HQ - MQ - LQ

[Ivan K. Maras]

Would you say a lower compression than LQ makes no sense as long as the material only ends up online/Youtube/Vimeo? How has anybody's experience with the different modes been so far? Just trying to get a feeling before my Komodo arrives and I can properly test it out. It would also help me to decide how much extra storage I might need for the next year.
Curious about your experience and preference. Thanks in advance!

 

[Phil Holland]

Generally I think most will film in MQ "most of the time". LQ gets you the longer roll times and all that. If you need to be frugal its a place to start even. For my work I'm mostly HQ or MQ. I'm also a sort of "lowest compression level possible" sort of shooter generally speaking. But I'm certain there's some where LQ will be the primary compression for their work. It just depends so much on your unique use case.

 

[Ivan K. Maras]

Thanks for your time and thoughts Phil! Yeah it's for sure a pretty subjective matter, depending on many factors. I agree to the "lowest compression possible". Why else go with these kind of cameras right?

I'm just thinking wether MQ/HQ make sense for smaller projects that end up on YouTube only. Really curious to test out the difference in quality vs. storage space.

I also tend to be conscious about not cluttering my drives (and mind for that matter) unnecessarily. I'm certainly going to delete most of unused takes after some time. So storage space is a concern for me at the moment. For narrative work that I want to submit to film festivals I certainly would always go MQ minimum.
But work that only ends up on Youtube? I don't know...

 

[M Harvey]

I just received my Komodo and am doing my own testing. For the kind of work you're talking about, you might also want to think about the ProRes recording modes-- they're a great option for times you don't need the highest resolution or grading flexibility, and it's certainly easy to hand off to an editor. Might be the way I go for a day shooting corporate interviews, for example.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

I think LQ looks pretty good. Would actually love to have a ELQ as well for "Extreme low quality". I think it can go one step down more and give even more recording time.

One question though, on the DSCM2 system, when putting in higher framerates, the quality goes down. This doesn't happen on Komodo. Wouldn't there technically be possible to increase framerates with more compression? Don't think it's possible on Komodo, but interesting to know the differences between the two systems handling of compression vs framerates.

 

[Mike P.]

It's a different compression scheme entirely with Komodo isn't it? Probably doesn't have the same compression limitations (re: processing power needed) and hence frame rate isn't the deciding factor. (Case in point, BMD's Pockets, which are the size of DSLR and can do 3:1 regardless of FPS/resolution). That is to say, the processing taps out at the max FPS, not the compressing of the raw data.

Plus who's to say that global shutter doesn't have more of a limitation on FPS (in terms of read speed, that seems like it'd be more of a bottleneck/require more processing, and anything downstream - like compression - has to wait until the entire sensor is read off).

[Note: totally just spitballing/take with a grain of salt.]

 

[M Harvey]

Finally was able to perform the firmware updated. Monitor now just says that it can't detect the cable. SDI still works, but no control. I don't think I've found a single person that has been able to make this work yet.

I think maybe you meant this for the SmallHD Focus Pro thread?

 

[Stu Mannion]

Would actually love to have a ELQ as well for "Extreme low quality". I think it can go one step down more and give even more recording time.

I agree.