[Steve Crow]

Do you get warning messages telling you the files are corrupt or are you just saying that because they won’t play?

It’s interesting that they don’t play in camera either, that shouldn’t be happening…perhaps you storage card failed.

[Steve Crow]

What do you want to use the camera for? Understand that if you absolutely cannot spend more than the $650 dollars right now that you will be limited to creating videos with NO SOUND RECORDED BY THE CAMERA. (You can add in music and other sound effects during editing!)

That’s because the built-in microphone is useless – if you want good sound you have to attach an external microphone at the very least….bottom line be prepared for many other expenses related to high quality filmmaking.

[Steve Crow]

Hmmm thanks Ty that’s very interesting….is that because the phone’s data or call frequency is close to the lav transmitter’s outgoing frequency? Come to think of it, there may also have been a wireless router in the room too.

[Steve Crow]

Thanks Eric, what concerns me most is finding the cause for this fading and white noise issue…I am going to do some tests this weekend at a different location just to make sure it’s not the gear…meanwhile I’m stumped.

[Steve Crow]

529 and 745 MHZ…still illegal?

[Steve Crow]

These are beautiful frame grabs….I use a Zacutto Z-Finder 3x to make it much easier to focus in live view, I wasn’t clear if you had something similar on your rig or not.

Maybe give yourself a break and try 2.0 or 2.8 f-stop instead…yeah 2 inches are great for statues but for living subjects….yikes!!!

Still I love the Bokeh porn 🙂

[Steve Crow]

I film with the T2i which has the same video functionality as the Canon 7D. The major advantage the 5D Mark II has is that it is a FULL frame sensor which means it will give even BETTER low light performance and the overall build quality is better.

To answer your questions – yes starting and stopping is the way to go. I mostly experience overheating when working outdoors, I think a good habit is to turn the camera off when you are not filming but otherwise I don’t have many tips for combating the overheating problem.

You mentioned “pull out and run and gun” – errr….not so much. First of all, if you want any kind of decent sound you are going to have to first set up mics and an external recording device. Then you are going to need to do all the basics like set focus, aperture, ISO and shutter speed (well you always leave the shutter speed at 1/50th)

Think of this like a Hollywood style movie camera….is it fast or even convenient to film video with DSLRs….I’d have to say no. But then again if you want the kind of quality a DSLR gives you then it’s very much worth it to take your time with it….but that means it’s not a great solution for just pulling out and starting to film…I don’t find it works great for News type operations where you are filming things live that you don’t have any control over…”Ma’am would you mind crying and clutching your baby one more time, I didn’t quite get the focus nailed”

On the other hand there ARE news shooters working with DSLRs even in War Zones (Dan Chung)

For sit down interviews you generally have much more control of the overall situation so it’s a good camera for that…I use it for documentaries and it’s a pretty good solution for that too but then again if something unexpected happens, (a UFO suddenly lands in front of me) I probably won’t get the shot ….or the sound…..

See if you can hang out with an experienced shooter or maybe do some free PA work for them in order to learn the realities before you invest thousands into a rig that you may find too cumbersome for you. I always tell myself when filming, “Steve, slow your roll” – otherwise you are going to make mistakes.

[Steve Crow]

The two shooting styles (DSLR versus traditional video camera formats) are not really comparable. For instance, you can’t film more than 12 minutes at a time, DSLRs can overheat and you have to go through a lot more trouble with sound. Post is also different. That said, I think all the hassles are very much worth it but don’t go into it expecting things to be the same…

Here’s a link to more information on the equipment side:

https://www.crowdigitalmedia.com/display/Search?searchQuery=DSLR+kit&moduleId=11381101

[Steve Crow]

I wouldn’t worry too much about it…large h.264 encoded files often play back choppy on my Macbook Pro until I convert them to Apple ProRes…converting to ProRes actually increases the file size but the computer is able to play back and edit the files much easier.

The other files, I am just guessing, may have been fully loaded (no buffering) so they played back smooth versus the video on file “on top” may have still been loading into the Quicktime player

[Steve Crow]

Canon 50mm 1.4 $350 or so