Dslr Freaks !, tips and tricks Options

[Sinisa Cekic]

I decided to open a topic dedicated to fans of DSLR apparatus. Here we would share information,tips,experiences,useful sites and everything related to this kind of video shooting !

For start, here are some useful links for Canon owners >>

Canon T2i DSLR: 5 tips for shooting video

Canon EOS Camera forum

HDSLR 101

[Sinisa Cekic]

Magic Lantern Firmware !

[Sinisa Cekic]

Vincent Laforet Blog , he's awesome HDSLR filmmaker !

[Todd Simpson]

Very Cool thread idea There is a HUGE trend now in Video/Film production to use DSLR cameras instead of HDcameras. The greater sensor size and light sensitivity is a compelling reason. The major camera vendors are now building their next line of HD camcorders with (big shock) DSLR sensors! The only thing missing is a higher bit rate shooting coded (e.g. Pro Res etc.) and XLR input jacks so that you don't have to shoot "Dual System". So the line between DSLR and HDcam is going to eventually just go away. For many folks, learning the DSLR is an uphill battle as it's a different animal than a traditional HDCAM camcorder. Much closer to an actual Film SLR in terms of nomenclature and such.

One thing that would really be great in this thread is a lot pictures and video! Some great examples might get folks on the bandwagon!

[Sinisa Cekic]

Nice article Todd, also a suggestion !

I am sure that many people gonna like this beautiful Time lapse video! Recorded with a Canon 5D Mark II !

http://vimeo.com/22439234

This post has been edited by Sinisa Cekic: Aug 22 2011, 03:05 PM

[Cosmin Lupu]

hey Sinisa, here's what I'll get for myself next month I want to shoot GMC lessons with it! (until now I used a Nikon 3DS belonging to a photographer friend who also helps me with the shooting - he also took the pic u saw earlier with Aria)

Do you think that Nikon d3100 would be a good choice? It fits in my budget and it seems awesome!

[Kristofer Dahl]

This is crazy - thanks for the thread Sinisa. Btw maybe you should add a short sentence explaining what this is about? I am sure a lot of people don't realize how cool this is..

[Sinisa Cekic]

Opinions are divided, you know how it goes,eternal struggle between two rivals. But for the first time are united in one thing :
For a photography - use Nikon, for a video shotting - Canon (550d and above) ! I went through a million forums and YT clips, and Nikon has no chance to beat the Canon in this area!

[tonymiro]

Thanks Sinisa . We've got a Canon 500D slr and a couple of lenses. We only use it for still images - no video as of yet.

Last week there was an item in the UK Channel 5 'Gadget Show' that compared a Canon 5D and an IPhone 4 with various attachments for video. Image quality on the 5D was, as you'd probably expect, stunning. One of the attachments for the IPhone was a mount that allows you to attach proper DSLR lenses. Not sure how stable/secure the mount was or indeed if the IPhone was overly front heavy with a lens on it.

One funny bit on the program - they attached the 5D to a remote controlled toy helicopter to take some aerial footage of a waterfall. The helicopter crashed in to a ravine . They managed to retrieve it and the footage was still fine (not sure about the 5D though).

reason for edit - wrong camera model - we have a 500d not a 550d

This post has been edited by tonymiro: Sep 5 2011, 03:03 PM

[Cosmin Lupu]

Thanks for the advice mate! I shall ponder thoroughly until September!

Thanks Sinisa . We've got a Canon 550D slr and a couple of lenses. We only use it for still images - no video as of yet.

Last week there was an item in the UK Channel 5 'Gadget Show' that compared a Canon 5D and an IPhone 4 with various attachments for video. Image quality on the 5D was, as you'd probably expect, stunning. One of the attachments for the IPhone was a mount that allows you to attach proper DSLR lenses. Not sure how stable/secure the mount was or indeed if the IPhone was overly front heavy with a lens on it.

One funny bit on the program - they attached the 5D to a remote controlled toy helicopter to take some aerial footage of a waterfall. The helicopter crashed in to a ravine . They managed to retrieve it and the footage was still fine (not sure about the 5D though).

[Sinisa Cekic]

Thanks Sinisa . We've got a Canon 550D slr and a couple of lenses. We only use it for still images - no video as of yet.

Last week there was an item in the UK Channel 5 'Gadget Show' that compared a Canon 5D and an IPhone 4 with various attachments for video. Image quality on the 5D was, as you'd probably expect, stunning. One of the attachments for the IPhone was a mount that allows you to attach proper DSLR lenses. Not sure how stable/secure the mount was or indeed if the IPhone was overly front heavy with a lens on it.

One funny bit on the program - they attached the 5D to a remote controlled toy helicopter to take some aerial footage of a waterfall. The helicopter crashed in to a ravine . They managed to retrieve it and the footage was still fine (not sure about the 5D though).

Try it and you will always astounded by the quality of video !!! I must mention one thing: this is not a simple point& shot techniques,like on camcorders ! In order to get a decent quality video you've got to set the Magic triangle- Sutter speed, ISO and Aperture, know to be painful until you see how it goes !

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Awesome thread! I've used Nikons for many of my recent lessons, but never used Canon. I've heard good things about the Canon EOS line.

The best thing with Nikons and photo cams are lenses. They are BIG, and they point more light onto the chip. This is why they are better than cams. Good lens can cost almost as a body.

[Todd Simpson]

Nice article Todd, also a suggestion !

I am sure that many people gonna like this beautiful Time lapse video! Recorded with a Canon 5D Mark II !

http://vimeo.com/22439234

Very cool! Well done! I work with indie film makers here in town and I hear them talk about the DSLR vs HDCam issues all the time. It's a big thing in the film production community just now. It's also very DIY which is cool

[Adrian Figallo]

great thread, i love dslr's for video myself, i just love the shallow DOF and the fast lenses, i won't go back to regular cams.

[Cosmin Lupu]

My, my, how much I have to learn great thread Sinisa!

[Ivan Milenkovic]

From the experience of using Nikons with various lenses for video recording, I found they are a bit impractical. Depth of field, colors and the geometry of a wider lens are really cool, but monitoring, codec, video length limit, focusing while shooting video, not so great. Even the resolution on couple of models was limited to 720p, and all record at 24p rate, which is a bit outdated. And these are still expensive cameras with expensive lenses, there are some very good camcorders with big lenses for that much money.
They are simply devices not adapted to video recording, but offer this possibility as an added feature. We will probably see revolution of this function on future cams tho, who knows, perhaps the integration of these two categories is close?

[Sinisa Cekic]

From the experience of using Nikons with various lenses for video recording, I found they are a bit impractical. Depth of field, colors and the geometry of a wider lens are really cool, but monitoring, codec, video length limit, focusing while shooting video, not so great. Even the resolution on couple of models was limited to 720p, and all record at 24p rate, which is a bit outdated. And these are still expensive cameras with expensive lenses, there are some very good camcorders with big lenses for that much money.
They are simply devices not adapted to video recording, but offer this possibility as an added feature. We will probably see revolution of this function on future cams tho, who knows, perhaps the integration of these two categories is close?

Ok, Ok,we all know that you just bought a camcorder and you have to maintain your position! .....Just kidding !
Things are partially true! You speak from the standpoint of the average customer who wants to only know where is a start and stop button.
But if we speak from the standpoint of AMATEUR film-maker (like me, hehe), manual focus is just what you need,for example.
720p resolution ?
Maybe for Nikon,but Canon EOS series have 480p,720p,1080p , 24p (film look),25p,30p,50p and 60p frame rate ! What else you need ?!
Video length limit ?
True ,about 12 minute full HD or 4 Gb data ! But a new file continues automatically, with Magic Lantern software
Video Monitoring?
In the room where i recording lessons, for example, Canon is connected to my plasma or Pc monitor- huge clear picture, ideal !

If we compare the image quality, which I have posted above, + all this, it looks unbeatable ! Maybe, but just as the pain in the ...s on the other hand !

It takes a lot of rigging, setup, testing, at the beginning, until you get the right results ! But damn, It's worth all the spent nerves !!!!

This post has been edited by Sinisa Cekic: Aug 23 2011, 11:38 PM

[Gabriel Leopardi]

Awesome thread! I have seen this cameras but I had no idea of why people prefers it. Thanks for this clarifying thread Sinisa!

[Ivan Milenkovic]

I'm convinced I give up

You're right about Canon man. Canon indeed looks very powerful. I haven't had the chance of working with it, but based on the features you wrote, it really offers more on every aspect.

Sinisa, it would probably be interesting to check out similar (canons) professional camcorder in the exactly the same price range. What would be the difference there? So, body+lens Canon cam and same price on the pro camcorder. Can we draw a comparison somehow?

[Sinisa Cekic]

Ah,it's difficult to draw parallels and not be subjective, from my point of view. I would like to mention something: DSLR video is still in its infancy, suffer from a few diseases such as chromatic aberration, rolling shutter effect, things that are unimaginable for a camcorder, auto focus is slow and noisy, practically useless, but, I repeat, these are things that can be eliminated if you are persistent enough in fixing and adjusting !
What is, in my view, the advantage of a DSLR, is the ability to upgrade every aspect of recording, starting with changing lenses, special softwares, the depth of field effects, and so on. I'm talking about the price range of similar cameras in relation to the camcorders,which is below $ 1000.
Perhaps Adrian could give us more information because, if I remember correctly, he had HF200 HD Canon camcorder, and went on to EOS DSLR!