Pete Burger
Forum Replies Created
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Very affordable lens: The 50mm 1.8. But extremly plastic-like and hard to focus. AF is very slow and manual focussing is not easy because of the small ring… Yeah… Magic Bullet is slow (just at this very moment I’m waiting for an HDV clip to finish… ) but worth the effort and time 😉
All the best!
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Had to match Canon DSLR-footage from a 7D and T2i with progressive HDV footage from a Sony V1 couple of times. Worked pretty well. Just be shure you match the cameras as closely as possible, speaking of white-balance exposure and colour and do the rest in post.
Shouldn’t be too hard. -
If it’s just for restarting the camera: If you have the T2i (550D) you can try the Magic Lantern Firmware, which allows to automatically restart recording. Very handy! Only a short break (about a sec. or so) between takes.
Magic Lantern is also available for the 5D and 60D. Don’t know if the restart feature is available for those versions as well. -
Yes, when shooting low-light get a faster lens. We did a shoot lately at night with only one street lantern with the 7D and a 1.4 lens. Beautiful picture with almost no noise. Think it was ISO 1600 – not completely sure.
Although the 7D creates less noise than say the T2i (which I have), ISO 2500 is quite high.
To my experience use ISO 1600 max. with the 7D and do noise reduction in post with “Neat Video” or “Magic Bullets Denoiser”.
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HDV isn’t a bad format. I did a lot of work with the Sony FX1 and the Sony Z1 and then decided to get a V1 myself, which I really like.
When researching what camera to get, I had the HD1000 in mind as well, because of it’s price. But then decided against it, cause this cam lacks a lot “working comfort” as it doesn’t provide direct access to all manual controls (“not a special button for every function”), it’s a one-chip camcorder, doesn’t have XLR-jacks and has no progressive-scan feature.
It’s also very plastic-like and the shoulder support (although a very tempting feature) is extremly hard.
A funny and sometimes very useful feature (especially with sports), is slomo. It records with real 200 fps into the camera buffer and then writes it on tape, but only maximum 12sec and in low quality which is then internally interpolated up to full-res.
The overall picture quality seems to be o.K but it’s no low-light queen…
If you have the opportunity, try to test the cam for yourself before buying. Maybe rent it for a day or so. I wasn’t comfortable with it at all. But maybe it’s just to get used to working with it…
Hope this helps a bit.
Edit:
To add: HDV cameras are very sensitive when it comes to tapes. Never (and I mean NEVER EVER) change your type of brand. So when buying a used HDV cam… I don’t know. I had big problems (dropouts) with rented HDV cams. Every type of brand uses differend tape material and using different brands can cause a smear film on the video-heads. Cleaning tapes may help, but they wear out the video-heads. So be very careful!
Another thing: I never used special HDV tapes, I stick to my Sony Premium DV tapes and never had any problem. They are basically the from the same material, but quality control is higher with HDV tapes. -
I’m doing a lot of sports videos (most of the time tennis) and I wouldn’t recommend a DSLR.
Rolling shutter is a big problem with fast panning imho.
Keeping focus is very hard with DSLRs.A camcorder (especially a shoulder cam) is more ergonomic than a DSLR (even with a rack). You can more easily react to any kind of shooting situation.
(Semi-)Pro camcorders are bigger and heavier than DSLRs and will give you more stabilization without carrying a lot of extra gear with you.
The lens-stabilization is better with camcorders, since they are designed for shooting videos rather than still frames.
Although I focus manually with my camcorder I use the “Push AF” very intensly, which is a lot easier and faster than the auto focus features of most DSLRs.
A viewfinder plus LCD-screen and ND-filters come in very handy for shooting sports, which are all built-in in most (semi-) pro-camcorders.
So, if you want to use a DSLR: A rack, a viewfinder and a Fader ND are a must imho.
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Glad I helped!
Did a short test today with the new style and it looks way better than “superflat” imho. Haven’t been able to do some grading tests but hopefully will be toworrow. Seems to be a great style! -
Posted this in another thread above today, but thought it might be of interest here as well: There is a new version of the “Marvels Cinegamma” preset, which seems to be improved for skintones.
Couple of quite interesting thoughts about profiles on the site as well. Well worth a look:
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[bruno silva] “I am having trouble shooting without getting some noise, often a lot. I just recently bought the camera and haven’t really feel like I’m haven’t gotten the best of it. This is with the Canon 38-135mm zoom lens”
Which camera? What settings (aperture, ISO, …)?
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Just stumbled upon a new version of the “Marvels Cinegamma” preset.
It seems to be less flat than the previous versions and also less flat than “superflat” but is improved for skintones…
Quote:
“The new profile can made more and less flatter by adjusting the Contrast setting. Even if contrast is set in the middle position (4), it’s still flatter than the usual way of flattening the untouched Neutral profile (w. contrast on zero).
The profile is slightly more colourful than other flat profiles, because it uses the Standard profile as a basis.
The Standard profile setting is used as a basis for this new profile, because the s-curve required this in respect to the skin colours – for colorimetric and exposure reasons.”