Backyard wildlife with t3i / 600D

Started by Anurania, February 14, 2015, 09:26:22 PM

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Anurania

I've had a few weeks now to experiment with Magic Lantern between college assignments and I'm definitely starting to prefer RAW video for the flexibility it offers in editing. The past week has been quite warm here in Houston and a lot of wildlife has been visiting the backyard so I recorded some of it and put together this video. RAW is extremely slow to work with on my laptop so I didn't have the patience to coordinate clips with music on this occasion.



The footage was shot in RAW with the exception of the scene with the blackbirds which is H.264. Is the difference noticeable?

Camera: t3i / 600D
Lens: 55-250mm IS
Camera settings: Mostly f/5.6 - f/9.1 and 1/200 - 1/320 @ ISO 160
RAW settings: 1152 x 622 @ 18fps

kihlbahkt

Nice. Cedar Waxwing,Cardinals, Redwing Blackbird, Western bluebird?, and reptiles. That is one interesting backyard. Movie is a bit long for what it is but images look nice generally. Thumbs up. If you had shot it all in h.264, you would have finished it much faster and I still would have liked it.
600D x2

PaulHarwood856

     Hello Anurania! My name is Paul Harwood. Great job on this video! I really liked it, especially the squirrel at the end. Great depth of field and use of rule of thirds! I'm not sure which editing program you are using, but I have used the Transcoding option in Adobe Premiere Pro Creative Cloud (same as where project manager is). This would definitely help you with not having to render and being able to playback your clips. It converts all clips to the GoPro Cineform codec or ProRes or DNxHD, and some others I believe. Also, I'm not sure if you image stabilization on or off while on a tripod, but make sure it is off for best quality. The camera assumes it is moving, and there the footage won't be as clear. Again great job, and I look forward to seeing more of your work! By the way, how long were you able to record at 1152 x 622 18 fps? And did you use a bullhead? Thanks for posting Anurania! If you have any questions on what I suggested please let me know.

Anurania

Thanks for the feedback. :)  I'm still getting used to video and scene composition but I'm glad you liked it.

Paul - At 1152 x 622 I'm typically able to record for between 40 and 70 seconds. I haven't fully explored the settings which might help to extend the recording time, but the card does seem to perform better when it's had a chance to 'warm up'. I put this together in After Effects without converting any of the clips first but will look into the transcoding options you mentioned. Thanks for the advice. I think image stabilization was off for these. I'll confirm that for sure next time. The tripod I'm using is a very cheap ($15) online store tripod with pan head, but despite its price the thing is virtually indestructible. I really had to fight with it to pry the pan head off, and discovered that it doesn't have a mount for other heads so I will be looking for another tripod to mount a video head in the future.

PaulHarwood856

     You're welcome Anurania!  :) It certainly takes practice!

     Thanks for sharing your settings. This helps me for more tests. I'm not sure which memory card you have, but if you have 90 mb/sec you will achieve the best resolution possible. This came out great though. Also, you can format your memory card as Exfat using EOS Card for PC or Macboot for Mac. These programs are posted on Magic Lantern's website. The warm up option is a great idea! I have a recommendation for a tripod that you might like. It is by a guy who started a kickstarter for a dolly called Revolve, and he now has a complete site with reasonable prices. This tripod has a bullhead (might be really good for what you're filming) and can turn into a monopod! You can also attach the dolly to the button to make this a pretty good stabilizer! I'll post a link for a memory card, EOS Card, Macboot, a video explaining the Exfat process, and the tripod. I hope this helps! Thanks so much for your reply! If you need anything, or if something isn't clear, please let me know.

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Speed-Class-Memory-TS64GSDXC10U1/dp/B00AFTV3FC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423088895&sr=8-2&keywords=transcend+600x

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-HD-Ready-Frustration-Free-SDSDXPA-032G-AFFP/dp/B007NDL56A

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/EOScard

http://www.zenoshrdlu.com/macboot/macboot.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEBSUUeoA4Y&feature=iv&src_vid=LN8LV15_cEA&annotation_id=annotation_826410

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN8LV15_cEA

http://www.revolvecamera.com/collections/all/products/2-in-1-tripod-and-monopod

Hope all is well!

Walter Schulz

Sorry, but your recommendation for a 90 MByte/s card doesn't make much sense using a 600D.
600D's SD-card interface is limited to about 21 MByte/s.

k9

I need help! I have had magic lantern v2.3 on my t3i for a few months now and I love it, but my audio meter does not seem to be working properly. I set my microphone to Manuel and set the volume so that when I snap in front of the mic get is at about 0db. Then I go out of the canon menu and start to record but when I snap the ml meters do not seem to even recognize the sound (and when it does the sound is not register anywhere near 0db.) I set up my audio recorder so that it worked as another audio meter. I set it up so that it was not effecting the sound. and it seemed to mach up with the canon menu's audio meter, so I know the problem is ml. What should I do...is this even the right place to post a question like this? Sorry I am new to the forum.   

Anurania

Thanks for the links, Paul. I will try to implement your suggestions. I am actually using that exact Transcend 64gb card now! It wasn't much more than the mid speed card at the time so I thought it would be a good investment.

Walter - I think having a fast card is desirable even with the t3i. As a lot of reviewers on Amazon have noted, the write speed of cards is often slower than the read speeds. A 90mb/s card might only have a write speed of 45mb/s. Having some extra headroom is useful in case the card has a hiccup during writing and drops the speed momentarily. So long as it remains above the recording bitrate it shouldn't interfere.

The Transcend card seems very reliable though, and when I transfer files onto my computer the speed graph jumps to the highest available speed and just stays there until the transfer is complete. I'm not used to seeing that.

Thanks for the tripod recommendation, Paul. I will check that site out. :)

PaulHarwood856

You are welcome Anurania! That's awesome because I was wondering how that card would perform, and it is basically the same price as the 30 mb/sec Transcend, so why not go with the 90 mb/sec? I'm glad you agree about the write speeds of the cards because I did a lot research and Amazon was a huge help with reviewers comments on memory cards. I understand that Walter is saying the bottleneck is 21 mb/sec, but the write speed of a 30 mb/sec card just doesn't keep up for best raw recording success. The T3i can be pushed further with a better write speed, and the 90 provides that. The Sandisk 32 gb is the same price as the 64 gb Transcend! Great to know that the Transcend performs well! I doubt 95 mb/sec differs from 90 mb/sec lol. The hiccup term you referred makes a lot of sense since this is a firmware override and pushing the T3i to the bottleneck can create a hiccup when recording for a long time. The transferring of files is much better I agree! No problem, glad to help!  :)