Phil Balsdon
Forum Replies Created
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Answer to your question = Yes
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
I use a Lightcraft ND, tip buy a 77mm or 82mm and step rings to size it to your lens. One day you will have a larger a diameter lens and this will save the expense of buying a second filter.
Buy a slider before a stabilizer. No comment or recommendation on brands though as I built my own using skate board wheels, a ladder and a second tripod. Had it for years but it takes bigger cameras.
I also own a Steadicam Flyer, I think you’ll get more out of good slider than a cheap stabilizer to start with especially for a film look.
General advice is buy good quality items like lenses and grip gear, look after it and it will last for years.
Some of my lenses are 30 years old and one of my tripods over 20 years. Camera technology will become obsolete what ever you buy very quickly.Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
There’s variety of lenses used in that video, from extreme wide angle to telephoto and using wide f stops for the low depth of field. There are also short snappy zooms. One single lens will not do all this for you. Your 18-55 will not do those zooms without exposure problems because it does not have a constant aperture, nor does it have a wide enough f stop to achieve those depth of field properties and the soft backgrounds. The 50mm f1.4 will give you the low depth of field and will allow you to shoot in much lower light than the XIXIA but you will need ND filters or a variable ND to achieve the bokeh in daylight. You will not get the dramatic wide angle shots with the 50mm though. If you are anticipating using vox pop sound grabs on the T2i you will encounter a whole lot more issues.
There is some time lapse in the video, this will be best achieved on the T2i with an intervalometer or by plugging your camera into a laptop computer and using the Canon Utilities program.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
“I was told the camp is well light “
A person that needs to find his way home at night and a cinematographer would have very different definitions of “well lit” (or well illuminated).
You will not be able to do live zooms with the standard zoom lens because your exposure will change as you do so. This lens will also probably be only about a 3:1 zoom ratio and its telephoto end not much tighter than the 50mm lens. A few shots with low depth of field in your video really isn’t going to add much of a film look overall, go for the edgy live action television look, after all it’s a camp with lots of activity.
I’d now tend to favour Rick’s advice here stick with the VIXIA. Invest your money in a good tripod or other piece of useful equipment that will be usable when you have the budget to invest in a fully functional HDSLR, or some of the new large CMOS sensor cameras now coming onto the market the achieve the same look without all the complexity and compromise of shooting video with what is essentially a still camera.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Canon 60D with Nikon adaptor?
The Canon has a better choice of video formats. You have Nikon lenses with an iris ring on the lens, much easier for video than Canons internal f stop system.
I have a couple of friends (professionals) that had Nikons for stills and bought Canon 5Ds for video work and find the combo is a best of both worlds benefit.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
The Canon 50mm f1.4 is going to allow you to shoot in extremely low light and achieve the low depth of field necessary for a film look. This lens is always in my kit.
The 18-55 will not allow you to zoom whilst shooting, the exposure will vary, it’s not a constant f stop lens. It’s also a slow lens so won’t give you the “film look” that’s achieved with low depth of field. You’ll also need ND filters or a variable ND if you want this look outdoors with the T2i. In bright light at 1/50 sec, 160ASA you may even find you can’t stop down enough at all without filtering.
Sandisk Extreme cards are 60Mbs UDMA and perfectly suitable for video (or 400x on other reputable brands) anything slower is not suitable. An 8Gb card is going to give you about 24 mins total content, is this enough?
If you don’t have time to learn and practice steadicam don’t spend your money, its not something you buy and works out of the box, its a skill that requires a lot of practice.
Spend as much of your budget as you can afford on decent tripod and it will last much longer than any camera technology. Better to choose a little heavier for stability with such lightweight cameras.
Using HDSLRs for video is a big learning curve, before using them on a pro job spend a lot of time doing practice shoots and edit them. You will encounter many “differences” that basically make shooting much more complex, practice will make you familiar with these issues and how to deal with them.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Vimeo has some excellent tutorials on how to obtain the best quality export from various NLE’s.
Here you will find links to most of them including how to create a droplet for Compressor if you are doing this on a regular basis.
https://www.vimeo.com/forums/topic:36422Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
I’m using Fotodiox very successfully for Mamiya 645 and Pentax K on my Canon 7D.
https://www.fotodiox.com/index.php?cPath=21_29_32&sort=2a&page=2
They become fully manual lenses but having an iris ring on the lens is very useful. I beleive Nikon focus rotation is opposite to Canon, this could require a little concentration.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
I had this problem when I first installed the EOS E1 plug in. I found it stopped if I left FCP alone to do the import and not edit or preview clips as they came in. Have not had the issue since.
7D, MacPro 2.8 Quad, OS10.5.8, FCP 7, first version of EOS E1 plugin in.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Shotgun Mic; Take a look at the Rode range, if you are not using a mixer of some sort than can supply phantom power you’ll need one that can supply its own or doesn’t need power.
Wide angle lens; I’ll second the recommendation for the Tokina 11-16 f2.8. For real estate you’ll need the fast f stop and the wide angle, this lens is about the only one that will do both for your camera.
Tripod; I own a Miller DS10 system, it’s a good value for money tripod, very robust and quite smooth. Last year I was given a Manfrotto 504 & 536 tripod and asked to evaluate it and do a talk on what I thought of it for the distributor. I’m under no obligation to keep using it but I now use the Manfrotto as my first choice for all my HDSLR work. The tripod can raised very high lens height which may be a big advantage in real estate shots.
Steadicam. I’m guessing you want this for real estate “walk throughs” which is an excellent way of showing the interior of a house as it gives the same geographical perspective as a person walking through. However good steadicam operating requires skill and practice, your main issue will be keeping level horizons which will be much more of obvious if your are not following a foreground person. Take a workshop, it’ll teach you the techniques you need to operate well in a very short space of time. For equipment the Steadicam Merlin is well made unit and can be purchased with a vest and arm option. The Steadicam Pilot uses the same vest and arm so you can upgrade later, or just start with the Steadicam Pilot which is perfect for HDSLRs.
In the USA Peter Abrahams conducts regular 2 day workshops for operators with lightweight rigs.
https://www.thesteadicamworkshops.com/Spend well on these “accessories” and they’ll outlast the technology of your camera but a number of generations.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/