Al Bergstein
Forum Replies Created
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You might want to make sure that you can turn off the shutter noise if that is important (like taking pictures at concerts for example). On some of the new Sony’s, you can’t. A friend bought one, because her husband is a jazz musician, and she could not use it at concerts. Sometimes the small things matter. But yes, the Sony images are fabulous for the price. Maybe check out the Fuji as well. I’ve seen some great stills done with them, and they are very portable. I’ve been tempted to pick one up.
Al
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Kieth, you will probably have to and should, upgrade all your software to run under Yosemite. And yes, most of the new versions are all downloaded. But don’t despair, just download and burn them to a disk and you have pretty much the same thing if you need to reinstall quickly due to slow internet links, etc. You’ll still need to run an internet connection if you are using Adobe for example to validate. But I’ve not had any issues myself with this, though you might find some issues.
Another option is to make a mirror backup of your drive, upgrade to the new computer, then run an application like Parallels and use it to run a version of your old Mac OS 10.5.x. that way both will be running and the old software should be able to take advantage of the speed of the new hardware. I use Parallels to run Windows 7 64 bit and it works just fine on my newer iMac.
I use an external blue ray burner on my iMac and it’s fine. I use it all the time. For burning labels I use either the Mac or Windows in Parallels depending on the labeling software, Windows has better labeling products available. For actual printing on a DVD label, I have recently bought an Epson Artisan 1430. It has a special tray that finally allows a one off printing of a label accurately, repeatedly.
Al
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You must be using the newer C100. The older model only produces AVCHD files. There is likely a setting in the camera to choose the two, check the manual that you can find online.
Al
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Ingemar, I don’t believe that the new 7D is going to give you better video quality. I once had the 7D like you and found the same issues to be a show stopper. I moved to the 5D (some of my lenses needed to be sold off). The 5D does produce noticeably better video, but the jump to a GH4 is going to be dramatically different. I don’t want to say “better” because it is sharper images, more contrast, but less of what I call an “organic” look that the 5D and 7D produce. This might be better to your eyes, or not, depending on what you are looking for in footage. Personally, for video though, I moved to the Canon C100, which is the best of both worlds. It has better quality video images than either the 7D or the 5D, doesn’t crush the blacks without you wanting it to, and all your lenses will work out of the box with it. It is a ‘real’ video camera and contains all the things you want (scopes, etc.) to get the job done well. It is also on sale right now if you are ok with buying the older model, which I have and is fine.
The question you need to ask is “do I have to shoot super high quality stills as part of my project?” if the answer is yes, stay with a DSLR, but if the answer is no, I would highly recommend moving to a camera that was designed for video rather than one designed for stills.
An interim step for budget purposes could be running Magic Lantern on a 7D or 5D. I have an SD card in my 5D case to boot off of for just that purpose, even though I find I rarely do. But it does work and is remarkably good for adding better features to the Canon line.
Al
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Perhaps we are missing something. Is the reason it’s a roll around cart because they are in an operating theatre or are they doing rounds and moving the cart from room to room with them?
If in a theatre, could you hang a short boom arm like a theatrical mic from the ceiling? Or an array of them?
Are you or someone going to be moving with them, like a live shoot? Or is this a set and forget situation for the docs?
If a roll around then does it really need to be up so high? Table mounted array mics for conference calling seems to work really well for me. Perhaps four of them on each side of the cart?
Does the cart need to be sterile all the time?
I don’t like the idea that you need to do wireless and worry about battery life.
This has been an interesting thread, to say the least!
Al
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Marty, I also don’t like the H4. I owned one and it was quite harsh sounding, and broke too quickly for my tastes. I have owned a DR-60D the smaller version of the 70 and would agree that it might be a good option if you have to go shoulder mount on a 5D. A Zoom H5 would need to be mounted above and if you wanted to use it and be shoulder mounted. My H5 has a shotgun module as well that does ok. With a boom pole you would need to be dealing with an XLR cable as you wander around with the shoulder mount. Or perhaps I didn’t understand your question. You could also buy an XLR wireless transmitter module, and have the boom mic transmit to the camera mount receiver. I’ve been pretty happy with the H5, it’s a good sized for the features, and the interchangeable heads give it a lot of flexibility the field. It’s still a bit harsher sounding than the DR-60d was. I’m not a big fan of the Zoom preamps.
To be sure, you can buy a used DR60 for much less if you need one cheap.
Al
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I have both a 5D Mark III and C 100 1st generation. I vastly prefer shooting video with the C 100 and don’t understand what you mean when you say you can’t get vivid colors out of it. Like much video you need to work with post production to bring out the best in the colors. However 5D in my opinion crushes blacks worse than the C 100. You will need to learn how to best set up your camera settings to get the style that you were looking for just like you had to learn on your 5D. The camera settings out of the box are a bit contrasty and don’t necessarily give you the best image quality. In fact I often shoot in customize settings and then boost things a bit in postproduction. The overall quality far surpasses the 5D in my opinion.unless I am needing stills, I always choose the 100 over the 5D. Hope this helps.
Al
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Did you do a clean install or “over the top” of the old one?
Al
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Google Calendar, Microsoft Live Calendar, Apple iCloud Calendar are all decent free ways to do this… depending on your platform of choice. You’ll likely find that clients are more likely to be on Google than the others, but if it’s just you driving it, then any of them are fine. I’ve tried them all.
For project oriented work, needing a team, try Basecamp. https://basecamp.com A very good product that allows the next level of interaction, but is too much work for one person to manage for their own stuff.
Al
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What Brian said… make sure your mic is as close to the talent as possible. I have used a variety of Tascam’s gear and while it isn’t Sound Devices it has always been very good quality audio, with a pretty low noise floor.
Al