DSLR video - underwhelmed
Nov 11 2008
A month ago I seemed to be almost alone in expressing a distinct lack of excitement over the video capabilities of the new DSLRs from Canon and Sony. Stu Maschwitz nails it:
The D90 and the 5D MarkII can make compelling moving images. But they are not yet cameras that will support your creative development as a filmmaker, growing with you as your skills develop. Did Vincent Laforet want Reverie to feel like a masterfully-lit soap opera? Did Matthew Bennettt want Subway to feel like the wobbly video from a jailbroken iPhone? We are at times seduced by aspects of these demo reels that are perennially absent in our video viewfinders, but we are not seeing the work of a cinematographer in full control of their craft. We’re seeing accidents—some happy, some not. Images borne of a battle with an uncooperative piece of kit. Mario Andretti doing his best with front-wheel drive and an automatic transmission” prolost
Well worth reading the rest of his blog post.
To get an idea of the type of set-up required to use DSLRs for handheld video work check out this clip from Zacuto:
I think maybe folks admire the Laforet machine complete with the Laforet passion more than the product it produces. From the response on his blog, you’d think that he just released Citizen Kane.
I feel the D90 and the 5D Mark II are another set of paint brushes in our coffee can. That I have not yet tested the cameras on set, I will hold passing judgment on them. It is not the tool that makes the craftsman , but the craftsman’s use of the tool that makes him.
The prospect of shooting HD video with an SLR is interesting and queer. I have seen demo footage from the cameras and they are a nice array of still images, but not cinematic in motion or storytelling. I look forward to shooting tests with the cameras and seeing how holding an SLR and thinking about creating moving images will play on my psyche.
David H Castillo
Director of Photography
Blue Barn Pictures, Inc
For my style having a camera which can’t be used handheld is next to useless.
“…unless you are going to use a tripod or steadicam mount you need to understand that this camera is NOT a video camera”
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0811/the-canon-5d-mark-ii.html
I sat and watched the full size version of this video 3 times and as much as they appreciated the concept of the DSLR, the one point presented which had not been raised until the discussion around shooting in the amazon - the use of tape in a remote location - not having to store digital files on sort sort of computer, etc. To me, that was an important point to raise and the only tape based camera (The Canon) is, IMO, the best camera for shooting with in these kinds of situations.
Using a separate recording medium like the Firestore or similar device on a tape based camera makes more sense - at least to me it does for shooting a variety of projects - especially if targeting content for the web.
The bottom line is that this discussion is really not an important issue for shooting the kinds of work journalists shoot - these guys are traditional film makers - using large crews to handle many aspects where as solo vj’s are needing to handle pretty much all of the production on any project they are working on.
Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | solo video journalist blog
1. Ideally, I’d have lots and lots of flash-cards, and init ‘em all before a shoot, and copy all the shot files to another medium or 2 while keeping the cards for primary-work, but it’ll be awhile before the cards are as cheap as tapes.
I’d never choose tape over flash-storage, ever in my life, though: drop-outs, moisture-problems, electro-mechanical nonsense, etc.
Recording to flash, then offloading from the flash-cards to something like Sanho UDMA storage devices, or stuffing the files into usb-harddrives, and also burning DVD+RWs so there is an external recorded-in-metal ( unlike organic-dye based +R/-R DVDs, which fade/die ), and fedexing the DVDs back to someone at home, so even if ALL my kit is destroyed/lost the data’s safe…
…drastically preferable, to me.
( I find tape finicky, fragile, power-sucking & less reliable, if looking at the data, than flash — yes I know that slightly corrupt tapes are still usable and one has to keep one’s flash scrubbed, pristine & replace ‘em as they get worn, but that’s SOP )
2. people are missing the hugest point with the 5D II:
it shoots 1080P and records in a NON-interlaced *codec* ( unlike AVCHD ).
It’s about $50 000 for a Panasonic camera that does that, with lens, and you don’t get the shallow DoF, no matter how you pine for it.
Red? comparing the price of a Red One with a 5D II?
-lmao-
& *even then* you don’t get the 100mm f/2.0 DoF capability of the Canon.
( until Epic, that is )
3. the *in*ability to shoot 30+ minutes will ruin it for some work ( car-races, in-car, ferinstance, watering-hole hidden-camera left-running, also ), where the Panasonic 170 steals the crown ( what, 3h on a 32GB SDHC? .. geepers )
4. it’s a tool, not an emotion/deity:
if it works better than the alternatives, *for the work at hand*, it’s better;
if it don’t, it don’t.
Cultish
“It is INHERENTLY good|XOR|bad!!”
idiocy does more to show lack of intellectual integrity in the speaker,
than it identifies the nature of the camera’s capability.
-shrug-
I consider it a *useful* potential,
just as I consider digital photography ( oppose to film ) useful,
and 24/96 to be higher-fidelity than vinyl/analogue-tape,
but I’m after clarity & truth,
not after comforting mellowness/”warmth” distortion ( that alcohol also gives, if one wants fuzzyness ).
& yes, I know that some people find information in analogue recording that they claim is vastly greater than what digital records, but try getting HIGH FIDELITY out of that “information”, and you can’t beat the digital:
’scopes will show you, objectively, how the signal coming in from the transducer ( mic/sensor ) is being more-*accurately* captured/replayed by digital than by analogue…
it’s like the idiocy of claiming that the power-cord from one’s wall to one’s sound-system can ruin one’s room-sound if it is of inferior quality, *while ignoring the in-wall wire*, which is cheap 14/3 some construction company got by the spool.
moronity.
Identify *where* quality has to be ( high-information links ),
identify what *kind* of quality is required where,
triage,
put the required quality-kind where it needs to be for the result ( most-important first, 2nd most-important 2nd, etc ),
get out of its way,
enjoy the result.