Cineform vs iMovie vs Final Cut Pro

[Interceptor121]

I was playing with my hero2 in protune mode and cineform and getting frustrated with it for the lack of controls
Anyway I tried the low, medium and high quality settings and that results in different conversion bitrate, as they are variable no point measuring but the scale was 7,11,14
The files when playing with cineform and quicktime were showing by default with the protune mode so looking pretty crap
If I go in cineform and I set the preset to none as Marty was suggesting I get a flatter image
So now I was wondering how cineform compares with iMovie that uses apple intermediate codec
Not sure if anyone has noticed but if you import from gopro to iMovie in optimised mode that converts to apple intermediate codec you end up with a flat profile clip very similar to cineform with protune NONE, bitrate similar to cineform in low quality
If you do the same with final cut pro it uses prores and ends up with bitrate similar to the medium and high of cineform with flat profile at the start

I could not tell the difference between the low, medium and high with a flat profile! Actually I would say that apple intermediate codec looked similar if not more natural than cineform and likewise no real improvements with fcpx either

This is expected as those are intermediate production codecs not viewing ones however for me the conclusion is that cineform main feature is the ability to white balance by key frames in terms of grading it does not add any real value compared to what the apple products do themselves

This is because the original file is anyway a 4:2:0 H264 so even if you increase the bitrate there are no significant improvements

So if you shoot in short clips and don't correct by key frame you can skip cineform from your workflow, if instead you shoot a whole dive with out pre-cutting then cineform may be an option

I would be curious to hear from other mac users if they have made any comparisons

 

[RedStang]

Tagging along as my wonderful wife will be getting me a GoPro 3 Black for valentine's and I'm a Mac user. Would be very nice to use iMovie rather than having to buy an additional video editing software. Will if I have to though!

 

[Interceptor121]

Cineform is free it comes with the gopro in the studio (basic) edition

 

[TouchO'Gray]

Tagging along as my wonderful wife will be getting me a GoPro 3 Black for valentine's and I'm a Mac user. Would be very nice to use iMovie rather than having to buy an additional video editing software. Will if I have to though!

Stang: I use iMovie '11 (and '09, before that) and have gotten very nice results. tom

 

[RedStang]

Stang: I use iMovie '11 (and '09, before that) and have gotten very nice results. tom

Thanks. But after reading more I'll likely be using pro tune and raw so I don't have to worry about AWB. I don't mind the extra steps if it gives better quality. And at least cineform is free. Excited though. The camera was supposed to be used for our trip to the Turks and Caicos in May/June but we just booked a Disney cruise that will take us to Cozumel and Grand Cayman in April. Gotta love kids sail free! And I'll have the camera in time for that trip too! Woohoo!

 

[Gombessa]

Thanks. But after reading more I'll likely be using pro tune and raw so I don't have to worry about AWB.

I only have two dives with the H3B so far, but in my limited experience don't count iMovie out just yet. If you want to shoot protune, you can definitely still use iMovie for its quick and intuitive editing features, but you'll need to use Cineform before you import footage from the camera, both because iMovie doesn't handle the native protune output from the camera very efficiently, and because iMovie's white balance and color correction controls are nowhere near as powerful as Cineform's. For me, this has been camera -> cineform convert -> cineform wb/color correction -> imovie import -> imovie edit -> final imovie render. It's a few extra steps from using iMovie alone, but I've found it's worth it for what you gain with the Black

 

[Interceptor121]

Gombessa makes a good point with regards to the way the white balance correction is done in cineform
In iMovie and fcp you don't control color temperature but tint and gain for rgb channels this gives limited range of correction but in my experience high final quality
Cineform has temperature and tint control however the white balance picker produces very coarse results that end up with a lot more chroma noise if you push it hard
So it is still important to get the footage as good as possible when you shoot