Skip to main content

Pentax K-5: Experiment in video editing.

This embedded video below is a clipped together “music video” from full 1080p HD clips I recorded with the new Pentax K-5 camera.

The example video using the K-5.

As I was saying, I used a Pentax K-5 (1080p @ 25 FPS), at the highest quality setting. All clips were set to 40% speed and patched together in kdenlive (kdenlive.org) for Linux with a creative commons licensed song (see the end of video for credits). The project was rendered in H264 @ 1280×720 and uploaded to Youtube.

It looks to me that my K-5 has a few troubled pixels that are stuck to a shade of red when the ISO gain is high enough. You probably won’t be able to notice them, but I’ll have to look into software solutions to see if I can easily correct those pixels. 

I was using a firmware that was one upgrade back from current, so I’ll be eventually testing the new firmware and consecutive ones that are released to see if they correct those stuck pixels in video mode. The camera has a “pixel mapping” functionality that finds dead pixels and compensates for them in resulting images, but I don’t know if it applies to video. I have yet to research the issue.

Options for quality video editing software in the Linux world are slim. Kdenlive is a surprisingly functional NLE-type video editor that is available on Linux and live-CD/USB disk. It appears to be pretty stable, although I did have one quirk where I could not delete two clips (solved that by restarting the editor). I’d have to say this is the best editor I’ve used on Linux, and it’s pretty close to the one I used a lot on Windows (Sony Vegas Platinum Pro that retails for around $120). 

With the source material on my RAID 10 four disk array and using a quad-core processor, editing felt fast overall. Considering I was editing compressed motion-jpeg 1080p source material directly, I’d say it’s quite good speed wise. Simple transitions and fading felt near real-time, but most other effects were jerky.

There was an issue with my K-5 (and K-7) video clip audio. Popping/crackling is heard throughout when editing. So that’s another issue I’ll have to look into eventually. The sound is fine when I just watch the videos in say, VideoLan player. 

Edit: I believe that was caused by the project having a different frame rate than the source clips. I have started editing a video that uses the audio and it is working fine. I set the project to be the same as the source.

If you are using Ubuntu, they advise you to add their current-build repository to your software sources.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Viltrox AF FE 28mm f/4.5 VCM ASPH ED Lens Overview

Viltrox asked me if I wanted to take a look at this unique compact autofocus full-frame prime lens with a focal length of 28mm and a fixed f/4.5 aperture for Sony E-mount cameras. Viltrox agreed to my standard collaboration terms before sending me the lens.    In the video I talk about features, how it works in practice, and show photos I had taken on a photo walk with the Sony a7S as well as the APS-C a6000. Viltrox is starting this off as an Indiegogo campaign. They told me that it will eventually be sold through normal retailers: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/viltrox-af-28mm-f4-5-fe-chips-size-ultra-thin-lens They said it will be $99 USD or 109 Euros with discounts during the crowdfunding period. Check out Indiegogo for details. I am not an affiliate of that website. You can check on the status of availability through my usual affiliates: B&H Photo Video Amazon As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases!    The front of the lens. K...
Read more

Camera Gear Reviews and Marketing Issues Exposed

A great overview by Gerald Undone on his experiences in the field of camera gear related videos! It is an important topic. The more open the better, I’d say. After over 13 years making photography and videography gear videos, I’ve not had a huge amount of success comparatively, but I’ve also never been especially brand safe to begin with for these companies to consider me. 🤣 I think his mentions toward the end of the video are especially important. The unwritten pressure, or worse with companies like Insta360 , shouldn’t be acceptable and should be publicly called out more often. That’s probably the only way things will actually change for the better. I created a video detailing my opinion on the topic further: More of my comments on the video… His YouTube channel. 4:30 I understand that’s what Gerald does, but are there situations where companies are paying for flights and hotel costs of other reviewers with the expectation of a video/article being produced? (EDIT: I’ve seen confirm...
Read more

First look at the Sigma 18-50mm F/2.8 for Sony E-mount bought from KEH

I've use a Sony Alpha A6000 and the PZ 16–50mm F/3.5–5.6 OSS kit lens with my computer as a webcam for a long time now. It's a lower cost option that has been very consistent outputting 1080p at 30 FPS to a USB based HDMI capture device. The kit lens is generally fine, but it has a few quirks. The biggest issue is that throughout the zoom range the maximum aperture value is not fixed. This introduces technical challenges when I want to show detailed views of product or similar use cases. There are also other considerations I'll talk about later in this article. So I decided to buy the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | C lens in E-mount as a replacement.  Links in this article are a mix of paid and through my affiliates. I earn from each in different ways. One is a flat fee and the others I earn from qualifying purchases. Considering them for your purchasing needs helps make the creation of this information viable!   I made a video unboxing the lens and trying it out with Open ...
Read more