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Different DSLR file converters – TESTED !

Jan 21, 2011 | 5Dmk2, DSLR, Reviews, The Gear I use, What I've learned, Work Blog, Workflow

I put together a little video highlighting the differences between the following converters:

  • Canon E1 movie plugin
  • Magic Bullet’s ‘Grinder’
  • MpegStreamClip,
  • 5DtoRGB.

Now whilst each of them performed well, there are some differences between them all, however, in my opinion, none of them seal the deal completely. Here’s why;  If I’m shooting a few clips, no problem; I select the clips, just like in any of the demos that you see, and all is well. However, if you have just returned from a 3 month trip in Africa with 4 Terrabytes of footage in multiple organised folders of footage to be transferred.. all ready categorized and organized, only ONE of these programs (Mpegstreamclip) can make a similar OUTPUT directory structure. With all the other programs, everything ends up in ONE ENORM-ARSE folder. .. and if you are shooting with 2 cameras, then you can potentially be screwed even more.  BALLS !!!!!

Here’s another scenario. You are shooting with 2 Canon 5Dmk2’s. You have just formatted the cards in both cameras. You are shooting an interview (wide and close) You then convert the footage with either of these programs. The Canon E1 plugin is the only one that can add embedded meta data into the clip name. With the other programs there is no way of knowing.

E1 Plugin:

Pros:

  • Great use of meta data to add descriptions to footage, might not be so needed if we had multiple outputs.

Cons:

  • you need to have final cut running
  • doesn’t use all the cores efficiantly
  • Will crash if you give it more than 200 clips at once

Grinder

Pros:

  • don’t need final cut running
  • Uses multiple cores pretty well, (usually at around 65-70%)but not the fastest of the bunch
  • Best image overall when compared to it’s speed

Cons:

  • doesn’t allow passthrough of timecode, makes its own timecode which is referenced to nothing
  • NO multiple outputs

MPegStreamClip

Pros

  • Uses the cores the most (usually at around 85%)
  • The fastest out of the bunch, with the same image quality.
  • MULTIPLE OUTPUT DESTINATIONS YAAAY !!!

Cons:

  • Saturation levels are not handled as well as Grinder though…