Setting up my new nikon camera

Help
1

Hello everyone,

I admit I’m a bit lost!

The Nikon Z6 III offers a plethora of settings for video. Apart from size (HD, 4K, …) and frame rate (30, 60, … fps.) settings, what are the right settings to apply (file format, tone mode, bit rate, …), on this body for post-production with Kdenlive?

2

It really depends on what your end result should be. For sports video with the option to do slow-mo go with a high fps setting (120+); normal landscape or portraits or for a travel vlog 30 fps is fine but you may want a higher resolution; higher bit rates for video and audio give finer details but result in larger files; same with resolution: 4K is great but heavy to work with in post. If your final video is 1920x1080, you don’t really need 4K sources (unless you zoom a lot and go slow-mo).
Go with a format with low compression because the Kdenlive render will also compress (unless you go with a lossless codec). The container is of lesser concern as Kdenlive can handle most of them (mp4, mkv, WebM, ProRes).

3
  • Resolution: The same you want for output. Keep it mind that higher resolutions take way more time to render, that’s why I edit on 1080p.
  • Framerate: 60fps. Fluid, but higher may be too expensive to play for many devices.
  • Codec for individual files to edit: ffv1 if possible, as it’s the best lossless, or the same as “codec for uploads”.
  • Codec for uploads: H.264/H.265 with max speed and quality 16. It will be pretty fast, and I won’t take as much space as a lossless format, yet they quality will be superb.
  • Codec for final file: either vp8 if you need speed, or av1 if you need the maximum compression.
  • Image settings: the closest to what you want to achieve. Avoid having to increase color or exposure digitally, only lowering it, to avoid artifacts.

Further refinement is just a matter of trial and error.

4

Thank you very much for your advice.

I don’t have a problem with frame rates, definition or containers. It’s rather all the file types offered by Nikon that worry me. Nikon in fact offers:

N-RAW 12 bits (NEV)

ProRes RAW HQ 12 bits (MOV)

ProRes 422 HQ 10 bits (MOV)

H.265 10 bits (MOV)

H.265 8 bits (MOV)

H.264 8 bits (MP4)

As I’ve been processing my photos for a long time, I kind of understand what this means.

But more importantly, I was wondering if there were any incompatibilities between these file types and Kdenlive.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

5

AFAIK, this is the only format Kdenlive cannot process.

And color bit-depth is limited to 10 bits. You need to enable full color range in the render dialog and avoid any and all effects. With effects, Kdenlive is limited to 8-bit color depth (limitation of MLT).

6

Thank you very much for your clarification. For the time being, I’ll limit myself to 8-bit H.265 (MOV). I’ll try 10-bit file types later.