The Panasonic Lumix S5II & S5iiX don't have 4k120. So what? Topaz Video AI 5 is what (video below)!
How to get super slow motion from the Panasonic Lumix S5ii and S5iiX cameras (or any camera) using S & Q mode and Topaz Video AI 5
The S&Q mode on Panasonic Lumix cameras works pretty well. If you are not satisfied with 4K50/60 or 1080p 120/150/180 using S&Q, there is a solution but it comes at a cost. However, that cost is far less than upgrading your camera and also comes with a whole host of other AI features to enhance your creativity! Introducing Topaz Video AI 5...
Right, before we get into all that, let's start with the fun stuff. Here's a video showing you how to do it!
How to slow down Lumix S5iiX footage (video)
And here is the written process for upgrading and slowing footage in Topaz Video AI 5...
Slowing your video up to 96x in Topaz Video AI 5 (text)
Step 1 - Camera settings and filming
This is the important bit. In video, we are taught to use ND filters to allow a shutter speed twice that of the frame rate. I.e. For frame rate 1/50th sec, use 100th/sec shutter speed. Ordinarily, that is great. However, the purpose of this is to give some motion blur to make the video look realistic. We don't want that!
For Topaz to slow footage effectively, it needs to add multiple frames in between your given 50/60fps. If these frames are in any way blurry, it will struggle and the results will be poor.
No ND Filter
Therefore, leave the ND filter off and choose a fast shutter speed of anything from 500th/sec up to 4000th/sec depending on the speed of your subject.
Take a test shot and then review the footage. If every frame is pin sharp, you are good to go and Topaz will fill the gaps required nicely.
If in doubt, go for the fastest shutter speed possible even if that means increasing the ISO slightly.
Now, and bearing in mind you will only be using a small portion of the footage, film each clip for about 5-10 seconds. That should be enough for you to choose decent in and out points next without creating a super long, and ages-to-render final clip.
Next, we will fire up Topaz Video AI 5 and load that clip.
Step 2 - Load video and choose start and end points
Once you have loaded the video clip into Topaz Video AI 5, select the in and out points denoting the section of your clip that you want to slow down.
Note: If you make this too long, Topaz may take some time rendering the clip. For example, if you select 30 seconds of video and are slowing it 16 times, you will end up with a 480 second, or 8 minute clip!
Keep clips short
Think about the final output. If you want a 10 second clip at 16x slow motion, a one second clip will suffice giving you a final 16 second clip from which to edit.
So, if you have shot a 1080p 150fps S & Q video using the Lumix S5ii or Lumix S5iiX, it will already be slowed 6x when you add it into Topaz Video AI 5. If you now slow the clip a further 16x, you end up with a 96x slow motion clip. Be sure to only select short in and out points.
Step 3 - Set the Parameters in Topaz Video AI 5
Here, I am going to assume that you have been filming in S & Q 1080p HD at 150fps. This will "throw out" an already slowed clip at 6x slow motion.
What we now want to do is upsize that to 4K and slow it a further 16x. However, I would recommend doing this in two stages. The reason being is that it will take a lot longer to render both processes and if the 4k upscaling isn't right, it is a waste of time slowing bad footage.
However, this is just me as I like to see the footage before slowing to make sure the upscale has worked well and that each frame is super sharp. So...
Setting Topaz Parameters
- 1First, and this is just me, I change the codec settings to Pro Res 422 HQ. This gives the first clip the best chance of being high quality to be slowed. To upscale to 4K, go to "enhancement" and select the output resolution to 3840x2160 (4K). Select the "Rhea" AI Model for advanced 4k upscaling and let the software do its thing rather than manually adjusting the parameters. Leave everything "as is" and Export As to render this clip to 4k.
- 2Now check the rendered clip and all being well, load it back into Topaz as a new project. You will be slowing the entire clip as the cropping was done in the previous stage so no need to set in and out points.
- 3Leave everything else alone and head to "Frame Interpolation". Choose the slow motion multiplication you need and set it. I chose a particularly tricky clip with tons of water droplets and it worked perfectly (as long as each frame is pin sharp).
- 4In frame interpolation, go to AI model. I chose Aion as this works well for large motion and gives fewer tiling artefacts. it also supports up to 16x slow motion. Worked well for me.
- 5Make sure "Duplicate Frames" is checked next to "replace". What this will do is replace duplicate frames with frames that it has "made up" to slow in between the native frames. This will give the final output a much more realistic look.
- 6Go to Export As and render to final footage and this time you can leave the codec as H264. It's all a matter of personal choice and how much time you are willing to have the software take to render.
Step 4 - Add your new super slo mo clip to your project
Once all of that is done, hopefully your clip will look superb. You can now drop this into whatever larger project you are doing and Wow! your onlookers...
What to do with your clips?
The quality is so good using Topaz, I am going to be going through my old archives and upgrade just about everything I can. On top of that, I plan to make some EPIC clips to sell as stock online or wow people on social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram.
I won't be limiting this to ground footage either. I will be going through some drone clips and even heading out to take more clips solely for the purpose of slowing down in Topaz. Even cameras that already shoot 4K 120p can benefit from this.
By uprezzing to 8k, you can now zoom in during post production and not lose and image quality. This is exactly what I did for some drone footage I took at a recent wedding and it worked flawlessly.
Summary
Hopefully this little tutorial has got you excited about Topaz Video AI 5. If it has, you can grab your own copy down below and if you do so through my link, I do get a little kick back from Topaz but you don't pay any more.
This helps me to run the website so thank you.
Buy/More Info on Topaz Video AI 5 & Others
Also check out these other cool products from Topaz...