Alex Campbell
Forum Replies Created
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I believe the reason that the default is to change the shutter speed is that when you change the f-stop, there is a mechanical movement in the camera that not only makes a noise, but also makes an abrupt change in the video brightness that is very harsh. On a cinema lens, there is smooth, continuous control over aperture, where as on a photography lens there are finite steps.
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I would look at a Zoom H1 or an H4N. The H4N has xlr inputs and records amazing audio. What I have done is take this a step further and I run a wireless or shotgun mic into my zoom h4n and then use a splitter on the output so that I can both monitor and feed into my 5D. This way, I have such a strong signal I do not have to worry about the gain control as the volume on the 5D is only about 5 notches above the bottom. The audio it records is absolutely flawless and I have used it in many different places with different mics.
One trick I use is to take a headphone volume control and use it inline with my feed into my camera so that the signal out from the headphone jack on the zoom is loud enough to hear, but I can drop it enough to have a clean audio signal
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I use Premiere and the program allows you to have a 24 FPS timeline, which keeps the file size down while using whatever footage you want. Unlike FCP, you do not have to conform your footage before bringing it in. I like to shoot 60P and edit in a 30P timeline, allowing a smooth 50% slow down of my footage.
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I would ensure that CS5 is recognizing your video card first. Second, buy more RAM. It is VERY cheap for 16GB now.
Last, the thing that sped up my work a lot was using 2 7200 RPM drives in RAID 0 for my scratch disks and footage. I save my project on a RAID1 NAS as well with the backups of my project, but for less than $100 you can have 2x 7200 RPM 500GB drives in a RAID 0 setup. This would equal 1TB of storage. A couple tips are to ONLY use these drives for scratch and storage of your current projects and that you NEED to keep another drive with a project backup. -
The way I shoot with a DSLR is feeding a the line output from a Zoom h4n into a splitter so that I can monitor it and then through a cheap headphone volume control into my camera. The volume control lets me drop the signal enough that it is usable in camera, but still loud enough to monitor
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I used it and it was not very good on the 5D mkII.
The software froze a lot and you have to boot the camera into it every time it shuts down.
The only features that were really usable that I would LOVE to have are the audio meters and the ability to monitor audio with headphones.
I found it to flaky to use in a production environment. -
The Transcend are used a LOT in the HDSLR community. I have a few of them and have never had an issue with 5D footage.
As far as photography is concerned, the image buffer on the camera will fill up before the card slows down.
I highly recommend them. A quick google search will show you that they are very widely used and reliable. -
In PP, you do not even have to do that much. Simply create a 25P timeline and adjust your clip using the “speed/duration” setting when you right click on it in the timeline. Set the speed to 50% and you are done.
I am a recent PP convertee and this is a lot better than conforming the clip. -
I use the Transcend 133x cards. They are dirt cheap and are used widely. A 16gb is well under $50.
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There is a good chance that your mic is unbalanced and needs a device that plugs inline called a transformer. This is quite common. Some mics have balanced outputs such as the sennheiser me-66, but some will require the transformer. They are less than $10 and most dj/music stores carry them.