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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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Hi
I very recently acquired a P4A, today took some video and raw pictures.

And I have now a few questions, if anyone could enlighten me please:

1 One or the Other
When recording video(4k) can you still HD raw pictures ?
It would appear that its one or the other, although if you are recording video, take a picture and its a low quality jpeg.

2 Video Import
I came home tried to import the 4k MP4 video files into FCP (IMac) and they are just greyed out, some people mention having to convert the files first which seems a pain, especially if you have several files.
Should I maybe have recorded as Mov format or am I missing a step ?

Comments please much appreciated.

Thanks
2018-5-17
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Geebax
Captain
Australia
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First answer, the Phantom P4A does not record RAW video, none of the Phantom cameras do. Yes, you can take stills from a 4K video file, but they will be a compromise because usually the camera will be running at a slower frame rate and you may find movement blur in the shots. The P4 cameras allow you to take stills while shooting video, but all it does is take a single frame out of the video stream and save it as a JPEG file, not as RAW.

The only reason for allowing the camera to save MOV files is to cater for the Fruit market, so yes, if you use FCP to post-produce your material, set it to save in MOV format.

2018-5-17
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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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Geebax Posted at 2018-5-17 16:29
First answer, the Phantom P4A does not record RAW video, none of the Phantom cameras do. Yes, you can take stills from a 4K video file, but they will be a compromise because usually the camera will be running at a slower frame rate and you may find movement blur in the shots. The P4 cameras allow you to take stills while shooting video, but all it does is take a single frame out of the video stream and save it as a JPEG file, not as RAW.

The only reason for allowing the camera to save MOV files is to cater for the Fruit market, so yes, if you use FCP to post-produce your material, set it to save in MOV format.

Thank you for the prompt reply.

Sorry I should have worded my question better, I was recording video at MP4 4K H265 24 fps and taking the odd raw pictures.

I initially assumed whilst recording video, you could take raw pictures as well, but judging from your answer, it looks like whilst recording video yes you can take pictures but these will be jpeg only and judging from my results lower resolution 1-2 meg jpeg.

So to summarise I can film/record video & take lower quality jpegs at the same time or stop the video and switch to camera mode to take high definition raw pictures.

And my more important question that you have kindly answered, is for Apple/IMac I need to use the MOV format and that should sort me out(I will try that later) and in the mean time potentially convert what I have if I really need to using handbrake or some third party software to make it compatible to FCP.

Brilliant and thank you for clarifying.
2018-5-17
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Geebax
Captain
Australia
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KEJ Posted at 2018-5-17 19:59
Thank you for the prompt reply.

Sorry I should have worded my question better, I was recording video at MP4 4K H265 24 fps and taking the odd raw pictures.

Just one small correction, if you take a photo while recording video, it should not be a lower quality than the video. In other words, if you are shooting 4K, then the photo should be either 4096 x 2160 or 3840 x 2160, depending which flavour of 4K you are using for video. It will be the same resaolution as the video because it cannot change resolution parameters while in the middle of recording.

If you are seeing a lower resolution shot, then you are probably looking at the shot on your phone, the real (full resolution) shot is on the SD card in the aircraft.

And no, you cannot shoot RAW while shooting video, as the system does not have time to save the much larger RAW file while it is in the business of recording video.


2018-5-17
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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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Geebax Posted at 2018-5-17 20:08
Just one small correction, if you take a photo while recording video, it should not be a lower quality than the video. In other words, if you are shooting 4K, then the photo should be either 4096 x 2160 or 3840 x 2160, depending which flavour of 4K you are using for video. It will be the same resaolution as the video because it cannot change resolution parameters while in the middle of recording.

If you are seeing a lower resolution shot, then you are probably looking at the shot on your phone, the real (full resolution) shot is on the SD card in the aircraft.

I will check and to be honest, I just looked at the file size(1-2 meg), so you are probably right again.

The ones I looked at where over the sea, so possibly as the vast majority of the picture was the same colour might explain that.

And I was looking at the results from the memory card( P4A + with screen).

Once again thanks for the prompt reply and clarification.

2018-5-17
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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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Geebax Posted at 2018-5-17 20:08
Just one small correction, if you take a photo while recording video, it should not be a lower quality than the video. In other words, if you are shooting 4K, then the photo should be either 4096 x 2160 or 3840 x 2160, depending which flavour of 4K you are using for video. It will be the same resaolution as the video because it cannot change resolution parameters while in the middle of recording.

If you are seeing a lower resolution shot, then you are probably looking at the shot on your phone, the real (full resolution) shot is on the SD card in the aircraft.

Spot on with the file resolutions, but either way I have learnt a few things - thanks
2018-5-17
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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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Geebax Posted at 2018-5-17 20:08
Just one small correction, if you take a photo while recording video, it should not be a lower quality than the video. In other words, if you are shooting 4K, then the photo should be either 4096 x 2160 or 3840 x 2160, depending which flavour of 4K you are using for video. It will be the same resaolution as the video because it cannot change resolution parameters while in the middle of recording.

If you are seeing a lower resolution shot, then you are probably looking at the shot on your phone, the real (full resolution) shot is on the SD card in the aircraft.

Odd, just changed the video capture format to MOV(from MP4) and FCP still will not recognise it.

Thats at 4k 4096 x 2160 H265.

FCP 10.3.4

I will try a lower format or change to H264 maybe and try that.
2018-5-17
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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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KEJ Posted at 2018-5-17 23:48
Odd, just changed the video capture format to MOV(from MP4) and FCP still will not recognise it.

Thats at 4k 4096 x 2160 H265.

Right, I think I have got to the bottom of it.

I stuck with 4k MOV but back to H264 and FCP recognised it, looking further I believe FCP 10.4 can recognise H265, my version is one behind.

Might explain things, I suspect now if I go back to MP4, that should also work.
2018-5-18
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Geebax
Captain
Australia
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KEJ Posted at 2018-5-18 00:11
Right, I think I have got to the bottom of it.

I stuck with 4k MOV but back to H264 and FCP recognised it, looking further I believe FCP 10.4 can recognise H265, my version is one behind.

Yes, it could do so, but there have been a number of reports of FCP having difficulties with DJI video material
2018-5-18
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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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Geebax Posted at 2018-5-18 01:44
Yes, it could do so, but there have been a number of reports of FCP having difficulties with DJI video material

Thanks for reply.

So after further tests, FCP (Apple on iMac) works with both MP4 & MOV, the issue was I had set my 4k to H265, my version of FCP 10.3 does not support that (only H264).

The newer version of FCP (10.4) does support H265.

So if I alter my video coding to H264 both formats work, ie: MOV and MP4 at 4k etc.

Result!

I will at sometime update my version of FCP to 10.4+

Thank you for your help in the meantime.
2018-5-18
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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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KEJ Posted at 2018-5-18 02:04
Thanks for reply.

So after further tests, FCP (Apple on iMac) works with both MP4 & MOV, the issue was I had set my 4k to H265, my version of FCP 10.3 does not support that (only H264).

FCP 10.4, everything now works perfectly and no issues.

Handles H264 and H265 at 4k etc.

2018-6-2
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Henry Jacky
lvl.1

United States
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It is better to convert the 4k mp4 to fcp more supported apple prores. I use iDealshare VideoGo to batch convert multiple 4k mp4 files to apple prores in the background. It is easy.
2020-5-20
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Henry Jacky
lvl.1

United States
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It is better to convert the 4k mp4 to fcp more supported apple prores. I use iDealshare VideoGo to batch convert multiple 4k mp4 files to apple prores in the background. It is easy
2020-5-20
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KEJ
First Officer
United Kingdom
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Henry hi

I personally, just use the clips as they come straight from the SD card, copied onto my computer first and then into FCP.

At one time with an older version of FCP I had some issues as highlighted above, but a newer version sorted that out.

What version of FCP are you using ?

Cheers
2020-5-20
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