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Well, even if the lens doesn't give accurate data, it still can be done. Lets say the lens gives x mm, and at the next step y mm.

If we could program in a menu how the focus should react when the lens gives y mm, problem solved.

When ML reads 24mm change focus to +2, when it reads 35mm change focus +3, something like that. All that is needed is just a menu for programing how the focus should react to a given number of mm that the lens reports. It doesn't matter if the lens reports 24mm instead of 27mm, since we can program the focus at a given mm number reported by the lens (even wrong), we program the focus by eye.

We should have in a menu something like this:

17mm - a value
18mm - b value
19mm - c value
20mm - user inserts +/- focus correction in rapport to c value (or inserted by the user in rapport to what value)
.
.
50mm -
.
.

[GOP 1, or QScale -16 (GOP 3) ?]

Gop is independent from qscale. Since canon is still controlling quality it might just be stopping at 12? On TL1 I could do 1 and the same slice value.


Lower iso will produce lower rates.. .I think at higher iso you're mainly encoding bouncing noise tho.

If I disable the Slice control and shoot only with CBR 3.0x, with GOP 1 it goes only as high as QScale -12, but with GOP 3 it goes all the way to QScale -16. What I don't understand is what is there to gain/lose by using either GOP 1 or QScale -16, what is more important for the quality of the video ? GOP 1, or QScale -16 (GOP 3) ?

And another thing that I don't understand is what happens to the QScale under Slice control, for instance if slice set to 87, that means what in terms of QScale ?

I am a little bit confused. If I understand correctly GOP 1 uses QScale -12, and GOP 3 uses QScale -16 ? And in this case, what is the best option for better video ? GOP 1 or 3 ?

I know GOP 1 is All-I, but is this more important than QScale -16 ?

I was thinking, won't it be possible to have a feature that would keep the image focused in case of zooming ? If for instance you are now at 17mm focused right on, and you zoom to 50mm, the image is no longer focused right, but won't it be possible somehow for magic lantern to maintain the right focus all the way through zoom ? You can calculate the amount of focus correction necessary for a given x mm, like when you go from 18 to 50mm, you can calculate how much focus correction is needed between 18 and 50mm, that way magic lantern could maintain the focus.

He was actually doing something like 145 mph, and yes, I agree, a risky thing.

The original footage was shoot with Tragic Lantern v1, with these settings: Cinestyle, ISO 1600, sound off, 30p, DblockA/B -6,-6, picqPC 0, GOP1, JP Slice 87, Slice Lock: enabled, MinBR :130, Max:160, Drop By 1: 140, drop by 3: 145, Taper rates: disabled.

Then it was imported in After Effects, levels adjusted + magic bullet looks, then exported to H.264 @ 20.000 kb/s.

Then of course youtube demolished the quality by compressing it at ~8 mbs.

Same settings + FPS override (10 fps), without magic bullet looks, ISO 1600:

Funny, because yesterday I was shooting with these settings from a moving car, and I never got higher bitrates than 104 mbs, but I has filming at ISO 80, maybe that is the cause. Filled two 32 Gb cards with no problems, no stops, no nothing. My buffer warning is set to 70%, but from what I see on the screen, it never gets past 8%, it goes 2-3%, 5%, back to 1%, 2-3% and so on.

30p, sound off, CBR 3.0x, DblockA/B -6,-6, picqPC 0, GOP1, JP Slice 87, Slice Lock: enabled, MinBR :130, Max:160, Drop By 1: 140, drop by 3: 145, Taper rates: disabled.

Are these the best settings for H.264 ?

Today I was filming from a moving car with the setting from the first post, I never got higher bitrates than 104 mbs, but I was filming at ISO 80. The lowest averege bitrate was 78 and the highest was 104 mbs, in different clips of course.

I wonder how is better, to use ISO 80 and ~90-100 mbs, or something like ISO 400 and ~120-140 mbs ?

I have used those settings that are in the first post of this topic, with ISO 80 and Slice 87, but I get bitrates from 86 to 96 mbs averege, is that normal ? I thought the settings will produce a minimum of 140 mbs, what am I missing ? My card is a Sandisk 45 MB/s formatted in exFat.

It has to be rewritten because of new menus, etc.

Also remember buffer warn is also the level it will start lowering slices so if it stops on TL 1, lower the buffer warning level.

But lowering the buffer warning level what does that mean ? From 70% to 95%, or from 70% to 50%, in witch way is lowering ? My thoughts are that if put to 95%, it means that only then it will reduce the video quality, right ? Only when it reaches 95% the slices will drop.

[<--- way less aliasing compared to f/5.6]

Before, I used to shoot with cinestyle, with 0 in camera sharpening, then, in Adobe After Effects, I had to use the unsharp mask effect, but with values like 1-250 to get good enough sharpening, and it was pretty noisy on the footage afterwards, but I had a solution to that by using the H.264 encoder, it gets rid of most of the noise, but still, it was a less than satisfactory result in terms on noise. After shooting with +1 in camera sharpening, in After Effects I was required to use only values like 0.5-100 to get the same sharpening that I got before, but with way less noise, like -90%. So it's definitely the way to go.

You can still use 0 in camera sharpening on scenes that don't need to be too sharp, but use +1 if you are not sure.

CBR 3x, 0 in camera sharpening, AE unsharp mask (1-250), f/5.6:

CBR 3x, +1 in camera sharpening, AE unsharp mask (0.5-100), f/5.6:

They look the same, but the first one, had way more noise before being exported with AE and encoded again with H.264, as a result of the high values of the unsharpen mask.

And another tip, if you want to get rid of all the aliasing from the image, shoot it with f/10-22. I know that every lens has it's most sharp f number, for some is f4, for others is f5.6, 6.4, but above a certain f number, the aliasing and moire start to go away. At f/10 it starts do go away, at f/16 it really starts to go away, and at f/22 it's almost all gone.

CBR 1.5x, 0 in camera sharpening, AE unsharp mask (1-250), f/22 <--- way less aliasing compared to f/5.6:

ps: these videos were NOT made with tragic lantern with the advanced H.264 controls.

I think that he means that the image received by the h264 encoder is soft (it's not a genuine 1920x1080, but reescaled from a smaller size).

For what I know one of the best approaches to sharpening is recording with sharpening 0 and increasing it in post-pro but maybe someone has found a better workflow.

I have done extensive testing on the sharpening issue. What I've found out, is that the cinestyle picture profile used with 0 in camera sharpening, gives a way to soft image, and if you try to sharpen it in post, you have to use very high values witch produce too much noise on the footage. So, I have learned that if you use +1 sharpening in camera, and then a low value software sharpening, you get a nice clean image, without any noise, and good enough sharpened.

Never, ever, go with the in camera sharpening beyond +1, and in the most extreme cases +2. I recommend either 0 or +1.

The image looks great, way better to my eye than the stock one, but the only problem I'm having is that the footage can't be played back in camera, is that normal ?

I got a 32 Gb Sandisk 45 MB/s SDHC card, formatted in exFat, and ML 2.3 on it running, now I just download that autoexec.bin-bitrateback file, rename it to autoexec.bin, overwrite it to the SD card, and that is all ?

In that case what build should I use for those settings ?

Is there a normal Magic Lantern 2.3 + the new H.264 features added on ? I mean for those settings:

30p, sound off, CBR 2,0x, DblockA/B -1,-1, picqPC 0, GOP1, JP Slice 87, Slice Lock: Enabled, MinBR :80, Max:125, Drop By 1: 85, drop by 3: 100, Taper rates: disabled.

And if I want to use 30 fps, is that a problem ?

Can someone please post the absolute best settings for H.264 without audio ?

Isn't there a way to make the H.264 codec not rescale the image so many times ? I bet that is one of the major causes of poor image quality compared to a GH2.

Yeah, I've noticed that, the focus peak doesn't work anymore when I attache anything to the camera on the USB port. If for instance I plug in the USB follow focus, then the focus peak doesn't work anymore, instead of dots on the screen, it appears only a red line on the bottom of the screen.

The problem with the USB connection, is that I have also a USB Follow Focus device that is really handy, and that device needs the USB port. I know that the android application (Android DSLR controller) has the ability to control the focus, but when it's compared to a real follow focus, it's definitely not as precise.

In the end, it seams that the only solution for now, is to buy a HDMI monitor, since tablets have yet to add this feature of HDMI input. I know the manufactures are thinking about adding this feature, but it's going to be a while until we'll get our hands on a tablet with HDMI input.

After some more internet digging, it turns out that at the current time, there are no tablets with HDMI input, only output, so no HDMI connection between a DSLR and a tablet.

I was hoping maybe someone from here has some experience with those tablets used as monitors.

Right now I have a tablet connected to the camera via the USB cable, but I get only 15 fps on the tablet when seeing the live view from camera. I was wondering if someone knows if it can go to 30 fps. Maybe for that it's required a tablet with HDMI connector, I don't know.

On Android there is an application for controlling DSLR cameras, it can access the live view, it can control all the setings from camera, it can focus, and so on, but like I said, I get only 15 fps, and I would really need 30 for a good use as an field monitor.