Canon 7D

[col lamb]

The downside of using a DSLR for HD video is that the optical viewfinder is locked and you have to use the rear lcd panel and the end result is that you do need a hood device of some kind to be able to see the lcd panel.

There are a few options avaibale but the Zacuto Z finder is certainly the way to go.

I have tried the Hoodsman and all I can say is that is way cheaper than the Z Finder, and it is cheaper for I reason, its useless in any other mode than fixed to a tripod mounted camera. It slips and slides about and is very difficult if not impossible to set the dioptre correctly.

[fraught]

I'm still having problems! Although i have to be honest i haven't fired up Edius yet... i did download and install, and then i never used it for a few months!

I'm still trying to playback my footage shot at 50fps, at 24fps so that it looks super slo mo. I've search hi and lo on the net for guidance, but it seems if you're not using FCP or Premiere... then you are out of luck!

[Mike Shaw]

Fraught - when you do get to playing back 50fps at 24 (or 25) fps, you'll be very disappointed if you're hoping to see 'slo mo' I'm afraid.

I bought a Sony H7 on the grounds that it had '4x' slo mo as a feature - 3 seconds of shooting (max) became 12 seconds on playback. Wonderful, I thought. The result didn't look very slo mo at all - in fact I achieve better looking slo mo results in the video editors (Liquid or Media Composer) by simply using timewarp with interpolation between frames. But that isn't real slo mo of course, that's just stretching out what is already there.

Even worse - what Sony don't tell you in the promotion ( it is in tiny print in the manual ) the quality is reduced to 25% as well - quarter frame. So, pretty useless. That cam is now just a player for getting HD onto the computer.

[fraught]

I have seen examples shot on the 7D of the 50fps footage being played back at a normal frame rate and it looks really good. I can slow it down using Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate, and it doesn't look too bad, but i just want to be able to do it without loosing any frames.

[col lamb]

Fraught
I have just taken some of my Canon 7D's video and changed the speed in Edius Neo to 25% and the results look pretty good.

I have also seen the effect you mention on Vimeo where the guys have shot at 50 and played it back at 25.

A I know nothing about the Pinnacle software that you use I do not know if you can create a custom preset, if you do not know either way I'd do some research on the net. If you cannot then new software may be called for as we have advised before.

Good luck

[fraught]

Hi Col,

Do you think it's possible using a Transcoder? Perhaps it could be done as part of that process?

[tom hardwick]

Mike - my Sony NX5 shoots slo-mo as I pointed out in Positive Image. As you say, 3 seconds of shooting become 12 seconds of screen time. The shutter speed is automatically bumped from 1/50th sec to 1/215th sec and you can't shoot progressive slo-mo. The loss of picture quality is noticeable.

If I shoot at the highest quality AVCHD bit rate and downconvert to produce DVDs it's very difficult to spot the quality loss, and slo-mo footage sits very happily and the picture quality loss is all but invisible in an SD production.

tom.

[col lamb]

Fraught

Cannot help regarding the transcoder, I used to use Cineform's Neoscene to encode so that I could edit in CS3, then I got Edius Neo and stopped using it, now I have Edius Neo on my Internet PC and Laptop and Edius 6.1 on my main editing system. Both these work great with the 7D vids.

The version of Neoscene I have does not handle the .MOV files that the 7D produces.

[TimEaston]

I was thinking of getting the http://www.jessops.com/online.store/pro ... /show.html
Canon EOS 1000D + 18-55 IS Lens - Only at Jessops

[Stephen]

glad peeps are having fun with their 7D!

took delivery of the Nikon D7000 a couple of weeks ago

ahh man!....... its just mental.....

DoF with a 50mm F1.8 in low light is just amazing!

only downside at the mo is the camera only really comes into its own in manual

the autofocus has a mind of its own!!!!

but quality ...sheesh!!

right ...I'm away back into the garden to catch the frogs coming into the pond and do some macro film....

whoaaaaaaaa.....

[col lamb]

Tim

If I were you I'd hold off on the 1000D

Save up some more and get the 550D, it is a much better piece of kit.

The 550D has a better onboard processor which is the same as that fitted to the 7D but the 7D has two of them.

The 18-55 IS lens is the stock cheapo and should be avoided.

You get what you pay for in a lens and with Canon you should get one with an IS tag and if you can afford it one also with the L tag which indicates professional grade.

Both EF and EF-S lenses will fit the 1000, 550 and 7 D models but the EF will have a 1.6 multiplier applied (100 EF = 160 on a 1000D)

[TimEaston]

Hi Col

Thanks for you advice I had a look at the Cannon 500D it is slightly cheaper than the 550D.

The Cannon 7D is £1200 plus lens which is a bit out of my price range.

[col lamb]

There is a reason why the 500D is cheaper.......the HD video capabilities are geared for the USA not for the UK, also the 500D is 15M and the 550D is 18M.

The 550D is worth the extra.

[tom hardwick]

And the 600D is worth the extra yet again, I'd say. The articulated rear screen will be coming to all DSLRs near you pretty soon. As will iPhone picture zooming, turning and wiping.

tom.

[col lamb]

To give you guys an update on the video capabilities of the Canon DSLR's

Firstly I love using it, whilst the artifacts can be present if you are careful in filming then they are acceptable.

The hype about depth of field is another matter and the shallow DoF can be an absolute pain. I did a test in my garden with my L grade f2.8 lens on max zoom and set at f2.8 in manual mode an adjustment of only two millimeters rotation on the focus went from in focus to completely fuzzy and useless.

Why the test? Because the previous weekend I had used it to record a wedding, luckily it was providing a general backup view from the back of the room I started recording and then went to my Panny 151 which was at the front on the B&G. The results from the 7D were unusable, the B&G were in focus to start then they took a pace backwards and were completly out of focus. So for me shooting in an environment that you do not have total control and you pay the penalty if you are using a DSLR without constantly monitoring it or have settings which do not have a shallow DoF.

Using it within the wedding was also a test of just how easy it was to use in a dymanic shooting environment and guess what it came third behind the 151 and another camcorder which was being used for cutaway shots of guests during the ceremony

You live and learn