[Bob Cole]

I don’t usually like to tell people what to do (because they don’t listen anyway) but hey, I’m in the mood, so take this for what it’s worth.

Video equipment gets obsolete very rapidly. It is very difficult to “invest” in it with a longer time horizon than 2-3 years, if that.

There are two “equipment philosophies,” both valid. One is to buy the hottest gear, spend a lot, & sell it rapidly (before it has depreciated too much) so you can buy the NEW latest-and-greatest next year. The other option, which you seem to be pursuing: “invest” in the most reasonable cost-performance-ratio equipment that you can find, keep it a long time, and accept that you will not get much for it, if anything, when you sell. This requires considerable research and no small amount of luck. I think if this is your path, you should be looking at video cameras, not DSLRs, because that market is more mature and stable. Video cameras are going to be a lot more useful to you, there are a TON of great video cameras out there, and they will still be useful several years from now, whereas the newest DSLRs (a year from now) will probably make the current crop look inadequate, imho.

If you decide on Option 2 then you should also try to save yourself a lot of money by getting to know somebody who is pursuing Option 1.

The “buy the glass” idea is good, but it really belongs to a different era, when lenses didn’t offer all of this advanced automation, aberration correction, etc. and “glass” was more easily transferable between various PL-mount cameras. I don’t think anyone can predict for certain which CAMERA manufacturer will have the winning hand in this market, five years from now, so investing in a lot of glass is problematic, and may even lock you into a path that is not optimal. I know too many people who feel “stuck” in a certain DSLR line, because they bought a lot of Nikkors (oops) years ago. Yes, there are adapters, but they don’t generally offer the complete package of electronic connections that “native” glass will.

So my unsolicited advice is to buy a good, cheap, used (or even new) video camera for next to nothing, let the DSLR or 4K or whatever market sort itself out, and concentrate on the main thing: your skills, not the impossible task of predicting the unpredictable.

[Bob Cole]

Extremely intriguing, and as a result of your post, I will (1) look at these cameras when they come out; and (2) stop buying Canon glass for awhile. I don’t suppose either of these cameras can use Canon lenses, at least not with the full automation offered.

The big news is the full-res output, although the other features look interesting too. I know that autofocus evokes scorn among a lot of professionals, and with good reason; whenever I’ve tried it, autofocus has created more problems than it solves, e.g. searching for focus and ruining a take which would otherwise be usable, even if not perfectly focused. Paradoxically, the biggest reason I would use (the unavailable) autofocus on my Canon 60D is that it doesn’t output high-res to an external monitor while shooting. If the A99 or GH3 could output in high-res, I wouldn’t need the autofocus that they offer.

[Bob Cole]

Those are excellent suggestions. Thank you. But I’d love to find something that has a larger sensor than my Canon 60D. I’m kind of surprised, given that one of the major selling points of DSLR video is the shallow DOF, that full-pixel monitor output has been neglected in so many otherwise great DSLRs.

The BMCC looks quite compelling, despite its relatively small sensor. But to make the BMCC work for interviews, I imagine I’d need to get a faster “interview lens” than my current 24-105mm f/4.

[Bob Cole]

Repeat cut is probably right, though (as has been suggested) instant replay is a nice “downbeat” way of saying it. I agree that it needs an artier term, because if you referred to it as instant replay during an edit session, it would probably destroy the suspension of disbelief that the technique requires.

One of my favorite movies, editing-wise, is Sliding Doors, which uses repeat cuts to cue parallel realities.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Another good reason to download videos: tutorials & videos that play choppy when streaming — especially frustrating when the video is about, or relies on, smooth playback. There was a great Red tutorial I wanted to study recently, where the whole point was the relative smoothness of different framerates – except that the choppy streaming made each sample look the same. What about screen capture programs? I used to use Camtasia on the PC, and have recently tried Quicktime Player on the Mac, but can only record the video, not the audio. Am I misusing this program or is that an inherent limitation?

Anyway, back to the topic: file conversion.

For file conversion, the suggestions have been: Super Converter, clip converter.cc, Episode (which flavor?), Adobe Media Encoder, MPEG Streamclip, Compressor, VLC, and Handbrake.

Since file conversion is something I try to do as rarely as possible, but which always seems to come up, I don’t want to spend a lot of money on software, especially if that software requires paid updates to keep it current. So that rules out Episode. MPEG Streamclip is my mainstay; I’ll try various others in the above list.

Thanks very much for the suggestions. One of the reasons I asked for your advice is that when I searched for programs, many of the freebies gave me the creeps – “Will this thing infect my computer?”

[Bob Cole]

I appreciate the caution, Bill. My first reaction to your post was a bit defensive, but on the Internet nobody really knows you, so I put that aside. fwiw, I buy or verify everything I use. It ain’t worth the hassle.

But we shouldn’t be “cows,” except here. This is a whole different topic, but I believe that we need to defend the “Fair Use” concept, when we can. I admit that I’ve been intimidated by the lawyers before (notably, when one mega-corporation supplied me with a great image showing someone using their product, but wearing a shirt with another mega-corp’s logo, I didn’t use the image). It was the right call in a purely practical sense (there was no budget in this particular documentary project for my own lawyer), but I still rankle at being prevented from making a “fair use” of the logo.

Your friend’s experience with the embedded metadata is interesting, and confusing. There is so much material on YouTube that seems to incorporate copyrighted material.

[Bob Cole]

Thank you all very much. I knew going in that “all-in-one” was ambitious, but there are some things which should be as automatic as possible, and file conversion is one of them. I like the idea of software vendors keeping up with changes in the file formats too, because that’s the reality.

A related question: what do you use (Mac or PC) to download video from YouTube or other online sources? This is another case, like those ever-evolving file formats, in which the “source file” — the browser — keeps changing, and my old technique stopped working.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I’d like a real expert to respond, but afaik, David is correct that standard video mode does not require the shutter to open and close.

But timelapse video is a different story; a short, 30-second sequence at 30fps requires 900 shutter operations, which is a significant amount.

A question to the experts: would using mirror lock-up during timelapses help with the wear and tear? Is it even possible?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I just saw a thread on this topic from last year. One user remarked that the Kessler’s belt contributed bumpiness. As I understand it, the belt is necessary for motion control (timelapse) work.

Is this something that should be of concern?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I just found this thread. I recently posted a query on the forum asking for updates on recent sliders, but have received no replies.

On the off-chance that one of the folks in this thread gets this post, I just wanted to ask whether your experiences with the various products that you mentioned have changed, or solidified, your evaluations.

The remark about the Kessler’s belt got my attention. Is that still true? I would like to use this slider in conjunction with a motion control motor for timelapse – so smoothness is especially critical. I don’t care as much about the price – I just want a slider that works “in the field” – which doesn’t become bumpy due to tiny bits of dirt or grease – and which is solid enough not to be affected by a little breeze.

Thanks very much.

Bob C