Movie

I just tried for the first time movie mode, and was underwhelmed by the experience. Firstly it only works in live view, and secondly it is quite juddery when panning. Thirdly the focus hunted a bit but I guess that is down to getting the right mode. So went to YouTube to see if there were any examples, I only found a couple for the K1 and they were rubbish, frankly. So, does anyone use movie mode regularly?

The question arose after laboriously transferring some old movies onto dvds I took with a camcorder on mini cassettes, and deciding I could leave the camcorder at home now I have a DSLR but now not so sure.

Regardsles of hofw good video is , on a dslr , it is restricted to 29 mins, hardly worth paying a premium for.

Regards

Who is going to shoot a continous 29min take without stopping? Even a professional full length movie will be shot in many many segments and scenes of just a few mins or even seconds. The temperature cut-out is likely to stop things before you get to 29mins anyway.

Rob, without 'mechanical' shake reduction, the loss of which is much bemoaned throughout Pentax world, then there needs to be careful handling and placing of the camera to ensure stability and smoothness. I can walk around a forest and get beautiful floating footage that looks like its gliding along rails .... But that's a K7 !

The big advantage your K1 brings is the sensor and the creative depth of field effects your wide aperture high quality lenses offer, even old film era manual ones. Try to replicate this versatility and optical effects on pro-grade dedicated video equipment and see your eyes water over as you look at the price !!

Standard 8 wouldn't have been any good for you then, two minutes and you had to turn the film over!
Super 8, no film turn over but the film would have run out after 3 minutes and 20 seconds.
A one reel film was 10 minutes (eg a Mickey Mouse cartoon) or a two reeler 20 minutes.
Have you actually ever watched a film in one 29 minute take? You'd turn it off well before half way through. If you watch television and count the seconds of each shot they'll hardly ever go over 10 seconds, normally they'll just be two or three. Even long scenes are broken up with cutaways. It's totally illogical to decry any video equipment based on a 29 minute running restriction.
As Nigel says, if you want steady footage use a tripod. What sensor shift in video work does is make you feel sick watching it drift up and down, no wonder it was dropped, it was for the good of the viewers rather than a lazy cameraman.

The reality of Pentax video makes for sad reading. Despite a K-1 and KP units being new cameras, Pentax have slapped the same video package into them all, which dates back to 2012.

With the K-01 and K-30 Pentax dropped the real mechanical sensor stabilisation of the K-7 and K-5 series. It's never been seen again since, which is disappointing given it was well ahead of its time. Nowadays you'll find it in several cameras, (such as Panasonic, Sony and Olympus), just not from Pentax.

The other aspect is the bit rate, which essentially describes how much detail of a complex moving scene can be captured, before it blocks up into a pixelated mess. Once again, this hasn't changed since 2012, on any new Pentax camera, and it's looking ridiculous 5 years later in 2017.

I'm concerned that when Pentax finally address their video offering they won't address the basics. 4K will become a standard spec within a few years, but simply transferring what we have to a higher resolution will let us see that blocky mush mess more clearer.

For now though, if you tripod mount your camera, set the focus well, pick all the best quality mode stars, and there is not too much movement in the scenes, you should do ok. If you are recording to 29minute lengths, and don't require the depth of field for example that a DSLR can offer over a handicap, then a basic video recorder might suit your needs better.

Warning, I'm about to post my usual wish list again. Those who have seen this, or are bored of it, please look away now...

Return physical Sensor Stabilisation during video recording. (Provide menu option to enable/disable this if there are any audible noise issues associated with this).
Ensure no field of view cropping occurs if the inbuilt stabilisation is turned OFF.
Enable Focus Peaking during video recording.
Up the bit rates to something more modern, from the current 18Mb/s or so 2012 spec.
Enable clean HDMI out, at user selectable resolution and frame rate, for those who want to use a more capable external recording device.
Up the maximum 1080 progressive framerate, to enable full HD slow motion options when slowed back down in post.
Show visual on screen audio levels, so that the appropriate audio gain setting can be selected.
Offer a headphone out jack, so that the audio levels can be monitored if desired.
Allow for flashing highlights, blinking highlights, blinkies, zebras etc during video recording, to convey blown hightlights/full black exposure areas.
Consider additional video formats, in case something more suitable is available.
Provide flat a picture profile / higher bitrate option for pro users.

Then offer 2.7K resolution, so there is the ability to stabilise and crop in post if required.

Then offer 4K resolution.

Then offer 4.6K resolution, so there is the ability to stabilise and crop in post if required.

Thanks for your generous responses, I will go through them in detail and see if I can come up with a decent result. I do see that there is shake reduction in movie mode though, but I guess if using a tripod it should be switched off.

Ps richandfleur, K1 has a headphone jack and a menu option to adjust headphone volume.

Hi, yeah there's a bit to cover here.

First thing to watch is that you get your exposure right in camera in video mode. There's not a lot of leeway to push the video image, as it's essentially akin to a predeveloped jpeg still.

Pentax users who don't use video often say things like "Pentax doesn't do video" etc, but every Pentax DSLR since 2009 has had video capabilities. They do do video, just not very well unfortunately. As you say, some models feature mic or headphone ports, and there's simply no need for these at all for stills. They are video features, on a Pentax.

DSLR's make an excellent choice for video work, as they allow you to interchange lenses, and their larger sensors allow for easy depth of field manipulation over a standard handicam. As Nigel mentions above, equivalent interchangeable lens video cameras cost in the region of 4 x a K-1.
The stills equivalent of a handicam video camera is a point and shoot/bridge camera, with a fixed lens and smaller sensor, so handicams aren't in the same creative league as a DSLR.

Just as bridge cameras have their place, so to do handicams. If you're looking to simply capture a long performance, with no artistic aspect, then a handicam is ideal. Likewise for a soccer game etc. In these situations, and you could include converting old home movies to digital, a handicam is fine. They're great for recording a lecture, rolling for hours, times when you don't mind zooming etc.

Pentax DSLR's have only just offered continuous AF in video mode, on the K-70, which uses on sensor phase detect AF points. Everything else allows you to focus with the AF button, but it's not continuous. I don't mind that, as I hate the AF hunting look during video, but AF is useful to lock on to start with. Pentax offers focus peaking, which works great (even though it's limited to just the one colour/amount). However, this stops working during video capture, which is unfortunately when you need it most, given there is no AF in video in most Pentax cameras.

The 'Movie SR' is electronic, meaning it's software that tries to stabilise the image. It's not the real sensor shake reduction that is in use during stills capture, or that was used during video capture back on the K-7 and K-5 series. It introduces a lot of image warping, and frankly is poor at best. If you're not shaking or movie that much, it can be ok, but on the whole it's best to leave it off and try to stabilise using your video editing software afterwards, if you access to something that can do this.

Unfortunately this feature (real mechanical sensor stabilisation during video) should be a Pentax strength, but nowadays it's only found in Sony, Olympus and Panasonic cameras. Others provide stabilisation within the lens, instead of the sensor itself, but lenses made for the Pentax mount usually strip this out, on the sensible belief that Pentax will use their own sensor stabilisation. Which is fine in stills mode, but Pentax don't offer it in video mode anymore.

DSLR's have been in use for video for a long time now. Way back in 2010 the finale episode of one of the House seasons was filmed on DSLRs for example. The 29 minute limit is only an issue if you want to record straight. Personally I film a lot of little clips, and then stitch them together.

Another thing to consider is your frame rate. 24fps is standard for bluray/film, but it's not fast enough to provide smooth motion in pans. That's an issue that's independent of the camera. This was one aspect that lead to the TV's with faster refresh rates, and interpolated frames to try and reduce this issue. Setting to 1080p at 30fps might help you if you're seeing this at 24fps? 24fps was an option that was added in 2012, as the models previous to this had 25fps only, and no focus peaking.

I have gone back to basics and recorded a short clip of 34 secs, which is 94Mb! Reduced in Microsoft Media Player to about 7Mb but unfortunately cannot share as the site says it's the wrong file type. So what is? However, Can I just say it was taken with a static 100mm macro lens in aps-c format (appeared larger on the back screen) and looks pretty impressive. Potential for different type of movie to my holiday ones and I am looking forward to the spring when the flowers and insects emerge. There is a whole new learning curve here. And accessories!

One odd thing though, you can look at a static photo hundreds of times but a movie clip much less. I suppose it locks you in to a time frame whereas a photo can be 1 sec or a minute.

That's sounding cool. I'd suggest creating a youtube or vimeo account, and then uploading your full sized file there. You can then post a link to that here, such as this one.

The current Pentax file format came in in 2012, and replaced a less compressed/larger file type from the K-7/k-5 cameras. The older format will produce much larger files, but with less compression and potentially with more detail. In modern terms though, yeah, you'll go through some space Pentax seems to have opted for smaller file sizes, valuing more compression over quality/higher bit rates, which is strange given their focus on high image quality in stills.

For interests sake, the mini DV tapes from early digital camcorders were not compressed at all, and produced massive files sizes for tiny SD resolution 720x576 video.

Pentax crops/zooms the image in video mode, compared to the same settings in stills mode. This is to give the software stabilisation some wiggle room to move as it tries to keep things still. Unfortunately this zoom remains, even if you turn the Movie SR off. It's one of those simple points mentioned above that needs addressing.



I'm not too sure what you are referring to here sorry. You can look at either as much as you want

Thanks for the link, lovely images and great to hear the sounds as well. Now you have got me thinking.

Just remembered I've got another couple of examples on vimeo.
These might be of interest

Hope the link works like that.

For me personally, in terms of what I do with a DSLR for video, I'm not worried at all by a limit of 29 minutes recording, (which is based on an EU tax category restriction). I'd suggest that if you are worried by that limit, then you really shouldn't be using a DSLR for the task. You won't find a 29 minute+ scene in any film, tv or music video

You can do a lot with video on the Pentax. It's not horrible, but it could be a whole heap better pretty easily. For best results I'd suggest not thinking of DSLR video as a handicam, and remember all your stills considerations of composition, exposure, focus, depth of field, framing etc all remain equally as important for DSLR video

Again impressive, richandfleur. I always felt a DSLR doesn't handle well as a camcorder but I really like what you are doing. A pity this site doesn't have a video category in the forum, nor the ability to show clips without needing a link.

Bottom line is they aren't the same thing anyway

Stills to video, things align like this:

Compact/bridge camera ~ Handicam
£200 Pentax XG-1 Bridge Camera ~ £200 Sony Camcorder

DSLR ~ Interchangeable Lens Video Camera
£500-£1000 Pentax K-3ii / KP etc ~ £2,000 - £4,000 + (Sony VG30 or FS5 for example)

So you can see why DSLR's are appealing for video work. They give you access to interchangeable lenses, larger sensors and creative image options that just aren't possible on a handicam, at a fraction of the price of a 'real' professional video camera.

When people say just use a handicam, or a cellphone, I'd ask if they'd be prepared to do that for their stills work: