DSLR advice

[Peter Stedman]

Advice if possible. I’m in occasional contact, mainly by e-mail, with a young lady who has started a You Tube channel on her specialist interest, which is fashion, make up, etc. She one of several similar who do reviews of such products on the web. At the moment she is using a Panasonic TZ55 which may be fine for still shots but to be honest is very much a ‘Micky Mouse’ camera for use indoors for filming herself talking and demonstrating to the camera. The camera’s only worthwhile feature being the large flip-up LCD which comes up over the top of the camera so that she can see herself. The lack of any manual controls makes life difficult especially as she sits on the end of her bed facing the window to do her recording all by herself. She only uses the available light which can vary enormously of course. She has major problems with focus and correct exposure. She is now going to invest is a couple of basic lights in Soft boxes.

Over time she has become aware that she might have to invest in a more advanced camera and occasionally mentions a DSLR. Where to start is the problem. I have absolutely no knowledge or experience of these cameras but have done some research on a few models. At the moment I have narrowed a choice to the Canon 700D. This appears to be one of the top ‘domestic’ models at a price of around £500.00. At the moment I've no idea of her budget should she decide to invest.

It goes without saying that she has absolutely no technical knowledge of cameras at all. Just point & shoot is as far as she has got. This 700D camera has so many advanced features that she wont need but hopefully she would be able to sort the wheat from the chaff and just learn how to take quality videos in her bedroom of her specialist interest. She is doing some basic editing on imovie on her Laptop.

Here is a link to a video of one of her competitor’s which shows what she is aiming at. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZrylCJTuaU

There you are my friends. Any suggestions and advice regarding cameras and the 700D if anyone uses this model would really be appreciated to help the lady in distress.

Happy Easter. Pete.

[col lamb]

Pete
The Canon in my opinion is the wrong camera.

Panasonic Lumix do three excellent cameras, any would suit.

FZ200 which is a bridge camera so it looks like a full DSLR but has a fixed lens with a long optical zoom. My Wife has one and its an awesome camera, there is a magic Ai button which is auto everything and works a treat, images are excellent, its lens is 18-1000 (yes 1000 its not a typo) optically and up to 1200 digital.

FZ72 which is the little brother to the 200,

Finally there is the G6 which comes with a stock 14-42mm lens which because of the micro four thirds sensor is an SLR equivalent of 28-84. I have one of these and its a great camera, much smaller than the Canons and with Leica lenses what more do I have to say. It has interchangeable lenses and there is a good range to choose from I sold the stock 14-42 lens on eBay when I bought a 14-140 (28-280 SLR equiv.) and I also have a 100-300 (200-600 SLR) so all I need is a macro and a fast prime to complete my glassware. There are deals on these now where you can get the camera body, the 14-42 lens and a 45-150 lens (90-300mm SLR equiv.) the latter being a great lens again its one I have just sold to get my 100-300. The deal is £500 for the camera and two lenses.

Hope this helps

[Peter Stedman]

Thanks Col,
Just the sort of advice I need and I will follow up those leads. As she already has her Panasonic Lumix TZ55 she may well like sticking to the same brand.

She has no interest in video apart her special needs as I have already mentioned. I may well come back to you in due course for further advice.
Thanks again.
Pete.

[Dave Watterson]

Col is great on all these practical aspects of equipment. So many other people get bogged down with promotional details and glamorous advertising.

Thanks Col.

[tom hardwick]

I agree that unless she wants to have a nice DSLR to carry about, the Canon 700D is not for her. She really wants to go mirrorless, and still have the fully articulated rear screen so that she can almost look into the lens as she chats away to her audience. She doesn't need a long zoom, she needs a good autofocus with macro built in so she can show things in detail and closeup, and preferably she'd use a tieclip mic that plugs straight into the camera.

tom

[Peter Stedman]

Thanks Tom, You have got it in one. All the things you say plus exposure and white balance control because all her existing footage has exposure and colour balance problem. However, she is now getting to grips with her Apple laptop and imovie with its picture adjustment features.
Cheers. Pete.

[John Roberts]

+1 for the Panasonic mirrorless. I use the GH3 and also have the stock 14-140 lens which is really quite good (a marked improvement over the two 'standard' lenses), gives a usable 10x zoom range and has image stabilisation built-in. The micro four thirds mirrorless systems are smaller and lighter than a typical DSLR so less of a chore to carry around, which means they'll get carried around more. Articulated screen and all the manual features your friend will want to learn to use.

The learning curve can be a little steep though, and some of the settings aren't easy to find in the menus but you can set everything to automatic and let the camera take care of everything, then move on from there

Good luck!

[Peter Stedman]

Thank you John for your input to the discussion. I have been looking at all the models mentioned and can see that there is some great gear around.

However there is something I haven't discovered as yet. I have no idea how much the young lady is able to spend on a new camera. She does know that it can be a great deal and most of the gear mentioned might be well out of her class. In due course I will try to find out and from there it might be possible to find something within her budget that will do the job for her.

I am also thinking that a traditional camcorder might be a good bet, even a S/H one. I have a Panasonic HC-X920 as my second camera and it gives me great results even on Auto. Has anyone any opinions on going down this route please?

Thanks again. Pete.

[Peter Stedman]

Thank you John for your input to the discussion. I have been looking at all the models mentioned and can see that there is some great gear around.

However there is something I haven't discovered as yet. I have no idea how much the young lady is able to spend on a new camera. She does know that it can be a great deal and most of the gear mentioned might be well out of her class. In due course I will try to find out and from there it might be possible to find something within her budget that will do the job for her.

I am also thinking that a traditional camcorder might be a good bet, even a S/H one. I have a Panasonic HC-X920 as my second camera and it gives me great results even on Auto. Has anyone any opinions on going down this route please?

Thanks again. Pete.

[tom hardwick]

I have thoughts on going this route. I'm guessing she's not, not ever is going to be, a filmmaker, and the camcorder she uses is just a means to a YouTube end. Talking GH3s, interchangeable lenses, 40x zooms on bridge cameras is not what she needs and probably isn't what she can afford, let alone affording the time needed to master the steep learning curve that will be associated with such kit.

The Panasonic range extends downwards from your 920 Peter, and last time I looked there was a 720 version I think it was. Amazingly good vfm, shooting HD to SD card and having full manual control for when she insists on shooting into the light.

But I'd advise against that. Switch it to Panasonic's excellent iA mode, have the light behind the camera and know that the auto focus will handle anything she shows it. The files will be easily edited in Windows MM or iMovie, and Bob's your uncle.

tom

[Peter Stedman]

Thanks again Tom, I can see we are on the same wavelength in this. No, she has no desire to be a film maker – just to make these particular videos that are of her specialist interest it just that she feels, rightly, that her existing Pan TZ55 is not quite up to it as there appears to be no manual controls for video. Plenty for the ‘stills’ side.

No - all the long Zooms and the rest of wonderful advanced (expensive) stuff wont interest her one little bit. She would probably not be able to learn all that material.

For anyone’s interest I have down loaded one of her projects – and chopped it up into a few bits of interest on the technical side. You would NOT want to sit through the entire thing . . . unless you are interested in make-up that is! (Sit down that man at the back!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS4Fk_Lce6Y

Anyone viewing will at once see that she has indoor room lighting behind and the blue light from the window in front. I have advised her to learn the colour balance controls on her imovie to correct this and she is doing this. You will also note several ‘jump cuts’ and this is really bad throughout the entire project.

Further on you will see that there are many places where there is a lot of out of focus stuff. I think it’s a case of the auto focus being very slow to react on her TZ55. The showing of the make-up bag is a prime example.

She is very keen on her projects and makes a new one every couple of weeks and she wants to be able to compete with other girls doing the same sort of thing. Their videos all seem to be of a much higher quality, certainly in colour balance and sharpness even though they appear to be shot by the demonstrators alone as she does.

I appreciate everyone's advice. The girl doesn't know I'm doing this research for her, it's just that her father is a friend.

Cheers. Pete.

[col lamb]

Pete
It may be a stupid question, but will she be capable of changing a lens? Someone on Fb had to ask how to do just that and if in the future she is not likely to progress onto using much manual controls then a Bridge camera would be better.

It is better to use a DSLR/Bridge for video rather than a camcorder for images.

The Lumix G6 and FZ200 both have mike input sockets and I sometimes use my G6 for video,mnot all have mike inputs.

As Tom and I have advised the auto everything iA mode works very well, on both the cameras I have quoted the focus is extremely quick to react.

The only downside of both relate to manual mode and a small wheeled shutter/speed control, you push it to change from one to the other and roll it to change either the aperture setting or the speed. It is very sensitive and I keep changing from one mode to the other rather than adjust the individual setting.
The FZ200 is about £350 and the G6 is £500 with two lenses.

Just been on a photographic walk locally and after lugging my Canon around after three miles I wished
I had taken the Lumix

[Peter Stedman]

Thanks for your further input Col and I will swat up on those models. However, the young lady's father (my friend) has been rushed into hospital with a serious illness and I very much doubt if she will be concerned about cameras and video at the moment. I certainly don't want to pester her.

We will leave this conversational for now and when situation improves I may well be back.

Thanks again for your advice. Appreciated.

Pete.

[Dave Watterson]

Sorry to hear that, Peter.

But at least it gives me time to put a thought to all concerned ... would a decent webcam not sit the bill better than a good DSLR?

Something like the Logictech HD series makes it very easy to capture someone talking to screen, they can see themselves as they do so and a reasonable sound recording is also made. I have recorded material for an Austrian satellite TV station using such kit, so an online blog should be no problem.

It would cost a fraction of the sums mentioned so far, have easy to use settings for exposure, followface and so on.