Bill Bruner
Forum Replies Created
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I have both the Pocket Cinema Camera and the GH4 – and, for weddings, I recommend the GH4.
You will get stunning resolution and detail if you shoot 4K on the $1698 GH4 and downscale it to 1080p for delivery. Yes, the body costs a little more, but it is worth it.
Here are a couple of recent examples of this approach:
Good luck!
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I finally understand! I apologize for being so slow to comprehend what your challenge is. I just set mine up for timelapse with the delay and got it to work by setting the drive mode dial to time lapse as the last step instead of the first.
Once I set the drive mode dial, I set the camera up and pressed the shutter button.
It is sitting next to me right now, happily firing away after it sat there for a 5 minute delay.
Cheers and hope this is finally helpful,
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It’s supposed to do that. Mine does it too. It’s a feature, not a bug.
If you set a time far in the future (which you can – up to 23 hours and 59 minutes, according to the manual), it makes sense for the camera to go to sleep until it’s time to capture the first frame. Otherwise, it might run out of batteries.
Cheers,
Bill
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Hi Lewis – I just tested the timelapse function on my GH4 and it works. A few questions – did you:
– Set the drive mode dial (top left of camera) to time lapse (fully clockwise)?
– Select “Time Lapse Shot” in the menu?
– Set the Start Time as “Now” (otherwise the camera will go to sleep, waiting for the start time)
– Set the shot number?
– Set the image count?
– Press the shutter button fully?
The full procedure is on pp 46-47 of the manual.
If the procedures in the manual don’t work, you may have a faulty camera. Hopefully, you’re still within your retailer’s return period.
Good luck!
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Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful. Perhaps there are a couple of other possibilities before you resort to the post-it note 🙂
Have you tried another set of headphones? Maybe earbuds from your phone? There may be some sort of gain or impedance mismatch with your phones.
If it’s not the headphones, I wonder if you have a bad Sescom cable? Is it still new enough to return it and get the straight LN2MIC cable and a splitter?
Best of luck – I feel your pain,
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Hi David – before I started buying cameras with headphone jacks, I shot with a GH2 that I sometimes paired with a Zoom H1, the Sescom LN2MIC- ZOOMH4N cable (the no-headphone version) and a Hosa GMP467 right angle 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter.
I used an inexpensive 3.5mm stereo splitter to plug my headphones into the contraption.
Here’s a pic:
I found that I had to adjust the input level on the GH2, the input level on the H1 and the volume control on the H1 while I had the headphones plugged into the splitter in order to insure that the recorder was getting what it needed, the camera was getting what it needed and my ears were getting what they needed. With the camera mic input level at 1, the H1’s mic input and volume output levels generally ended up between 50 and 60
I started from scratch with the mic plugged into my Zoom, the Zoom plugged into the camera and the headphones plugged into the splitter. Using the meters on the recorder, and not my ears, I set the mic input level on the Zoom where I wanted it. Only then did I start adjusting the volume output to the camera & headphones. Listening for the noise floor, I cranked the volume up until the camera was metering normal speech at 3 to 4 bars. At that point, I could usually hear what was being recorded pretty clearly through the headphones.
I screwed it up a couple of times, but in general, I was happy with the results.
Hope this is helpful!
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Hi Dan – Sadly, the 5D Mark II stops recording and has to be restarted after approximately 12 minutes. Here is a quote from the Canon website: “The EOS 5D Mark II will record movies up to a maximum file size of 4GB. Depending on the level of detail in the scene, 4GB files equate to approximately 12 minutes of continuous video at full HD resolution”.
The 5D Mark III is a little better. It stops recording at about 30 minutes. Here is a quote from the Canon website: “No more 12-minute recording limit: The EOS 5D Mark III now instantly creates a new file on the memory card any time the size of a preceding file reaches 4GB. Without losing a moment, recording continues on the new file. Thus, continuous video recording is possible up to 29 minutes 59 seconds”.
Hopefully, you can time your cross-coverage between the two cameras to prevent any gaps.
Alternatively, you can rent or buy a camcorder or Panasonic mirrorless camera like the GH4 that records at higher resolution than Canon DSLRs and does so for hours continuously.
Hope this is helpful!
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Respectfully, that’s not what major DSLR bloggers like Dave Dugdale of learningdslrvideo.com and Caleb Pike of dslrvideoshooter.com are saying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxGekOHEPuc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ci6DYXbKrs
People are leaving Canon for a reason – lack of innovation and the inherent limitations of the reflex mirror (e.g., the blanking of the viewfinder while shooting video).
Maybe Canon will listen to Dave and Caleb and add basic video features such as focus peaking and video viewfinders to their entry level cameras – but probably not.
Why should they? Filmmakers continue to buy (and recommend) Canon DSLRs despite their limitations.
My blog post on this is here.
Cheers,
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Hi Sarah – the camera with the best image quality in your price range is the $1697.99 Panasonic GH4 (with SD card and camera case). Combined with a manufacturer refurbished $299.95 14-42mm power zoom
, you’ll have the best video camera you can buy for less than $2000.
Although the GH4 is a large sensor interchangeable lens camera, it is not a DSLR, and has many of the features that make camcorders easy to use (e.g., the built-in video viewfinder, headphone jack, fast autofocus, compatibility with power zooms and unlimited continuous recording time) – while at the same time delivering resolution that no camcorder below $10,000 can match.
This camera is very easy to use, especially in auto mode, and you won’t need all of the fancy accessories a DSLR requires in order to be usable (e.g.,loupe or external viewfinder, follow focus, etc.)
Plus, the GH4 records to Quicktime compatible .MOV files, so you’ll have no trouble editing your footage in Final Cut.
As an artist, I thought you might enjoy these examples of what this camera can do:
Fashion Film: https://vimeo.com/90840341
Behind the Scenes: https://vimeo.com/90842887
Day Exterior (with 1080/96p slow motion): https://vimeo.com/97096167
Night Exterior: https://vimeo.com/96332960
I do advise you to get an inexpensive external mic to get started.
Here’s the sound you’ll get with an $87.95 Rode Videomic Go
microphone: https://youtu.be/xXBS5dk104g
Here’s what this compact mic looks like on the camera (photo of Jared Abrams from wideopencamera.com): https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQAK8g4TO9992tw1&w=470&h=246&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FBnH__xBCQAAsnUN.png&cfs=1&upscale
This camera is a great value for your money.
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Hi Paul – If you’re interested in Blackmagic cameras, and are willing to deal with the external monitoring and power requirements, I recommend you save some money and get the $995 Pocket Cinema Camera with extra battery.
Here is what this camera can do:
This camera is a very good value for money – but it will take a little extra work to get good results with it. Coming from camcorders, you may be a little frustrated by its lack of fast autofocus, power zoom and external controls. And if you aren’t already familiar with color grading, you will also have to learn to grade in post in order to get the best results.
To make life a little easier – if you were planning to spend $1995 for a 2.5K Blackmagic Cinema Camera, you may want to consider a $1698 4K Panasonic GH4 instead. This camera has 4 times the resolution of your 1080p Canon XF105, is compatible with power zoom lenses (like this one and this one), has fast video autofocus and is a lot easier to shoot with than the Blackmagic cameras.
Here is what this camera can do:
Hope this is helpful!
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