[Uli Plank]

No problem on the web, everybody will see their own version of color and contrast anyway…

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

Wait for CS5 …

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

It seems that speed is not such a factor as sustained speed. Many cards can write fast bursts for photos, but have problems with video. To be on the safe side, get a card specified as UDMA.

BTW, you won’t experience dropped frames, just drops in quality. I can’t speak for the 7D, but the 5D reduces the data-rate (i.e. more compression) when it senses a slow card.

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

Getting back to the cameras, I’d like to put it this way:

I you can’t play, no violin will be of any use to you. But if you can, of course a Stradivari will sound better than a piece of plastic from Woolworth (of whoever, nothing agains that specific company).

But you have to start learning with something. So, when you become better as an artist and get recognized for it, of course you’ll strive for the best instrument you can get.

A Canon 5D or 7D will definitely be better to learn cinematic art than any video camera with small chips…

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

While I second everything that was said about the high quality of the codec and the advantages of having more latitude for color grading with the RED One, let’s not forget another problem of the current DSLRs.

As confirmed by the Canon engineer, they can’t handle full rez at motion frame rates. So they are ‘binning’ (sampling down groups of pixels before further processing the image). This introduces another big problem: aliasing! The OLFP in the camera is optimized for photography – as it should, or all photos from the Canon’s would be soft, but they are tack sharp with good lenses.

So it can’t be optimized for 1920 x 1080 at the same time. This is why you get all kinds of aliasing effects, moiré and the like. Shoot a rez chart with the Canon and you’ll see that it resolves around 720, all the rest is fake detail produced by stepping over the Nyquist/Shannon border…

Now I admit that the shallow focus will help you keeping regular patterns (like brick, fences or the like) out of focus most of the time. But if the person in focus has the wrong clothes, you’ll the horrible aliasing all over critical patterns. Been there, bitten by that, since you don’t see that when shooting, Plus, you don’t see it on the web. BTW, the Canon was initially seen as a tool for web jounalism by Canon.

The OLPF of the Red One is optimized for 4K – which they scan and record. Smaller sizes are produced by windowing, not binning, so the OLPF is still right.

Uli Plank

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

While AFAIK there is no filter for FCP, we made use of the free deflicker filter for virtual dub on footage we shot under available light (most flourescent) with a European camera in Brazil.

Hope this helps,

Uli

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

We have a Redrock matte box and FF for our RED, and while it’s definitely not Arri it’s quite good for the price.

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

Get UDMA cards, they don’t cause any problems.

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

Yes, I second Neatvideo. But the H.264 compression will stay the biggest problem…

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts

[Uli Plank]

I’d disadvise DSLRs for arial shooting. They have massive rolling shutter problems under such circumstances, which can’t be ironed out by stabilizing software – the images will look like printed on jelly…

Get a decent CCD camcorder for such a task, apart from all other stabilizing devices.

Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts