Trying to learn how to use the FPS Override feature on a 7D or 5D3

Started by yeahbouyee, March 28, 2015, 05:04:11 AM

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yeahbouyee

I watched videos and read all I can on using the FPS Override feature, but, I am missing something. I took several test video clips and I always get continuous, full motion video (FMV).

Here is what I think I learned about how to set up FPS Override on a 7D (if this is any different from any other Canon model):
1. I went into the Canon video menu and set it to 1080@24 fps
2. In the ML FPS Override menu, I set my "Desired FPS"3 fps (heck I even tried 10 fps out of frustration)
3. I tried set the "Optimized for" tunable to both "Low Light" and "Exact FPS"
4. I don't understand the TIMER A & B tunable - even though I saw and read everything I could on them. Al I know is that TIMER A speeds up the shutter and controls the "jello effect" and TIMER B - well to be honest I don't know/understand what it does.
5. The only advanced feature I could change is "Sync w. Shutter" and I have that OFF

*NOTE: I have no clue what the "FT+n" or "FT-n" offset in the TIMER A&B tunable mean.

Can someone explain where I am going wrong?

Am I overlooking a feature/option that I am suppose to change either in the Canon or ML menus?

I would like to shoot with FPS Override tomorrow so a quick response would be appreciated. Thanks.

yeahbouyee

Guys, I tried shooting with FPS Override for time lapse over the past  2 days with no results - I keep get FMV. I'm convinced this feature does not work on the 7D.

I haven't tried it on my 5D3 yet - maybe I'll have better luck. But I'm not hopeful at this point.

yeahbouyee

Update: Just tried the FPS Override feature on my 5D3 and I get a washed out screen or a white screen in Live View. Also when ever I try to get out of LV mode, whether I switch from movie mode to photo mode via the switch button or pressing any other button, I get a "busy" msg at the bottom of the screen. I have to power down the camera and it still won't power off for some seconds before powering off.

I have to conclude that the FPS Override in latest 7D and 5D3 nightly builds do not have function and are useless at this point. I'll have to go back to shoot stills - but the thought of frame override was nice.

Walter Schulz

Sluggish LV performance and overexposure after turning fps down is just how it works by design and you have to live with it.
And your useless function helped a lot of people creating marvelous timelapse videos without wearing out shutter and mirror.

So please start again, try to take little steps this time.
Only change fps for a start. Adjust exposure. Look if it works. Then you may start finetuning.

And: Please try to use search function.

yeahbouyee

Thanks for your response but if you read my inquires closely, you will see that I get NO results. I don't what these others folks are doing, hence, the reason for my post.

If you have a workflow to share I'm all ears, please share. But as I said right now for the 7D & 5D3 with the latest nightly builds, FPS Override is pretty useless at this point. Maybe one of those folks how created those marvelous TLs would like to chime in. Please PROVE me wrong. I grew up in Missouri - SHOW ME.

Walter Schulz

As you wrote you got smeared LV and overexposure with fps on 5D3.
That's a good start because that's how it works. Now try to take a H.264 vid after adjusting exposure. Results?

yeahbouyee

Thanks. I'll take another look on the 5D3 and will post with my result. I appreciate your response. I know you're trying to help.

vyskocil

On the 7D FPS override is only active in RAW video mode not in native h264 compressed video. This is the most useful because it permit unlimited recording at 5x crop mode at 24fps when 30fps, which is the native FPS of the LCD in 5x/10x mode overflow most if not all CF cards.

yeahbouyee

vyskocil, I tried a TL capture for the 7D using the RAW video module and the output is a 1.61 GB .RAW file. I use the .15 fps
"Desired FPS" so that gave me an interval of about 1shot/6.5 secs. I can tell something was happening because the red light was flashing on the back of my camera at about the rate of 6.5 secs. I brought it into Photoshop and all I see is gray.

What am I suppose to do with this file?

Next up the 5D3.

yeahbouyee

Update: I viewed the .RAW file in the File Manager module and all I see is orange - the color of my table and a message that says, "Cannot payback image". I set up the scene prior to recording but to no avail.

Walter Schulz

Please access the Postprocessing forum and learn how to deal with RAW/MLV video files.

yeahbouyee

Cool. Thx. I taking a vid with the 5D3 now. Will report back.

yeahbouyee

Hello World!

Here is what I did and the results I obtained:

7D: Successfully recorded a .RAW file, decoded it with raw2dng app, imported the dng files into LR5. But the image is cropped very funny, like it's skewed off to the right side and zoomed in. It looks horrible with reddish, orange colors - but I know about step #2 in the post process workflow. I successful recovered the image on my 5D3 test (more to come on this in a minute) but unable to do so here. I feel more confident with recording on this camera platform because the screen gives you more information during the recording than the 5D3 platform.

5D3: Successfully recorded a .MLV file, decoded it with mlv2dng0 app, imported the dng files into LR5. The images looked horrible, but I corrected the off colors. However, the photos were cropped extremely tight, a lot tighter than the original setup. However, I was able to recovery the files somewhat to where they are presentable, imported them into Premier, and rendered them into a video.

So I was able to get through the entire workflow in the 5D3 and end up with a viewable time-lapse video. What can be done about the unexpected shifting and zooming in during the recording. Right now, the results are unpredictable. Any rules of thumb, lessons learned, or setup workflow someone can share?

I'm happy I got this far, but, I don't see how folks are getting the results they are. Thanks.   

DeafEyeJedi

sounds like you accidentally set in crop-mode for RAW/MLV recording in 5D3?

upload a video yet?
5D3.113 | 5D3.123 | EOSM.203 | 7D.203 | 70D.112 | 100D.101 | EOSM2.* | 50D.109

yeahbouyee

I think I got it for my 5D3, but, I would like how to get the camera not to zoom in. I'll work on the 7D.

I got a legit video to show - just need to know how to post it here. But you can check it out on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yeahbouyee/16363121454/

What I learned is the you have to play with the timer A to get the Actual FPS to match (as close as possible) to the Desired FPS. In this case I use .5 fps and the close I could get the actual to this was .554 fps. All I had to do was make some minor adjust in LR5 to the dng files, export them as jpgs and render the video.

Walter, vyscokil, and DeafEyeJedi and thanks for proving me WRONG.  ;) I got thick skin.

yeahbouyee

Update: I think the reason why my video was being cropped was because of the aspect ratio I have on - I had it on 16:9. Testing with a 4:3 aspect ratio ...

Also using the video feature drains the battery down really quickly.