It seems like every DSLR shooter I know uses a different program to convert their footage to an editable format. There’s Mpeg Streamclip, Canon EOS plugin for FCP, and Compressor. Or some people just edit the raw h.264 file in FCP X or Premier Pro. I don’t know what Avid folk use. I’m a big believer in the “it’s all about the efficient post production workflow”. Even for projects that may be personal or don’t have a “due date”, who wants to spend more time than they have to on a project? So it’s a balance between time and quality for those h.264 conversions. I’m a big believer in Rarevision’s 5DtoRGB.
I’ve seen several reviews from people who don’t seem to quite understand the benefits of this software. Rarevision’s site provides a laundry list explanation of why it’s the best thing to use on your HDSLR footage, but from my experience here’s the biggie – it does chroma smoothing. This helps get rid of the chunky chunks in your blacks. Big time. Anyone who shoots with a Canon DSLR knows what I’m talking about. The noise is one issue, but the way the blacks and other darker colors come out in ugly pixelated blocks can really take away from an otherwise beautiful shot. It also does things like provide increased latitude and more color information. We’re talking superior image quality.
5DtoRGB Pro Res conversion
h.264 from camera
Big gripes about 5DtoRGB include no batch processing and slowness. The improvements in quality don’t outweigh the increased transcoding times. Me don’t like fire. Yadayadayada. Recent updates take advantage of your computer’s GPU. Additionally, Rarevision released a pay version of their software to the Mac App Store ($50) called 5dtoRGB Batch. So now you’ve got high speed batch conversion software that maintains the highest image quality of your DSLR images throughout the post production workflow. You make the pretty picture, now keep the picture pretty. No more excuses. And for those of you (like me) living through the current Great Depression II, Rarevision is keeping 5DtoRGB free! Albeit as 5DtoRGB Lite. And it remains to be seen what the differences in support are. But for now one could get away with using the free version and Remi Sello’s brilliant 5DtoRGB Batch Python script and still GPU-accelerate-batch-process like a rock star for free.
deathoftheparty 