P3P Camera Question

[MRPUGH52]

Hello P3P experts!

are we supposed to be seeing field distortion in video footage taken with the camera on the P3P? I am shooting 4K video, NTSC, 30fps and what I am seeing in lets say a forest, are the trees all slightly bent over - not directly on axis, but off axis for sure.

Also - if anyone can point me to a thread that can reveal optimum settings for rendering 4K video taken with this camera, I would very much appreciate it. I have a monster PC and a $1000 PNY Quadro video card, and my results are still very poor.

cheers
Martin

 

[Andrew Allsbury]

Be sure to check sharpness left, right and center. I am currently going through return hell trying to find a P3P that has good focus throughout the whole image instead of just on the left side.

There is some slight lens distortion from the wide angle, but nothing that should be extremely noticeable. And what little is there can be corrected in post.

As far as camera settings go, you should shoot UHD 24fps, as this gives you the best bit rate per frame. Then you should shoot, full manual with nd filters to keep 180 degree shutter. Set gamma to Log and setup a custom style with the following settings:

Sharpness: 0 to -2 depending on scene
Contrast: -3
Saturation: -3

Once you've edited your footage, transcode your mp4s to Prores 422hq and color grade. Then sharpen and denoise to taste for each scene.

Export finished video to Prores 422hq, then convert the Prores file to whatever your delivery format will be. I would reccomend x265 hevc 65mbps VBR 2 Pass or x264 85/100mbps VBR 2 Pass.

 

[MRPUGH52]

Thanks Andrew for the comprehensive reply. I will try out these settings.

Cheers
Martin

Be sure to check sharpness left, right and center. I am currently going through return hell trying to find a P3P that has good focus throughout the whole image instead of just on the left side.

There is some slight lens distortion from the wide angle, but nothing that should be extremely noticeable. And what little is there can be corrected in post.

As far as camera settings go, you should shoot UHD 24fps, as this gives you the best bit rate per frame. Then you should shoot, full manual with nd filters to keep 180 degree shutter. Set gamma to Log and setup a custom style with the following settings:

Sharpness: 0 to -2 depending on scene
Contrast: -3
Saturation: -3

Once you've edited your footage, transcode your mp4s to Prores 422hq and color grade. Then sharpen and denoise to taste for each scene.

Export finished video to Prores 422hq, then convert the Prores file to whatever your delivery format will be. I would reccomend x265 hevc 65mbps VBR 2 Pass or x264 85/100mbps VBR 2 Pass.

 

[Andrew Allsbury]

No problem man, good luck and be sure to check for the focus issue!

 

[Andy Boyd]

Hello P3P experts!

are we supposed to be seeing field distortion in video footage taken with the camera on the P3P? I am shooting 4K video, NTSC, 30fps and what I am seeing in lets say a forest, are the trees all slightly bent over - not directly on axis, but off axis for sure.

Also - if anyone can point me to a thread that can reveal optimum settings for rendering 4K video taken with this camera, I would very much appreciate it. I have a monster PC and a $1000 PNY Quadro video card, and my results are still very poor.

cheers
Martin

Martin, There is still a slight 'fish eye' effect with the P3 lens due to the wide angle of view.
That does send trees, telegraph poles etc off vertical as they get closer to the edge of the screen.
I was pleased to find that Adobe Photoshop CC has a lens correction specifically for the P3.
Its really neat. If you switch it on and off it does have an obvious effect.
Allegedly Photoshop can now process video too, so it should be possible to get it to process your footage.
Strangely, I cannot find an equivalent P3 lens correction in Adobe Premiere. Though it is possible in that software to manually add lens correction.

 

[MRPUGH52]

Many thanks for the info!

Cheers
Martin

Martin, There is still a slight 'fish eye' effect with the P3 lens due to the wide angle of view.
That does send trees, telegraph poles etc off vertical as they get closer to the edge of the screen.
I was pleased to find that Adobe Photoshop CC has a lens correction specifically for the P3.
Its really neat. If you switch it on and off it does have an obvious effect.
Allegedly Photoshop can now process video too, so it should be possible to get it to process your footage.
Strangely, I cannot find an equivalent P3 lens correction in Adobe Premiere. Though it is possible in that software to manually add lens correction.

 

[jagman]

Thanks for the tip Andy. Just tried it and it works a treat

 

[Andy Boyd]

Just for the record here is a before and after example I took a couple of days ago.
Using the 4k Pro camera which is named as FC300X camera model in Photoshop.
View attachment 40077 View attachment 40078

If you flick between them in Photo Viewer you can see the field bulge up and down!

Now added photo versions with grid to see how much the picture is being (un) warped.
Not a lot in fact.

 

[jagman]

Could I ask a noob question Andy? How do you apply the correction to the whole clip? I can only get it to work where the play head stops and not the whole clip. Regards Jagman