Colin Mcquillan
Forum Replies Created
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It really depends on the type of videos you plan to shoot.
In general I prefer zoom lens’ with constant apertures as opposed to the 18-135 you have. The best of the bunch IMHO is the 24-70 f2.8. If you plan to shoot interviews I’d look to the 50 f1.4 over the 60 f2.8.
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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Not sure how well this will work – but interested in hearing how it turns out for you if you manage to slap it on your 5D.
First concern – the lens will be made to cover a smaller sensor, either 1/3″, 1/2″, or 2/3″. The 5D’s sensor is much larger. The adapter would most likely need some type of optic intermediate.
Second concern – SD ENG optics can perform tragically on HD cameras. I experimented with a few broadcast ENG SD zoom lens’ on a Sony EX-3. Chromatic aberration was horrible when even slightly zoomed and on anything wider than F8.
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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There are ways to make DSLR’s work for such events… but they are a hell of a lot more involved – both during production and post-production – than just grabbing cameras that are purpose built for video production. Hopefully the company you work for realizes this before it creates issues with production.
DSLR’s can create extremely nice footage – But I typically only use them in controlled environments like commercial production. I know a few wedding videographers that also use them to capture breathtakingly beautiful ceremony footage and such.. but for recording seminars, long speeches, and other longer form events where there isn’t much room for cutting and not much $$ for post – they don’t hold up.
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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But as I mentioned the 7D is definitely the wrong camera for event videography.
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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While I agree that the 7D is not suited for recording long events there are a few mistakes/misconceptions in your points.
Personally I would be looking at something like a Sony ex1 or the like for what you are trying to accomplish. And once you have properly kitted out a 7D you are looking at more $$ than a EX-1R package.
[Rachel Kodner] “Changing out a card every 12 minutes seems ridiculous during a live event”
There is a 12min record limit per clip, but you do not need to change cards every 12 min – just stop and start. It is important to note that after 12 min the camera will stop recording, not roll over to create a new clip.. you must either stop/start before the 12 min is up or start recording again if it has reached the 12 min limit.[Rachel Kodner] ” Files can become corrupted. A huge file from one person’s event was corrupted and we were unable to recover the footage. (I don’t see this problem with tape and p2)”
This can happen to any memory cards.. and is most likely a fault of the memory card – not the camera. I have seen corrupt media on P2 cards, and have also had tapes eaten by cameras as well. Buying higher end cards will help reduce the frequency/likelihood of corruption and lengthen the longevity of the cards you use. I use mid level to higher end CF cards in my 7D and in the passed year I’ve been shooting with it have not yet had any corrupt footage. It comes down to how cheap one gets with the media they purchase – and how old the media is.[Rachel Kodner] “We don’t have to swap out lenses with the JVCs. 7D cameras need multiple lenses. That’s a lot of money to invest in lenses.”
Again – I agree that the 7D is not the answer for the type of projects it sounds like you are shooting… but while shooting with a DSLR you don’t have to shoot with primes… you can use zoom lenses. if shooting from far the 70-200 is a good choice, and closer use something like the 24-70 f2.8 or 24-105 f4[Rachel Kodner] “things will go in and out of focus constantly. This is called “buzzing” “
First time I’ve ever heard drifting in and out of focus called ‘buzzing’. Anytime I’ve ever heard someone talking about ‘buzzing’ in their footage, focus has never had anything to do with it. Interesting term to use for that….[Rachel Kodner] “Can 7D do live video feeds? It might have an HDMI input, “
No input – output only. Unfortunately there is also a watermark on the output until you hit record which kills using it with an external recorder.Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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Hi Suley,
This can either be fairly easy.. or fairly difficult depending on what you have for media.
I hope both cameras were recording the same frame-rate. Also – I’m guessing after the Rode died there is no sound on the canon? or did you notice this happen while recording and unplug the Rode mic so you have camera mic audio?
Were both cameras running non-stop during the entire interview – or did you have to stop and start (i.e. the 12min recording limit of most DSLR’s?If both were running non-stop and are the same framerate the task is fairly simple. Import your media into your editing application. Put your primary video/audio on V1, A1+A2, the other (the canon) on V2, A3+A4. If you have audio waveform overlays on your audio tracks eyeball the waveforms to match position in the timeline as best as possible, then fine tune by nudging the top layer video and its associated audio until the sound matches as close as possible in that first 3 minute portion where both cameras were recording sound.
Even if both cameras were recording to the same FPS you will need to visually spot check down the timeline for lip sync as they could drift a touch over time. If you notice this be sure to make a cut downstream before nudging to fix, as you will pull the earlier media out of sync if you don’t.If you have many smaller QT’s with no sound from your canon… You will need to manually match it up by eye. I don’t believe anyone has yet released any lip-reading software to help you out with this scenario. If you imported the Canon material with something like FCP’s log and transfer then you will have time of day timecode on your clips. You can use this to help with the process – especially if there were lengthy gaps between recoding. Like above use the portions of media that have audio and overlay/sync them in a timeline. at the last frame of a Canon clip note the timecode of the source, then note the timecode of the first frame of the next Canon clip. The difference in time will give you the approximate gap you need to lay that next piece of video – from there you will need to eyeball sync as unfortunately every time you hit record the Canon resets the frames to :00 so your clip will be anywhere up to :29 frames out.
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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First thing to check is your cable.. Mini-hdmi to hdmi cables are almost all junk, wether or not you pay big money for a name-brand (which you shouldn’t) or get a generic cheapy. I’m lucky if one lasts me more than a handful of shoots. I have also had them show up D.O.A. out of package once or twice.
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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[Liam Hall] “I’m not a fan of vaiy-nd like others are, so I’d recommend a set of Tiffen ND filters.”
Likewise. Over the summer I purchased the Genus variable nd filter and was not pleased with the softening and colour shifting through the various strength of ND. I find it only usable with wider lens’ and I stay away from the stronger levels of ND. The only time I see myself using it in the future is in fast paced run-and-gun situation, keeping in mind the limitations I just mentioned.
I purchased a set of Tiffen Water White ND filters and am very pleased with their performance.
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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The first Latter should read former 😉 ((and the second misspelled ‘later’)) doh!
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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How are you trying to read the card? With a card reader or inserted into your Nikon?
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”