- Hey, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video.
Recently we did a video talking about the top camera apps
on Android and we narrowed it down to two.
They were Open Camera as a free option,
and Cinema 4K as a paid option.
So, in this video, we're gonna take a look at Cinema 4K,
and we're gonna do a run through of how you can
set it up to get the best settings for your videos.
Now, in this video, we're not gonna cover all
the features, we're not gonna cover all the settings,
and it's not a complete review.
We're gonna cover all the settings to get
the best results for your videos.
So, before we jump into it, the whole advantage of
using these third party, or after-market, camera apps
is that we have the functionality that we would
have on a video camera or on a DSLR,
so we can take full control over the manual
settings and lock them down for the best results.
So, that way we're not just running on auto,
and letting our phones decide when to brighten
the shot, when to darken the shot,
and when to adjust the focus.
By setting everything to manual and taking
full control yourself over the video that you're outputting.
So, it's really important not to get overwhelmed with
all the features and the settings and the whole
concept of filming in manual mode and locking
down all of these settings.
Once you've got your head around it,
and once you've done it a couple times,
it'll become second nature to you
and you'll get full control over your videos.
Alright, so here we are in Cinema 4K.
The first place to start is to get your video record
quality and bit rate set up first.
So, we'll click on settings first,
and we want to set up for the rear camera first.
And we'll set our frame rate.
Now, you got the choice here of a few
different frame rates.
There's a bit of a delay when we press the button
before it updates.
If you're in the US, you want to set to
30 frames per second.
If you're in Australia or the UK,
then you'll want 25 frames per second.
And you will want to match here the area that
you're filming in so that you don't
get any flickering through from any lights
that you might be using in your filming.
Next is the resolution which is the quality
of the video that we'll be recording.
Now, max it out here.
If your phone is capable of recording 4K,
as you can see here, UHD, this is a Google Pixel XL,
so it's got a 4K camera in it for video.
So, you can cycle through and pick the highest
quality for you, which we go back there,
that is our highest quality here.
Video bit rate is the amount of data that's
captured per frame per second of your video.
So, you can see here that it's set to 100 mbps,
so we can cycle through those.
You have a choice of 60, 50, 40, 30, 25, 20.
So, how it works is, the lower the megabits per second,
the lower the quality, but the smaller the video size.
So, I recommend maxing that out if you've
got the storage capacity in your phone.
If you don't, if your phone is nearly full,
then I would suggest that you remove, do a backup,
take all your photos and your videos off,
clear some space, so that you can record
in the highest quality possible.
So, for us here that's 100 mbps.
Next up is the audio source and I got the choice here
of camcorder or microphone.
So, if you're going to use an external microphone,
then set it to mic.
If you're going be using just your built in
microphone on your phone, then set it back to camcorder.
Now we can choose the audio bit rate.
So, the same as the video bit rate, this is
the quality of the audio that we'll be recording.
Again, higher the number, higher the quality,
larger the file size.
Now, I'd really recommend here that you don't
go less than 128 kbps.
128 is what they call CD quality.
So, anything less than 128,
you will really start to notice the
drop in quality of the audio.
So, for the audio I'd recommend at least 256 kbps.
You can actually go higher, we can got to 320.
We can even go as high as 1 mbps for audio in this app.
Now, for me, I think that's actually a bit of overkill,
which is something I don't say too often.
So, I would wind that back personally to 256 kbps.
That will be more than enough for most situations.
And if we scroll down here now, we got a lot more settings.
Stabilizing, if you want to set your stabilizer on,
if your phone's got an optical image stabilizer,
then you can turn it on here,
or you can set it to software.
So, the camera app actually has built
in stabilizing, as well.
So, if your phone supports optical,
I would suggest to choose optical
and leave it on optical.
If it doesn't, then you can choose whether
you want to use the software, the camera app,
to stabilize your videos for you,
of if you want it totally off.
So, if you're going to be walking around
and moving around, while you're recording your videos,
then it's a good idea to turn stabilization on.
So, whether it's optical, if your phone supports it,
or software, which is the camera app,
which actually has a built in stabilizing capabilities,
then to help reduce the camera shake and help get
a smoother image, you can turn on stabilization.
Now, if you're going to be filming on a tripod,
like we are here, then I would suggest
that you actually turn it off.
Now, one of the cool features with this app
is that it gives you a flat color profile.
So, what that means is it's recording at
what would look like a washed out image.
So, that you're actually recording more details
in your videos.
So, then when you're color grading your videos
later in your editing, you've got more control
and more creativity with what you can do
with the colors and the look that you
want to create for your video.
So, you can change the color profile here from
dark only, light only, or dark plus light.
So, I'd recommend if you're going to be filming
with a flat color profile that you leave it
at dark plus light.
And then the level of intensity of that
color profile, you can change here.
So, we got medium, high, or low.
So, really the settings here for the flat
color profile type will only apply if you
are wanting to record with that flat color
profile type enabled.
If you've got no interest in color correcting
or really changing the look and feel of
your video in your editing, then you
can ignore these all together.
Personally, I like to do a little bit of color
correction or adjustment with my videos.
So, for me I like to set this here at medium.
Noise reduction is a cool feature to help you
reduce the amount of grain or digital noise
in low light videos.
Personally, I like to turn this noise reduction off
because it's never as good as noise reduction,
in my opinion, that you would find in
your editing software.
So, if your scene is lit well, and you've got
enough light there for your filming,
then you shouldn't have a noisy image anyway.
And if there is, then I'd suggest that you fix it
in your editing software afterwards
instead of here in the camera.
But once again, if you're not planning on
doing anything in your editing afterwards,
and you're filming in dark situations,
then turning on noise reduction may be
a good solution for you.
So, exposure control is one that I would highly
recommend that you leave as full manual.
Which means when we're filming we can set
everything to lock it down the way that we want it.
Now, the last setting here that you'll want
to check is the video orientation.
So, by default this camera app doesn't rotate
when you rotate your camera around.
So, if you've put your camera in the tripod,
and you're video image is upside down,
or you'd rather record upside down,
then you can change the video orientation here.
Okay, so those are all the main settings that
you'll want to adjust.
We'll go back to the camera app now.
Next up here we've got our picture profile
whether we turn on that flat color profile or
back to standard as you can see now.
So, you can see without the flat profile,
we're already getting a lot more colors through.
So, if you are going to be doing color grading later,
you'd be better off with the flat color profile,
so that you can really tweak the blacks and
the whites to get the color and look that you're after.
If you're not interested in doing any
color correction later,
then turn off the profile and leave it on normal.
For the purposes of this video, we'll leave it as normal.
Next up, we'll look at our exposure adjustment,
which is the next button here.
And once we've pressed that, you'll see down the bottom
we've got our ISO setting and we've also got
our exposure time which is our shutter speed.
So, the first setting you should adjust here
is the exposure time, or your shutter speed.
So, if you're in Australia or the UK,
you'll want to set this to 50, or one over 50,
to match the flickering of the lights that we have here.
Or, if you're in the US, you'll want to set
this to 60, or one over 60, to match
the lights in your area.
So, we're in Australia, we'll set this to one over 50.
Now you can see that's brightened up our shot a lot.
The lower the number, the brighter the shot.
The higher the number, the darker the shot.
Now, the next adjustment we need to make is to the ISO.
Now, this is the lower the number, the darker the image.
The higher the number, the brighter the shot.
So, you can see as we go 600, 800, 1000, we're
getting really bright now.
So, if you're going to be filming outdoors,
you'll definitely want to select a low number here.
So, you can see for us, 100 is looking pretty good.
Now these two settings do go hand in hand.
Meaning that if you boost one, then you may need to drop
the other one to compensate.
But the one that's the most important is the
shutter speed so that there's no flickering in the videos.
If you are filming outdoors, this was a much, much
brighter image, and you've got your ISO down
as low as it can be, and the image is still
really bright because we've got our exposure here
set to 50, we can actually increase in the
multiple of that number.
So, in Australia, we're using 50, but you could
also up it to 100 to darken the shot.
So, it's a multiple of that number.
Likewise in the States, you could also use 120
to darken the image.
Now, outdoors there's a lot less chance of flickering
from lights, so if you really find that once
you've set your ISO to a low number,
and you've set your shutter speed to 60 or to 120,
if you find that your shot is still really bright,
you can increase this exposure time,
or shutter speed number to darken the shot
down further so that it looks right.
And there'll be next no chance of flickering
in your videos because you'll just be outdoors
and using sunlight in most cases instead
of using studio lights.
So, put this back down now to one over 50,
and I'll adjust the ISO back up to 100 now.
So, if we were to press record right now,
those settings are locked down.
So, no matter where we pick up and move our phone
around to, or walk around to, we've locked down
our exposure, or our brightness.
And you can see that we're in manual mode because
at the top is says ME for manual exposure.
Next up, we're gonna lock down the white balance.
So, you can see at the moment here, AWB, auto white balance.
If we press on that, that will actually lock down,
says now locked, and that's locked down
our white balance at that point.
So, there'll be no color adjustments or blue
tinge or yellow tinge coming in as any lighting
changes throughout our shot.
So, in most cases, that's all you'll need to do
because the camera will do an auto adjustment first
or pick where it thinks the white balance
should be and then you can lock that setting in.
If you want to make a manual adjustment and
change the colors or tweak the colors here,
then press that button again and you'll
get your slider down the bottom.
So, as you slide to the left it'll add more blue
to your shot, as you slide to the right,
it'll add more orange.
So, you can see if we add more blue now,
we're getting a cooler look.
And as we slide to the other side,
we're getting a much warmer image.
So, you can tweak this to get the shot that
you're after here in camera.
So, if we slide this along a little bit here, you can see
it's actually starting to look more natural
for the shot that it actually is.
And it's also matching the cool white lights
that I'm using in this room.
So, the last setting that we need to lock down here
is the auto focusing.
And see we're on auto focus cause it says AF
in the top corner there.
So, if we press on that now, then you'll
see we enter manual mode and on the slider
on the bottom here, we can manually adjust
the focus in and out.
So, an easy way to get this set right,
we'll turn this back to auto at the moment.
So, we want to focus on my hand here.
The camera will automatically adjust on it at that point.
If we press the auto focus button,
we're locked in manual focus and that's kept our focus
now at that point.
So, you can see if that was us sitting in front
of the camera here, the hand is in focus,
the background is out.
So, that way the phone is not going to be
making any adjustments while we're doing our filming.
Now, it's just a matter of pressing record
and we're good to go with our videos.
Now, it's always a good idea to record a quick test.
Maybe a 10 or 20 second clip of you talking,
checking the light, come back and play it back
before you record your entire video to make
sure that everything looks and sounds
the way you want it.
So, there you have it.
That's how you can set up Cinema 4K on Android
for the best results.
If you found this video helpful,
we really appreciate a share, a thumbs up, or a comment.
And check out the video linked onscreen now
for a full walkthrough on how you can create
professional videos on Android.
I'll talk to you soon.