First Test Video, Canon 7D

Well as promised (threatened) here is my first attempt at shooting video with my 7D. As you can see it is far from perfect and would have benefited greatly from a little planning before hand like a script or even just a shot list but … I didn’t know how long Chris and James would put up with me sticking my camera in their faces while they tried to cook.

You will quickly see that shooting hand held is not as bad as it could be but my initial attempts at shooting hand held are not as good as they should be!! Another problem I had was accurate focussing while shooting. I don’t have a focus puller device or even rails to hold it so I am now trying a piece of white electrical tape on the focus ring and marking relevant distances off on that.

It’s just a bit of fun so enjoy.

It is available in HD (1280×720) on You Tube.

I may have to change the background music, I borrowed this piece from Microsoft which was fine to show friends but now I have published it on You Tube they may object. I am already in dispute with You Tube over another piece I uploaded some time ago where someone claims to own the copyright of the music I used and that was all Royalty Free, from an excellent DVD by Andrew Kramer at Video Copilot called Pro Scores. The frustrating thing with You Tube is that although you  can lodge a dispute you have no way to add any information to backup your dispute and no way to contact them. I tried sending several emails, most were rejected by their hyper efficient spam filter and when I did get one through the response was “…your message will not be reviewed”, it would appear you can only contact them to complain about someone infringing your copyright.

Anyone who has been to see the Video Copilot site will immediately notice a slight influence in my opening title.

Mike

7D

Hi All

I am working on  some thoughts on HDR and a series on using Digital SLRs to shoot video – I got a Canon 7D shortly before Christmas and want to share the tips I have found to shoot better video.

Here are some initial thought on the 7D.

The 7D is a superb camera very responsive with a professional feel. Not as solid at the 1D tanks but much better than the xxD series and I managed to get it for about the same price as my venerable 20D. It’s very good in low light slightly more noisy than the 5DII but, to me, it is a little more pleasant and acceptable except a very high ISO (above ISI6400). It is better built than the 5DII and very usable to shoot sport in any weather.

Here is a shot from a family portrait session recently with Nicola and her beautiful, photogenic and very well behaved baby. This was taken between group shots and I just managed to catch the moment before it had gone.

I shot this at f/11 which is well into the diffraction limited zone for this sensor, it won’t be quite as crisp as it could be but for most normal uses no-one would ever know. If you want the sharpest possible image you need a damn good lens and to keep the aperture at f/8 or below

I shall put up a short video I did over Christmas in the next few days. I’m sorry but it will be the ubiquitous test video we all must get out of our system before we can move on to produce our masterpiece (Ha – I wish).

Congratulations to The Impact Group who won the January PSA EID Group D competition.

Mike