Canon 7D

A forum to share ideas and opinions on the equipment and technical aspects of film, video and AV making.
Pqtrick
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Warwickshire

Re: Canon 7D etc!

Post by Pqtrick »

I have been following your comments about these cameras with interest. This is both in the magazine and on these forum pages.

Perhaps if (if!) I could move to HD, I think I could convince myself and (she's not looking at the moment) that this is a viable option.

For stills, we use a Panasonic Lumix FZ28, which as far as the many pics we have taken over the past 18 months, it serves us well. It has a video feature, which I have only used in passing thro' the window and I just said Mmh! well at least it works.

Venturing forward, the .MOV files at 30fps put me off. However, that said, we went for a stroll down by the nearby canal locks yesterday afternoon. I was armed with the camera and took my thirty years old plus, heavy tripod.

As a test, I have come back with some stunning moving images. I set the camera to full HD, and on a 4gb card this gave me just over 8 mins total running time.

Now I have to say it, took a bit of getting used to. A still camera on a tripod in daylight. I am used to shuffling about composing my shots at any height and position I want with even my video camera.

Aligning myself to the view finder was a bit back breaking, stiff neck today, and in the bright sunshine both the screen and viewfinder were a bit of a pain. The shortcoming of this camera, is that in 'movie' mode, you have no control over the exposure other than using the + and – feature. The focus is auto, which is a bind. But with a bit of a struggle, I came back with some shots to make just a gentle four minute sequence 'Down by the canal'. No more than a test.

It was edited, in MAGIX, a recent trial download version, ? And output to a standard DVD. It works! but I don't know the technical bits.

It looked excellent on the computer screen and not bad on the 'telly'.

While I can't see this particular camera being used much more than making a 'movie' type AV, be there such a thing, I am quite sold on the general idea. Indeed, I am quite struck on it!

But can these points be overcome? I am a dedicated tripod user even for 'chasing' events. I found the viewfinder inflexible and difficult to see exactly what I was recording. I like the idea of a aperture ring, a focus ring and the idea of interchangeable lenses. I could not contemplate spend a big sum of money at some time in the future. Is there a camera for me? Bearing in mind that some of the accessories are prerequisite i.e., a lens hood and viewfinder and even a XLR box so that the audio can be monitored.

Any comments please?
col lamb
Posts: 680
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:51 pm
Location: Preston, Lancashire

Re: Canon 7D

Post by col lamb »

Patrick

if the camera does not allow manual control you are stuck, if you can change consider the Canon 550D plus the accessories below.

Accessories: -
Zacuto Z finder @ c £210
Microphone - Rode VideoMic Pro at c £140 or similar XLR if considering a beechtec box
Beechtec box - one is available which inputs a constant tone that we cannot hear and thus sets the automatic gain circuit at a certain value not sure of model or cost
Lens hood - i get mine on ebay from a Hong Kong supplier at c£3 each, yes £3 cannot tell the difference compared to the Canon ones that came with the L series lens
Monopod - a viable alternative to a tripod where time, space and movement are paramount one avaiable as a hiking stick and costs £12
Neutral density filters a few of these will cut down the light entering the lens and offer better speed control

I love my 7D as it does all I want for days out and off the cuff movie making where I shoot at my own pace.

My Wife has the Panasonic ZX1 compact and that produces AVCHD Lite movies which are of very good quality

The Zacuto will solve the viewing problem but a much cheaper alternative is the Hoodsman which now has a rigid bracket available. Try it out first.

Editing with Edius Neo 3 will not be a problem and you can even mix various sourced video on the same timeline, download a trial and see how that works.
Col Lamb
Preston, Lancashire.
FCPX, Edius6.02, and Premiere CS 5.5 user.
Find me on Facebook, Colin Lamb
tom hardwick
Posts: 914
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:59 am

Re: Canon 7D

Post by tom hardwick »

Entirely agree with you about DSLRs at a once-off wedding shoot Col. My 60D is a scary camera to use when you're shooting a real-time movie event. Going back to shooting on the NX5 or 151 makes me breathe easy again.

I've read some reviews about the petal hoods sold on ebay that say the bayonet's are sometimes wrong - in that the longer petals end up on the horizontal plane rather than the vertical. You've not found this with your cheap ones?

tom.
col lamb
Posts: 680
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:51 pm
Location: Preston, Lancashire

Re: Canon 7D

Post by col lamb »

No issues Tom, mine only fit one way.

It cost £3.5 including free P&P from Hong Kong, I priced the official Canon hood and that was £44.
Col Lamb
Preston, Lancashire.
FCPX, Edius6.02, and Premiere CS 5.5 user.
Find me on Facebook, Colin Lamb
Pqtrick
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Warwickshire

NVIDA Graphics Card

Post by Pqtrick »

Looking back over the forum I was trying to find the thread about my long suffering problem about my graphics card.

But firstly I'll go back to Col Lamb's reply about above the Canon 550D. Looks great, I can dream 'til the boat comes in.......I have however, had the opportunity of downloading Edius Neo (again and will explain). I like this programme, it is better in English this time and gives a great looking render to almost any 'footage'.

Now, to the graphics card and my earlier posts. Looking at Col's self build spec any comments on this - perhaps again?

My French bought Acer pooter has a NVIDA GT220 Graphics card. The web is alive with comments about a timeout issue. It worked OK at the onset, perhaps a later driver had b*d it up. I thought I found a solution by entering some jargon into the REGEDIT and it was OK for six months. Then just before we packed up to come back to the UK, it started to happen again by the moniitor displaying 'no video signal', and I had to reboot.

Cutting this down to size, I have now reinstalled WIN 7 from scratch, 'Mon Dieu! it's in Anglais' - the graphics driver has gone back to one which powered the Arc and all was OK! I have left it on the 'if it aint broke...' theory.
I have only down loaded 'Open Office' and connected to the Web with Talk-Talk and then Edius Neo demo all that runs OK. However the fan gets noisy when I browse the web, especially video. And once or twice has failed again. I have a downloaded also simulation programme again which ran OK for years and with this computer in the early months. The latest version causes a problem it would seem, so it has been unistalled.

However, looking into the BIOS this morning, (better than the grim read in the newpapers) the temp of the CPU was 34 (what C?) and the system temperature rose from 26C to 44C the fan cut in at 40C and then after three minutes at 44C the monitor balcked out with a 'No video signal.

Does this tell anyone anything? Pqtrick UK (The clavier is still in Francais!)
col lamb
Posts: 680
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:51 pm
Location: Preston, Lancashire

Re: Canon 7D

Post by col lamb »

Patrick

Since you have the dreaded black sceen am I right in assuming that after a while you can re-boot and all is well until the next cut out?

Are all the fans working: -
CPU
Power supply
Graphics card
case fan(s)

Are the case input filters clean?

Which fan is actully getting noisy?

If it is the CPU fan that is starting to fail the CPU will shut the system down to protect itself if the temperature rises too much.

Can you also post the specification of your PC after you have checked the above?
Col Lamb
Preston, Lancashire.
FCPX, Edius6.02, and Premiere CS 5.5 user.
Find me on Facebook, Colin Lamb
Pqtrick
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Warwickshire

Re: Canon 7D

Post by Pqtrick »

quote 'Can you also post the specification of your PC after you have checked the above?'

I have posted you a PM Col. Perhaps you have misssed it or away on holiday. I generated a text file which I can send you somehow, but how?
Patrick
User avatar
FredD
Posts: 77
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:29 pm
Location: The New Forest, Hampshire.

Re: Canon 7D

Post by FredD »

Hi All,

This is my first post on the IAC forums; my name is Fred and I have been making films for a few years now.
My first film was a short, which I shot in 1961 using a borrowed (from my father) Bolex H16.
Now, 50 years later (and it seems like only yesterday !), I am working on an animation project, which I am
shooting with my Canon 7D.
The camera is a superb piece of engineering and the quality of the shot content far surpasses my early 16mm
work.
For animation. the glass I am useing is Nikon MF primes, as the Canon glass is all auto, and I found it was
giving me some 'flicker', most likely from iris stop down inaccuracies.
I have Nikon 24mm and a 50mm MF primes on Cinegate adapters to fit the EOS body. With the 1.6 crop of
the 7d sensor, they give me 38mm and 80mm (35mm equivalent) fields of view. These are perfect for my stop
motion stage sets.
I have also built a dolly truck using 'O' guage model railway track and a stepper motor drive, to move the
camera in vernier increments along the tracks and around the sets. I am working on an interface to allow picture
frame grabbing to 'sync' with camera movements, and be controlled from the frame grabbing sotware.

The only thing that is concerning me with the 7D, is the life of the shutter mechanism. I shoot for a 24fps
timeline, so a four minute short film will use more than 6000 shutter acctuations (with re-takes and tests etc).
Anyway, time will tell !!

Fred Dorsett
"Films are never released, they escape !" Ben Burtt
User avatar
FredD
Posts: 77
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:29 pm
Location: The New Forest, Hampshire.

Re: Canon 7D

Post by FredD »

Hi all,

Reference my last post regarding my 7D shot animation project, I thought you may be interested in the
software and workflow that i am using.
For initial frame 'capture' I use Stop Motion Pro Studio HD v7.5
I then import my frames into Adobe After Effects (CS5)
Here I size and trim a version for 1920 x 1080 HD, and add any post camera FX that may be required
for the shot.
The HD version is then imported into Adobe Premier Pro (CS5), put on a time line and edited.
The sound design is multitracked in Pro Tools (Avid) and any dialogue added and lip synced.
(Sync dialogue is recorded first on its own track, and picture frames shot to lip sync puppet mouths).

The computer is a home built PC. Gigabyte mother board with an i7 Quadcore CPU and 16 gigs of RAM.
I have fitted a GeForce GTX470 graphice card with GPU accelaration to take advantage of the new Adobe
Mercury Graphics engine.

I find editing HD content shot with the 7D a breeze with this set up.

Fred.
"Films are never released, they escape !" Ben Burtt
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