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.

Nikon Z5ii Announced and My Thoughts vs the Original Z5

The Nikon Z5ii was announced recently. I haven't actually used this new camera myself, so keep that in mind. This is going to be mostly me looking at the specs and comparing it to the original Nikon Z5, which I've been using for a few years now. Check out the full video on YouTube: The original Nikon Z5 camera. Overall, the original Z5 isn't a bad camera. I've gotten it to a point where it works how I want it to and it's reliable for what I do. My main use case is often anime and comic conventions, going there and taking photos of people in cosplay. I usually use the 40mm f/2 lens on the Z5, and it works well for that. First-person view using the Nikon Z5 at an anime convention. Nikon Z5ii vs Z5: The Spec Sheet Comparison Nikon has a handy comparison section on their Z5ii page, so let's break down some key differences based on that and my experience with the original. Nikon's website comparing the Z5ii and the original Z5 specifications. First up, the ...

EF-M Sigma 56mm vs. Viltrox 56mm

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Swapping Gear with MPB: A Hands-On Experience

I'm always looking for ways to upgrade my camera gear without the hassle of selling it myself. Recently, I decided to try something different: swapping my old equipment for new gear with MPB and getting some cash at the same time. Check out the full video going into the trade with MPB in detail. I've used them to purchase equipment in the past, but this was my first time trading in. In the video I explain how it went, and I'll walk you through the entire process, from getting a quote to unboxing the new-to-me equipment. It's a simple concept: you send them gear, and they send you stuff back. In this particular case, I even got some money in addition to the equipment because my trade-ins were valued higher than what I wanted at the time. Why go this route instead of selling equipment directly? For me, it all comes down to time and convenience. The entire process, from shipping my gear to receiving the new equipment, took 11 days. They received it, assessed everything...

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