Phil Balsdon
Forum Replies Created
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I’d like to see this working or hear from someone who has one before buying one for Canon HDSLRs.
If it just plugs in to the HDMI how does it record an HD image from the 5D which changes its output to SD when you press record. And how does it get rid of the camera info that you see in the camera or any other LCD you plug into the HDMI port, without hacking the firmware in the camera?
If I plug the camera HDMI out into my Blackmagic DeckLink Studio 2 I can record exactly what I see in the Canon 7D LCD to FCP, its HD but has all the camera info too.
I’ve heard the Panasonic GH2 can output a clean HD via the HDMI, but don’t have first hand experience.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Well the 5D doesn’t shoot 720p.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Its worth while taking a look at other brands, Sigma for instance. If you are mainly shooting video these lenses will be more than adequate as the HDSLR cameras “line shed” to process a full frame sized image from the chip. This means a lot of the benefit of the high resolution of Canon’s expensive lenses are lost when in video mode.
It’s still well worthwhile choosing a lens with a wide and constant aperture. A zoom lens without constant aperture will change exposure as you change focal lengths. A wide aperture is what these camera are about, giving you the ability to use selective depth of field when composing your shots.Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Ultimately you’ll need both a lav and a shotgun.
A lavalier won’t be much use shooting run and gun style in the street, you won’t be able to stop people fit them with a mic and then start recording. It won’t be as good for atmos sound in those environments either. That situation is for a shotgun mike.
If however you are shooting set up interviews or ptc without a sound recordist a lav mike is better.
I use a Sennheisser wireless mike that also has the optional adaptor that plugs into a powered xlr mike (NTG-2, it won,t work with the NTG-1 which requires phantom power). This makes it possible to use the NTG-2 without a cable or use the wireless lav mike.
It’s also possilbe to link sound out of the Zoom H4n to the camera via the wireless system for an audio guide track on the camera that can be synced in post.
Choose the system that suits what you do most, but plan to purchase the other at sometime in the future.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
You can’t judge a camera’s performance properly by footage downloaded from the web. It will be highly compressed and interframes introduced, this will particularly effect the way motion is played back.
I have a friend that uses this camera for corporate work. The results were so good one of his clients had a broadcast tvc made from material he shot.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
I wonder if he converted those files from his new HDSLR from H264 to ProRes first.
Nah, probably not that would just be another procedure that would waste time, take up more hard drive space and besides why bother when its finally destined for the web anyway.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Unfortunately the compression for Vimeo introduces a few difficulties in viewing the detail. I also see very little wrong technically.
On shot 1 some shudder maybe caused by the fine detail on the foreground sign. This is probably to do with the pixel shedding necessary to create a 1920 x 1080 image from such a high resolution chip. This is the same problem that results in “moire” patterning and “aliasing” in these cameras.
Shot 2 is panned too fast for a progressive 25p sequence. General rule of thumb is 5 seconds from the time something enters one side of the screen until it exits the other.
Shot 3 compression for online has interfered with being able to evaluate the shot.
Working with HDSLRs really is very similar to shooting 35mm film, you really need to adapt your shooting style to suit the medium. Along with dual system sound, restricted shot duration etc there is learning curve if you’re moving over from the interlace video cameras.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Can you post a few seconds online?
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Where are you viewing the ProRes files, in FCP on broadcast monitor, or in Quicktime?
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
You can only sync a camera to one frequency at a time, so if there are a number of devices at different frequencies you’ll have to choose which device is most important or offensive.
With HDSLRs you don’t have clear scan, (infinitely variable shutter speed) as in oregular video cameras, so you are limited to syncing only to devices that have the same frequencies as your shutter speed.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/