Cineform ?
 

I'm sure this is going to be considered a goofy question but...

I got the trial version of Cineform and it does seem to make the files easier to edit with. However, I was surprised to find that the files created by Cineform are TWICE the size of the original files that came from the 7D. Is that normal?

I am also wondering if it is OK to dump the files from my 7D into my Premier time line and export them as M2 files and use that resulting video file for editing. I did this for a recent project and it seemed to work fine. Afterward I found myself wondering "Why bother with Cineform?". I assume I may be missing something here so I am posting to see what others think. Thoughts, comments... ?

Do some color grading to the native 7D files and then do the same to the Cineform files and the difference will become apparent very quickly.

Thanks Jerry. I'll try a test to compare.

I wonder how it would go if I did color correction on the M2 I created from the raw files. I put all my 7D clips in the Premier timeline, exported that big file to M2 and then imported that M2 into Premier and used that for editing.

I will play around more with this stuff as soon as I get a chance. For now I appreciate the input. Thanks.

Which one should be better?

Cineform will be much better. When you use it, and one of the main reasons I still do, is it converts the clips to 4:2:2 color. Then put those clips into First Light and you can really push the color around. When I shoot with my 7D I use a very flat picture profile just for this reason. It saves the codec in the camera from being over taxed and lets me do what I want in post.

"Which one should be better?"
Jerry was refering to the realtime editing capabilities with cineform I think, even on a modest system it's possible to collor correct and still preview in realtime while native 7d with color correction will surely get even very fast pc's on their knees.

The 7D files are heavily compressed, it's like taking a watermelon and squeezing it down to a grapefruit size, Neoscene is decompressing the file and increasing the color space and bit size, the files are very good looking with their .avi codec.

I would hold onto the 7D native files for archive, as in the future there maybe an even better conversion available.