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**IMMEDIATE HELP** (DSLR Video)

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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
I apologize for the ugly title, but this is pretty important to me. I would've and probably could've posted this in the DSLR Video tips thread, but I leave for Block Island tomorrow and would really appreciate some quick help.

So like I said I'm leaving for block island tomorrow, and am super excited to bring my D3100 along and make like a short cinematography reel. (I think that's what it's called)

The problem is, everytime I film something with this camera then transfer it to my laptop, the quality looks like shit. I've tested both 720p and 1080p and the results are always the same. I used everything I read from the DSLR Video thread, but nothing seems to ever change. I assume the problem is something to do with the picture mode. i.e sharpness, saturation, hue, etc.

It also seems like everything I record is over-exposed. I know it's important to edit in post, but how much does that really affect video quality?

I will be checking this thread frequently from now till 8 o'clock tomorrow morning and will be willing to go into a different chat server or something to avoid post whoring this whole thread.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.

-evan
Aug 12 2011 6:52PM
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wesley.
Posts: 6483 - Karma: 1,049
It's all about how you import it. What program are you importing into?
Aug 12 2011 6:59PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
Well first I take the SD Card (Class 10) and pop it in my card reader. Then click and drag the h.264 file from the SD Card to my external hard drive.
Aug 12 2011 7:01PM
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wesley.
Posts: 6483 - Karma: 1,049
Well from my experience from using my roomates t2i, We would import off the card into fcp, he had some specific setting for it I wish i remember. Try googling your camera and import settings for the highest quality. That's how we figured it out. Try compressing them into pro res I'm pretty sure that's what we did.
Aug 12 2011 7:04PM
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wesley.
Posts: 6483 - Karma: 1,049
Also, I just googled this. I have no idea what you're editing in but maybe this will help http://iphone5-video-converter.com/2011/08/import-nikon-d3100-hd-video-to-final-cut-pro-7-converttranscode-d3100-mov-to-apple-prores-mov/
Aug 12 2011 7:06PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
To the person above you Wesley, I forgot to mention I'm on Win7 and have Avid MC and the Adobe Master Collection (CS5) so ProRes isn't an option.

Aug 12 2011 7:13PM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,096
The raw clip should look good, i dunno why its "bad quality" are you shooting the highest quality in camera? a 720 or 1080 shot should look good.
Aug 12 2011 7:14PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
Here's what I'm gonna do, reset the camera back to full factory settings, then I'll go shoot a couple clips, then I'll let you guys know how they look.
Aug 12 2011 7:16PM
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hollygrove
Posts: 7845 - Karma: 93
I feel like "shit quality" is too vague. what's bad about it? what makes it look like 'shit' as you refer to it?
Aug 12 2011 7:51PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
Uploading test footage now, 65% done.

The menu where I think the problem lays looks like this:

Click for larger image

In the test footage being uploaded there is a large amount of noise. It's almost horizontal lines across the whole clip.
Aug 12 2011 7:59PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117


Currently processing on YT and will start (unintentional) converting on Vimeo in 21 minutes.
Aug 12 2011 8:11PM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,096
its extremely under exposed.... and whats your iso at?
Aug 12 2011 8:29PM
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wesley.
Posts: 6483 - Karma: 1,049
Evan how long have you been using the camera? Also, if you have avid, do you have a dongle for it?
Aug 12 2011 8:31PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
iso was at 400
Aug 12 2011 8:42PM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,096
it mostly looks out of focus and extremely under exposed to me...
Aug 12 2011 8:44PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
Will opening up the aperture more help with the exposure? I'd assume so?

Also should I be using the LCD or Viewfinder to focus when filming? Obviously I have to have the LCD turned on to record, but would focusing with viewfinder, then switching to live view and shooting help the focus?
Aug 12 2011 8:50PM
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wesley.
Posts: 6483 - Karma: 1,049
I use the lcd to focus.
Aug 12 2011 8:55PM
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Shredability
Posts: 2756 - Karma: 501
Is Nikon d3100 full manual?
Aug 12 2011 8:58PM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,096
or turning down the shutter speed, or increasing the iso... you should know these things if you own a dslr...
Aug 12 2011 9:00PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
I do, but I assumed I shouldn't be changing the shutter speed for filming if I'm using the rule of halves. I also didn't want to increase the iso through 800 because of the noise that I already have.
Aug 12 2011 9:04PM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,096
well you need to open your aperture up. And if that doesn't do it, then you need to light your scene which im guessing you can't.
Aug 12 2011 9:14PM
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[evan]
Posts: 5628 - Karma: 117
Yeah opening the aperture should do it, most of the time I'll be shooting in bright sunlight so I guess a good f stop for that would probably be around f/16-f/26 to make sure i get the entire landscape in focus.
Aug 12 2011 9:17PM
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TomTeller
Posts: 277 - Karma: 153
take your camera and go outside for an hour, and mess around with the several complementary buttons and knobs included on your camera. Seriously, go explore your equipment...
Aug 13 2011 2:31PM
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plorr
Posts: 3131 - Karma: 528
Your camera should have a way to zoom in on to 100% in live view. use the arrows to move the picture to where you want it to be in focus, then focus and hit record.
Aug 13 2011 3:28PM
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BeerWeed
Posts: 180 - Karma: 563
Didn't quite read all the posts but before I head out for the night remember to have your settings in your editing program exactly match the settings with which you filmed! If you were recording at 720p 30fps then make sure your editing properties are something like 1280x720 at 30 fps. A lot of the time it looks like shit if you don't match your editing properties to the settings you shot in. Just my input hope it helps =]
Aug 13 2011 7:38PM
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