Hi all, I will soon be getting my Phantom 4 and would like to know which program people think is best for editing video and photos etc so I can practice a little.
Thanks
Thanks
Best App For Editing Videos
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That of course depends on your operating system, Mac or PC.
On the MAC I'm using Final Cut Pro.
My first videos were really unsteady and showed a lot of ugly artifacts. I was shooting in D-log to preserve as much detail as possible. Now I'm using apple's compressor to convert d-log to Apple Pro-res 422 for processing at everything is much smoother.
It's a big learning curve even though I have been involved in digital photography forever.
But learning all these new techniques are what makes it fun!
On the MAC I'm using Final Cut Pro.
My first videos were really unsteady and showed a lot of ugly artifacts. I was shooting in D-log to preserve as much detail as possible. Now I'm using apple's compressor to convert d-log to Apple Pro-res 422 for processing at everything is much smoother.
It's a big learning curve even though I have been involved in digital photography forever.
But learning all these new techniques are what makes it fun!
Yes I wasn't sure whether to get a new Mac or PC I've heard the Mac is much better. I have always had iPhones but my laptops have always been Windows.
So Apple pro-rss 422 is the way To go?
So Apple pro-rss 422 is the way To go?
You may also want to consider what resolution you are going to be using, the 4k vids do take a large ol' chunk of computing power to manipulate, and naturally if your going to make the best of that 4k material you'll need a good monitor to watch it on.
I'm still editing P3P 4K video with Final Cut Pro on an ancient 2009 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mac mini. And with an even older 17" 1280x124 Sony display.
I usually output to HD but sometimes to 4K. I let FCP optimize the footage to ProRes so the editing is real-time (after optimizing is done after a while...), outputting to HD takes ~30minutes for my few minute missions.
So you don't necessarily need a speedy PC. That said, I plan to update my Mac in 1-2 years. And maybe get a 4K TV to replace my ancient 28" tube TV.
Can you please explain this more? So on the Phantom you are capturing video as D-log? i thought you could only do mpg and mov (I can't recall).
I'm also using FCP on a Mac. How and when do you tell it to use Apple Pro-res 422?
Thanks!
D-log is a "dull" wide colorspace and ProRes is a video codec.
P3P shoots H.264 video codec. D-log colorspace lets you preserve more blacks and whites than "none" so you can better fine-tune them later in post with FCP.
ProRes expands P3P's 60Mbps compressed H.264 video into a format which AFAIR takes 8x more space but is in a more fluently editable non-lossy format to edit so even old PCs can handle it in its full 4K glory.
Then you re-compress the edited footage to H.264 again to 4K or HD but this time usually even more compressed (usually 5-10-20Mbps).
On my windows computers I have been using Corel VideoStudio Ultimate X9 since it was Ulead before Corel bought it.
I started with Premiere in the 90s. Great software but I am not a fan of Adobes subscription service they now have. However their lite version "Adobe Premiere Elements" isn't a bad way to go on Windows anyway. Although I have owned Macs I have never tried Premiere on a MAC.
Also a good entry video software is Pinnacle Studio.
If you run a MAC Final cut pro is the way to go.
I'm using Adobe Premier Pro and have the full subscription so I can use the other apps like Photoshop and Lightroom. Adobe and You Tube have great video tutorials for all their products. I have used Photoshop and Light room since the early 2000s and really love the subscription system.
Premier Pro has a stabilization function that will smooth out rough video. In that process, you will loose some of the outer edges of the image so shoot a little loose.
I really like shooting 4K with my P3P because it makes cropping the video work well. You can output to HD without loosing any quality. Still images pulled from 4K video look really great if you didn't have a still frame from that location.
Premier Pro has a stabilization function that will smooth out rough video. In that process, you will loose some of the outer edges of the image so shoot a little loose.
I really like shooting 4K with my P3P because it makes cropping the video work well. You can output to HD without loosing any quality. Still images pulled from 4K video look really great if you didn't have a still frame from that location.
A lot of the Hollywood colorists like DaVinci Resolve 12. They offer three levels of it.
Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve 12
I think the Studio version is around $995 and Apple is running some half-price sale I think. Their professional Advanced Control Surface version with all the hardware was around $29K as I recall. They may have a downloadable free with less features version too.
Fwiw, I met the guy in their website (Wearing black glasses on main window at the editor.) at Samy's Camera and he was building a new studio in Santa Clarita, CA. He was also moving from Apple to Eizo CG-4K monitors for better shadow rendition as he felt the Apple screen was too contrasty, glossy, and colorful as he also color grades gaming software where shadows can be important and hiding things.
Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve 12
I think the Studio version is around $995 and Apple is running some half-price sale I think. Their professional Advanced Control Surface version with all the hardware was around $29K as I recall. They may have a downloadable free with less features version too.
Fwiw, I met the guy in their website (Wearing black glasses on main window at the editor.) at Samy's Camera and he was building a new studio in Santa Clarita, CA. He was also moving from Apple to Eizo CG-4K monitors for better shadow rendition as he felt the Apple screen was too contrasty, glossy, and colorful as he also color grades gaming software where shadows can be important and hiding things.
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Note that Resolve 12.5 has a totally free version, missing only a few features (3D, noise reduction) that most of the time will not be needed with Phantom footage. Note that all the editing programs will probably require transcoding the ProRes for best editing performance.
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Good thread. I used Filmora but after playing with Corel PaintshopPro for still editing have realized how very lacking Filmora is. Thinking about Corel Videostudio...but also heard great things about Cyberlink PowerDirector. I've got Resolve but it was hard to figure out - is it a contender like the other two?
Sorry to have to ask, but what about Adobe Premiere Element? What are you sacrifying by not using the Pro version?
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All,
Of all the programs mentioned the 2 best, in terms of power, are Resolve 12.5, which is free, and Premiere Pro, which is part of the Adobe Cloud subscription service. Both are extremely powerful, and as a result, difficult to learn and use. However, as a long time video editor, I would pick Resolve - it's hard to beat free. If you don't plan on doing much editing cuts, dissolves, adding music, then any program should do it. In my experience, the color correction capabilities in Resolve are head and shoulders above anything else.
Resolve is a very high end program for finishing feature films, and TV series. Once you finally figure it out, you will never lack for features.
Of all the programs mentioned the 2 best, in terms of power, are Resolve 12.5, which is free, and Premiere Pro, which is part of the Adobe Cloud subscription service. Both are extremely powerful, and as a result, difficult to learn and use. However, as a long time video editor, I would pick Resolve - it's hard to beat free. If you don't plan on doing much editing cuts, dissolves, adding music, then any program should do it. In my experience, the color correction capabilities in Resolve are head and shoulders above anything else.
Resolve is a very high end program for finishing feature films, and TV series. Once you finally figure it out, you will never lack for features.
As for the under $100.00 software
I have been playing with the free resolve the past couple of days. It will not render in 4k, it limits the range of changing colors, and other effects.
Not saying Corel is better than Premiere, or even the full version of Resolve, just saying for under $100 it seems to me a lot of bang for the buck. It has been awhile but Premiere elements might be a good choice as well
Once again I started with Premiere in the late 90s-mid 2000s. Used Final Cut pro during my MAC years, played with a hand full of windows software over the years.
If you can afford it sign up for the full Adobe monthly membership package. After effects alone may be worth it. (I really loved AE in the day).
If you are like I am these days on a low budget Corel offers a lot of bang for the buck. I especially love the motion tracking.
just my $0.02
I have been playing with the free resolve the past couple of days. It will not render in 4k, it limits the range of changing colors, and other effects.
Not saying Corel is better than Premiere, or even the full version of Resolve, just saying for under $100 it seems to me a lot of bang for the buck. It has been awhile but Premiere elements might be a good choice as well
Once again I started with Premiere in the late 90s-mid 2000s. Used Final Cut pro during my MAC years, played with a hand full of windows software over the years.
If you can afford it sign up for the full Adobe monthly membership package. After effects alone may be worth it. (I really loved AE in the day).
If you are like I am these days on a low budget Corel offers a lot of bang for the buck. I especially love the motion tracking.
just my $0.02
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Resolve renders fine in 4K. The output module will let you define what resolution you want. The bigger problem will be figuring out what CODEC to use in 4K. What do you intend to do with your 4K video?
If you are going to a 4K tv, how will you input it? There are no players for burning 4K video. The best you can do with optical media is HD using BluRay.
On 4K tvs, what is simplest is to input into the tvs via the usb input. That is usually fast enough. You will need to encode to h264 (AVC) or h265 (HEVC). I don't off hand know if Resolve will encode using the h265 codec, but the h264 should work. My usual work flow is 4K ProRes out of Resolve, and then encode to h265 using Handbrake, which will do either h264 or h265.
If you are going to a 4K tv, how will you input it? There are no players for burning 4K video. The best you can do with optical media is HD using BluRay.
On 4K tvs, what is simplest is to input into the tvs via the usb input. That is usually fast enough. You will need to encode to h264 (AVC) or h265 (HEVC). I don't off hand know if Resolve will encode using the h265 codec, but the h264 should work. My usual work flow is 4K ProRes out of Resolve, and then encode to h265 using Handbrake, which will do either h264 or h265.
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