[John Davidson]

Again Dave, you’re talking about something you don’t know anything about (while throwing around words like ‘fool’ and ‘sucker’ around unnecessarily, I might add). The 7D changed the body style dramatically over the 5D. I’ve got quick access to all the iris settings, shutter settings, ISO settings, and surprise, it handles low light like a champ. After setting up qmaster to handle all my cores, the conversion process from h264 to prores is fairly painless via compressor.

If I had taken whatever canon handed me, I would have picked up a 5D last year. I waited for the 7D, specifically because of the 30p/frame rate issues that have been mentioned previously in this thread. This camera is excellent for commercial and promo image shoots – without the large size and light loss I experience with my HVX200/Letus Extreme.

Does H264 suck for video editing? Of course it does. That’s why we have compressor. HD video from DSLR’s is a new tool and it requires a new mindset to using it.

Before you criticize, I suggest you grab yourself a 7D, throw a nice 50mm L lens on it, and take it into the field at night during a live shot at a crime scene (or some other dramatic type background), and just shoot b-roll, with no lights (and if you want to go handheld, try a steadytracker extreme or something like that). Then lets see how long you last not using not using that footage in your next image spot.

Of course Canon has great ‘video’ cameras. Those are completely different beasts. There’s a sacrifice to size, and that’s a reduction in features. A benefit is, you don’t have to set up a 100k shoot to get cinematic style HD video. Until you’ve worked with it, I suggest you refrain from such heavy criticism. You’re making the crow you might have to eat later unnecessarily large.

[John Davidson]

Dave,

Obviously you haven’t worked with the 7D. 24p is actually 23.98, as it should be (30p is also 29.97, but why use that when you have 24p). Audio synced just fine with the zoom h4n recorded wav files. Back in the day audio had to be synced with film, so the sound aspect of the workflow isn’t THAT hard to imagine. The conversion process isn’t the best, but if you recall, the original workflow with the HVX200 left much to be desired when it was first released.

Before there was ink, people probably used turds to write with. Once the ‘ink’ revolution came along though, those that resisted the change from turds likely found themselves very lonely, quickly. The beauty of the footage we’re getting with with these cameras is going to change everything about how we work in the next few years. You can be the master of how this change affects you, or the victim. Either way, it’s coming whether you like it or not, IMHO.

[John Davidson]

I can’t confirm that, but I can confirm the mic on the camera isn’t that great. You’d have more luck using a separate audio recorder (I have the ZoomH4n). Unless you ran a shotgun mic into the camera, but the tests I’ve heard of that aren’t very good either. To me, it just doesn’t sound good at all.

[John Davidson]

We fired quite a few shows this year, but I’m not ready to kill the Golden Goose just yet. Canceling HGTV and Food network would likely destroy my marriage. You guys are braver than me!

[John Davidson]

Yep, I love it.

Throw The Ball from John Davidson on Vimeo.

[John Davidson]

Thanks for the tip. Picked one up today. Thank God for write-offs!

[John Davidson]

All joking aside, you’ve all made great points. Times are tight, and those of us with great clients are fortunate. There is a level of exasperation that many executives are feeling right now. Every day it’s call after call of people selling their services, often after having done little research into the person or company they’re calling.

There’s still a need great content. You just have to learn how to navigate around bad ideas and find the good ones. Remember, if you build it, they will come. If you incessantly hound them, they will run.

[John Davidson]

Battlestar Galactica was the best thing, and maybe the worst thing, to ever happen to Scifi. The show changed so much about what to expect from a science fiction series. You mean, we can have space battles AND drama that doesn’t involve 15 minutes of bs technobabble about dilithium crystals? Nothing else they make even comes close to comparing with it.

I can’t even deal with that new name. ugh.

[John Davidson]

Assuming I have a ‘bearable’ zoom, would you recommend the 1.2 50mm as my first L lens? Especially if the goal is to make the most out of night shots and low-light?

[John Davidson]

Looks like the lens really makes a big difference. Great, now I’m going to start obsessing over l-series lenses…