Robbie Carman
Forum Replies Created
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Joel well said!
While its easy to get caught up in the technical swamp that surounds acquisition technologies I agree its story and content first it always has been.
What has amazed me is that how many traditional video DPs are having such issues with moire and other things but as you point out don’t say much about the unbelievable DOF thats possible with this cameras, not to mention the amazing quality of lenses you can use.
Is video DSLR perfect? Of course not. Is it better then a traditional video camera? In some ways and in some ways not.
We are in the infancy of these powerful tools and I agree stop stressing. If a DSLR system works for you then use it but complaining rather about what it is or what it isn’t doesn’t do any good. If you want a feature ask the manufacture for it.
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
DOF possibilities is a major thing to consider. The micro 4/3rds sensor on the GH1 is smaller then the APS-C sensor on the 7D so you’ll have to work harder (longer lenses, moving further way) to achieve the same shallow depth of field. Some also say its noiser – to me it seems about the same.
Also finding lenses for the micro 4/3rds sensor is more difficult. With the 7D you have a ton of OEM lenses to choose from as well as the ability to adapt Nikon lenses as well as use lenses from Ziess, Tamron, Tokina Cook and others and if you really want to dish out some cash adapt PL mount lenses like those from Panavision (although you can’t buy the Panavision lenses)
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
Brian
My pref at the moment is to use an external digital auto recorder like the Zoom H4N and record directly to that. I still record audio the camera but only as reference. Then in post (I”m on FCP) I use Plural Eyes to sync the audio from the H4n. Works great!
If that workflow is not for you as you suggest you can use an microphone preamp to connect your microphones (and use phantom power) as well as control level and monitor directly form the the preamp. Some of these units can even override the AGC on the camera.
Beachtek is very popular but I’ve found the unit to be very very noisy. My personal preference if you want to go the preamp route is to get a JuicedLinked. Much better sounding audio in my opinion.
And yes these units still connect via the mini stereo plug to your camera.
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
you must have hit the submit button seconds before me rich!
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
Well this depends on a lot of different factors such as length of shoot, if you’re using IS lenses, if you turn off the camera between takes etc.
I’d play it safe and have multiple batteries with you. I like to have a least 3 with me. I typically find under a lot of stress I can get 1.5-2 hrs on each battery but thats not scientific at all.
RC
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
Bouke looking forward to your app!
A a couple things to add to the conversation.
First, if you have a laptop with you in the field then make you can easily make a clone of the card by using disk utility (on the Mac) and creating a disk image. This will create a .dmg file that is a exact copy of the card and its one self-contained file. I’ll usually create a disk image from a media card and drop it on an portable FireWire or USB based drive. Then when I get back to the studio I’ll make a Blu-Ray or because I have one I’ll layback to LTO-4 tape. Then that is my true archive
Another very very useful app that is very popular with other tapeless video sources (P2 etc) is ShotPut Pro from Imagine Products. They make a fantastic app that lets you copy up to three places including optical drives, what’s nice is you can add a ton of metadata about the copies. When speed and accuracy are paramount in a back up I use ShotPut Pro
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
Thanks Ron!
Pleasure to be here! I look forward to a lot of fun discussions!
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
[Rob Wilson] “What I’m wondering primarily is, what is the optimal shutter speed when shooting video, does it vary depending on how many fps the video is recording at? “
Bingo! To better emulate the the shutter of motion picture film camera you’ll get the most filmic look and most natural to your eye if you observe the 180 degree shutter rule.
So lets say you shooting 24fps your shutter speed should be 1/48. Or lets say your shooting 60fps your shutter should be 1/120. Now many DSLRS are not going to give you that exact number instead of 1/48 you’ll probably have to go for 1/50. If you start using faster shutter speeds i.e. 360 so 1/100 for 24fps you’ll notice the footage might flicker a bit and have a harsh “Video” look to it.
The thing a lot of photo folks making the move to video don’t get though is shooting 180 degree and at apertures needed to have nice out of focus backgrounds (or even moderately blurred ones) you’ll often have to much light entering the camera. This where lighting as well as using matte boxes with the ability to drop in different staged ND filters becomes really important. Also just like like in photography controlling the ISO will allow you to control exposure.
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
in fcp I have had pretty good luck with the Too Much Too Soon plugins https://www.mattias.nu/plugins/ he has few different noise reduction tools and they’re free.
Also the Nattress noise reduction filters are awesome! Those are my usual go to https://www.nattress.com/Products/BigBox/Bigbox.htm
Also in FInal Cut Studio you could also use the grain reduce node in the ColorFX room of color
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion -
As far as ISO performance this is tricky. I’ve found through a lot of testing that ISO and noise is not exactly the same one to one relashionship that you might see in stills. And the Marvels blog that was linked to pretty much goes with what I’ve found. For example there is less noise a 640 than 500.
Just be aware that a lot more goes into getting a quality image out of the 7D than just ISO. I’ve found due to H.264 compression that noise tends to be worse in crushed shadows, so when lighting a scene even if its supposed to be moody your better off lighting it a stop or two brighter and then in post crushing blacks again if that is the look you’re going for.
Additionally, picture settings have a lot to with quality of footage out of the 7D. My preference is to shoot with the neutral setting and dial down sharpness to 0 back off contrast and saturation a few clicks. By shooting a little “flat” like this I’ve found I have more latitude for grading in post.
As far as transcoding/FCP goes. Compressor is a great choice and the ProRes and ProRes HD presets for progressive material are just fine not a whole lot of need to make custom presets. One thing though that I’ve been doing is putting a lot more attention into making selects (from the camera footage) before transcoding, as transcoding everything from a shoot might take a looooooong time)
Also be aware that their are rumblings on the web of Canon releasing a Log and Transfer plugin for FCP. So importing footage from a DSLR would be just like importing from P2, SxS etc. If this rumor is true it will facilitate FCP workflow greatly. Do a search for Vincent Laforet he had a blog post about beta software from Glue Tools (which canon apparently purchased -rumor anyway)
In FCP sequence settings are simply 1920 x 1080 at what ever frame rate matches your footage, ProRes HQ with field dominance set to none. But as Nels points out you can let FCP auto conform.
Robbie Carman
—————-
Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
Video Made on a Mac
Apple Pro Training Series DVDSP
From Still To Motion