Using your Oly C 5050z for Quicktime Movies

[SM Diver]

We know the 5050 takes great photos, but what about that movie function?

Olympus wisely went with Apple's industry leading Quicktime format for it's movie capabilities. I played with it a little while out on my boat yesterday and shot some brief movies of my kids on the boat preparing for their second day of check out dives.

Here are some facts and suggestions:

The sample clip that I'll link to here is only 30 seconds. I left it unedited. It took up 9.3 MB of space on the media. In other words, if you want to use this function frequently, you'll need a lot of media cards.

Another problem is delivery to the web to share by email or on a forum. Even if you have plenty of server space, uploading 9.3 MB takes a while, and all but high speed cable users would give up on trying to download and view it.

There are a couple of things you could do. I use iMovie for basic editing, and Final Cut Pro for more advanced stuff I want to do, like working with layers or animation. You can kill two birds here by editing and reducing file size for export. Windows users can use Adobe Premiere, Pinnacle Studio, or whatever other editing program you have.

However, if you want to post something unedited, you can simply open the movie in Quicktime and export it for web, which is what I did for this.

Here are the results of the 30 second Oly5050z movie:

original = 9.3 MB
exported for "DSL/Cable Medium" = 1.1 MB
exported for "DSL/Cable High" = 2.9 MB

You can export for modem users too, but what's the point? Who wants to watch grainy video the size of a postage stamp?

As you see from those file sizes, there is a considerable change just in using the export feature. The Medium export loses quite a bit, but the High export is not too bad, and at 2.9 MB, acceptable IMO as more and more people get high speed internet.

Here is the sample clip, shot with the new 5050:


DSL/Cable Med: http://www.spearboard.com/zackboatformed.MOV

DSL/Cable High: http://www.spearboard.com/zackdslcablehigh.MOV

How does the movie function work underwater? Sounds like a good topic for another thread.

 

[Dee]

Scott...I have Pinnacle Expressions but I've never used it. Would that do?

Do you know if I can take several of these C-5050 Quicktime clips and combine them into one? What I'm thinking is to take all the short clips on a trip and combine them all for trip memories. I doubt we'd ever share them with anyone but with those file sizes it would be nice to burn them to CD.

 

[SM Diver]

You need to delete Pinnacle Expressions off your hard drive and never use it again. It is about the most bare bones application out there, and while easy to use, it does not even have transitions. If you like Pinnacle products, and you are obviously on Windows, I would upgrade at the very least to Pinnacle Studio 7 or whatever the last version is.

But, if you like Expressions and want to keep it, here is what I would do. First, pay the $30 for the full version of Apple's Quicktime (yes, they make a version for Windows). Go here: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

This will allow you to work with your Quicktime movies easily, and with this full version you can even do a little editing right in Quicktime.

Note the following language found in a review about Expressions:

It will import video (AVI, DV, or MPEG-1 or -2) or photos (BMP, JPEG, PCD, PCT, TGA, WMF, TIFF) that are already on your hard drive. Expression automatically breaks up your video into scenes for easier editing.

Conspicuously absent is an ability to import Quicktime. Therefore, you'll need to convert to an acceptable format. The Quicktime software will export/convert to AVI so, voila, after that conversion you can import into Pinnacle Expressions.

And yes, you can combine clips into one produced project. But it is really hard to believe that there is editing software out there that does not include transitions at the very least. You'll want that to make slick productions.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dee]

I don't have an opinion one way or another on Pin. Expressions. I came in a bundle of stuff when I bought my computer. Since I have absolutely no knowledge of video techniques and lingo, as soon as I opened it I knew I was in foreign territory!

I'll pick your brain more about this after I've taken a few clips to have something to work with.

 

[bgonderi]

This site has a lot of useful information regarding digital video (capturing, editing, authoring, conversion, etc.) - for both PCs and Macs (so everyone should be happy).

 

[andrea31419]

Any comments on Windows Movie Maker. This came with my computer, I've been playing a little with it. I can convert to AVI format, then pull into quicktime to convert. But I was playing around with a sucky camera, so video output was terrible. I'm hoping with the C4000 it will be better.

A.

 

[Genesis]

It does SEVERE quality damage to Quicktime imports.

Useless, IMHO.

A decent solution appears to be Ulead Video Studio (inexpensive; under $100) or both Quicktime Pro ($30) and Roxio's full edition ($50 or so)

Either of those will do it, but Video Studio will do it in one step to a VCD or DVD, where the other will take two steps.

QuicktimePro is fine if you just want to export single clips for the web. If you want to assemble clips and make a movie out of them, you need something more.

 

[andrea31419]

That's what I needed to know...thanks. I've been looking at Ulead's products, I already have their DVD Pictureshow, and their Video is more in my budget than Pinnacle.

A.

 

[SM Diver]

Andrea, IMHO Pinnacle Studio, for slightly more, is better than Ulead. Better features, easier to use, a slick auto-sound function, etc. It's also very intuitive, and even a beginner will be quickly editing and producing video. They designed it as though their intended user was someone who had never cut video.

 

[andrea31419]

I've got Quicktime Pro ($30.00) version, I've got Roxio, but not the full version.

I'm wanting to put clips together to put in my picture slideshows, along with the photos, using Uleads DVD Pictureshow.