: Filmed gravel with 60D, looks wacky

by Ryan Bercaw

on May 1, 2013 at 1:14:23 am

I was afraid that was the case. Just one more follow up question. I know that Sorenson and Compressor offer a few aliasing options depending on what codec you're choosing. I don't know anything about them other than that they're there. Is that something worth researching further or is it unrelated to this specific issue?

Thanks again for the prompt reply.

Re: Filmed gravel with 60D, looks wacky

by Bill Bruner

on May 1, 2013 at 11:34:29 am

Hi Ryan - sadly, shot-ruining aliasing and moire are a real problem for older Canon DSLRs. The early DIGIC processors couldn't handle the real-time downscaling from the 5200x3462 pixels on the still camera sensor to the "mere" 1920x1080 pixels required for HD video.

But you don't have to step all the way up to a $5500 C100 to solve this problem. You can trade up to a DSLR or mirrorless DSLMs with close to zero moire - such as the Panasonic GH2, the Nikon D5200, the Nikon D7100, the Canon 5D Mark III or the Panasonic GH3 (although the GH3 backslides a little in this department).

Here are a couple of examples of the problem in these side-by-sides of the 60D and the GH2:

As Andrew Reid said in the eoshd review of the GH3, "Tell me one good reason why you are still shooting on a Rebel."

Best,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

Re: Filmed gravel with 60D, looks wacky

by Brent Dunn

on May 2, 2013 at 2:36:37 pm

That is probably Moire, which is a problem with a lot of DSLR sensors. You'll also see this on straight lined objects.

The newer 50 MkIII has a better sensor and doesn't have the issues the 60D, 7D, * Mk II seem to have while filming.

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.net

Sony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro
with Final Cut Studio Adobe CS6 Production

Re: Filmed gravel with 60D, looks wacky

by charles meadows

on May 9, 2013 at 6:48:33 pm

It's moire alright, nothing much you can do about it except minimise your camera movement in situations like that and stick the camera on a tripod (remember though, if you start to do a pan or tilt the moire will come back).

"There's no point in filming if you don't have fun"
Charles Meadows
Creative Director
Incubate Productions South Africa
http://www.incubatevideo.co.za