Figure 12-1: Here's a comparison between the number of pixels of the various video formats. As you can see, 4K captures a LOT more pixels every second, creating a heavy workload (and proportional heat buildup) for the camera's processor.
Still Image Settings |
Analogous Video Settings |
Image Size (in pixels)
|
File Format
|
Quality dictates how large the .jpg images are (i.e., how much compression gets applied):
Not everyone can see the difference between these settings. |
Record Setting defines the bitrate (the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality). Record setting also determines the frame rate. For example, the Record Setting "30p 50M" refers to a frame rate of 30 frames per second, and a bit rate of 60 megabits per second. |
Figure 12-1: Here's a comparison between the number of pixels of the various video formats. As you can see, 4K captures a LOT more pixels every second, creating a heavy workload (and proportional heat buildup) for the camera's processor. |
Each choice of video Format (.mp4, AVCHD, XAVC S, etc.) comes with an array of choices for frame rate and bit rate. For the sake of completeness, here are all of the choices available:
Format |
Record Setting Choices NTSC |
Record Setting Choices PAL |
XAVC S 4K |
30p 100M 30p 60M 24p 100M 24p 60M |
25p 100M 25p 60M |
XAVCS HD (120p and 100p are options for slow-motion playback.) |
60p 50M 30p 50M 24p 50M 120p 1000M 120p 60M |
50p 50M 25p 50M 100p 100M 100p 60M |
AVCHD |
60i 24M 60i 17M 60p 28M 24p 24M 24p 17M |
50i 24M 50i 17M 50p 28M 25p 24M 25p 17M |
MP4 |
1920 x 1080 60p 28M 1920 x 1080 30p 16M 1280 x 720 30p 6M |
1920 x 1080 50p 28M 1920 x 1080 25p 16M 1280 x 720 25p 6M |
So the last option under “MP4” represents the equivalent of the STD .jpg setting - offering the most compression with a bitrate of 6 megabits per second. It's ideal if your video is only going to get uploaded to social media. Weighing in on the other end of the spectrum, the XAVC S formats (4K and HD) offer the equivalent of “X.Fine .jpg” compression at up to a whopping 100 megabits per second bitrate.
TIP: Sony has improved the resolution and increased the bitrate for the MP4 Format option compared to previous cameras, to the point where it can be on par with one of the AVCHD settings. (60p 28M.) This means there's no longer any reason to recommend using the AVCHD format, given its non-standard .m2ts file extension (which my friends a Paramount Studios were not able to open, nor can it be read by Google Photos. ) |
XAVC S also offers a unique feature: You can shoot at 120 frames per second (100 fps in PAL mode), which, when re-encoded back to 30 fps on your computer, is ideal for very smooth slow-motion playback. (You must re-encode it using a commercial video editing package, like Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro, or Sony Vegas.)
TIP: The term ".mp4" as a video format can be confusing, since the 4K, HD, and .MP4 movie formats all appear as .mp4 movie files when they land on your hard disk (AVCHD videos show as .m2ts files). "MP4" is also the name Sony gives to the lowest-resolution and lowest bit-rate video format available on the camera. Throughout this book I try to draw a distinction so as to avoid confusion. |
If you're a videographer, you already know: Just shoot the highest resolution and highest bitrate and frame rate on everything and you can figure out everything else later. (That would be XAVC S 4K, 30p 100M.) This is the equivalent of shooting RAW all the time just so you can have the best possible source material to work with, even if the final use for the image doesn't warrant it.
If you're not a videographer, keep in mind that just as the world has moved on from Standard Definition TV to HDTV, the world seems to be embracing the new 4K video standard. (This wasn't a forgone conclusion – remember the 3D TV craze a couple of years ago that never got traction?) Anyway, if you want your video to be more relevant a few decades from now, when 4K will be the norm, it makes sense to shoot 4K now.
On the other hand, shooting 4K may not be the best option if you're traveling since the memory card and battery usage will both go up. (And heat buildup will limit your ability to shoot video clips longer than 20 minutes in this camera.) And so, if you don’t know what to choose for general purpose work, the video format I'm recommending is XAVC S HD.
TIP: Longing for the smooth motion of a motorized zoom lens, but lack such a lens? There's a pseudo-zoom function that works great with movies and is smoother than I can zoom manually. Enable MENU --> When you wish to do a steady zoom, hit the right arrow button once with your thumb, then press and hold the right button again for a smooth, continuous zoom effect. Normally the Clear Image Zoom and Digital Zoom functions will deteriorate the image quality a little when taking stills, but there's no such drawback when using them with video. NOTE: This feature is disabled if you actually have a Power Zoom lens attached. |
OK, so if you're not going to shoot 4K you've already seen that I recommend MENU --> 
2 --> (movie) Format be set to XAVC S HD.
Next comes the harder question of "Which Record Settings (MENU --> 2 --> Record Setting) should I choose?" There are five available on my NTSC camera:
We can throw out the last two choices right away (120 frame per second) since that's intended for either tracking extremely fast action or for 4x slow motion playback.
The 3rd choice, 24p 50M should be used if you're going to be editing your video footage and intermixing it with film footage, since they both go at 24 fps. If you're not, 24 fps has a drawback: when you're doing a slow pan, things can look awfully jerky. (This is true of film too. Some people love the look of film frame rate, warts and all.)
That leaves the first two choices: 60p 50M, or 30p 50M. One being twice the frame rate of the other. Since we all grew up with television that was about 30 fps, this would seem a reasonable setting to use. On the other hand, fast motion looks much smoother in 60p. Plus, FILE SIZES FOR 30P AND 60P ARE IDENTICAL. What's more, with 60p you can (via a good video editor) transcode to get perfect 30p for Internet, 60i for DVD and BluRay as well as 1280x720 60p for BluRay if you have projects with fast motion. So 60p seems to be the way to go.
So the settings I use for everyday use is XAVC S HD, 60p 50M.
TIP: 60p may be better for smooth motion videos, but if you're shooting video at high ISO, 30p might be the better choice since you're sampling at half the rate and therefore the sensor will (in theory) be producing less heat, which translates to lower noise. Plus, the normal low-light shutter speed for 30p is 1/60th and for 60p is 1/120th, so you'll be letting in one stop more light, allowing one stop lower ISO assuming all other camera defaults. Two benefits! |
If you have some spare time, you might enjoy the process of shooting test footage using different Record Settings, play them back on your video consumption device of choice, and see if you can see a difference. Just as many people cannot hear the difference between .mp3 and .wav audio files, so too can many people not see the difference in quality between .mp4 and XAVC S. (Or perhaps your equipment isn’t rendering it optimally. Both options are likely.)
Digital video and digital still photography developed independently from each other, although they all were both tied to the kinds of sensors that were available at the time. That’s why the still image industry came out with an APS-C standard and the film industry came out with a nearly
Figure 12-2: A comparison between the sizes of the Full-frame sensor (right) and the smaller APS-C sensor (left). The "Super 35mm" is a size similar to APS-C defined by the movie industry. |
identical “Super35” standard (although, ironically, there was nothing “Super” about it.) Figure 12-2 shows a comparison of sizes.
Notice that the definitions for these formats are measured in millimeters. Notice also that the Super35 format is slightly larger physically than the APS-C sensor which graces your camera. So how is it possible that some of the movie formats available in your camera are labeled as “Super35”? How is that even possible on a sensor that's smaller than the actual specification?
Figure 12-3: Some video formats are labeled "Super35mm"; however the aspect ratio and number of pixels are all the same. You can safely ignore these labels. |
What’s even stranger is that Sony’s own manual says that every video format that’s not 4K is 1920 x 1080 pixels in size, regardless of how it is labeled in the menus.
So of course I tried it in all formats and measured the pixel dimensions on my computer. They’re all the same. 1920 x 1080 is the HD video standard that all formats (other than the third .MP4 format) that this camera adheres to.
And so, you can safely ignore the "Super35" labels that the camera shows you in the menus (Figure 12-3). All of the videos shoot at the resolutions shown earlier in Figure 12-1.
3 --> Zoom Setting
