
Canon 7D movie - Another night in Beijing
2 months ago
So here is my first attempt at filming with a production Canon Eos7D just one hour after receiving it from my local camera store. Starting at 10pm I spent about 2 hours in total filming this an the Nanluoguxiang Hutong in Beijing which is popular with locals and tourists alike. Due to the lack of light its shot mostly at around 1600 to 6400 ISO.
Lenses were the Canon 50mm f1.2L, 35mm f1.4L and the 70-200mm f4L IS. I attached my Zacuto Z-finder straight to the camera, then added a prototype of the new Genus d-slr bars supporting their wide angle mattebox to prevent any excess lens flare. I shot mostly handheld using a small Redrockmicro shoulder rig at times as well as on my fantastic Miller DS-20 tripod. Audio was from a Zoom H4n feeding the camera audio directly using a custom cable from Pinknoise systems (living with AGC to speed time in the edit).
For more detail go to dslrnewsshooter.com
Lenses were the Canon 50mm f1.2L, 35mm f1.4L and the 70-200mm f4L IS. I attached my Zacuto Z-finder straight to the camera, then added a prototype of the new Genus d-slr bars supporting their wide angle mattebox to prevent any excess lens flare. I shot mostly handheld using a small Redrockmicro shoulder rig at times as well as on my fantastic Miller DS-20 tripod. Audio was from a Zoom H4n feeding the camera audio directly using a custom cable from Pinknoise systems (living with AGC to speed time in the edit).
For more detail go to dslrnewsshooter.com
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Love and Aloha, iaKP-
Good to see some more nice lowlight/night shots too.
I aim to be using mine a lot in these types of situations.
How did you find it working at such high ISO?
That is by far the best 7D sample I have seen to date.
It would be great to see some harsh daylight images though. Daylight is where this camera worries me.....
Great stuff and thank you.
G
And I would third that question regarding the H4n specialty cable. Please let us know.
Any thoughts on 7D vs 5D2 when it comes to aliasing and moire pattern artifacts? Do you have a zone plate you can shoot to compare to the 5D2?
I wonder if 7D will hold up in the daylight....
From what I have seen so far, 5Dmkii seems to
manage clipping highlights much better.
Dan can you do a daylight comparison
if 7D can match 5Dmkii for dynamic range?
I love the vibe of your vid
Thanks for sharing
I also noticed how the H4 sound and D7 combination seems to work nicely...
Thanks for the sample... I am looking into moving from my HV30 plus Letus Mini Setup to the D7 plus H4 combination setup (...plugged into the D7? I wasn't aware the D7 was able to record or sync sound)....
At any rate, haven't decided if this is the time to switch to the D7 or wait for then next generation D7 type EOS camera.
My main concern about the D7 is using it where there are significant panning scene and the result "jello effect" I have seen in some clips where the camera is less stable and the subjects are moving at a faster rate than in your sample clip.
Who needs those pesty, omniperesent jellos, skews, wobbles, bent verticals, flash banding, etc? I sure don't. CMOS is a great sensor for STILL photography. Just not for video shoots, unless you do still life and bloomning flowers constantly. :-))
Shoot anything with a CMOS DSLR or videocam, and then project it to a larger screen, say 12-ft wide or larger. Especially if you had shot at 24p at normal shutter speeds. You will be almost guranteed to get a giant headache, assuming there are normal to fast movements in your moving images.
All you need to do is pick a CMOS camera (rolling shutter) and a comparable CCD camera (global shutter), put them on the same rig or side-by-side and shoot the same demanding motion sequences with both. Make sure to shoot close-up hand-to-hand combat, martial arts fighting, boxing, street fighting. Then a fast moving bike, running person, or vehicle or boat, followed in a pan with various lens focal distances. Insert cars shots as well, if you can.
Then all you need to do is project onto a larger screen the results. Global shutter beats rolling shutter every time.
Note also that so far, most of the CMOS test footage has been serendipity, slow and dreamlike. Try to make a "Bourne Identity" or "Crank" or "Transporter" type of action movie with any CMOS camera, DSLR or otherwise. You audience watching on the big screen will have their eyeballs pulled out!
CMOS cameras are not in the professional category so far. This includes the Red One and SI-2K as well. We'll see what Arri will be able to do with their new Blue line-up next year. There is othing with the CMOS sensor. There is everything wrong with the fact that every single pixel gets exposed at minutely different times, left to right, top to bopttom, frame after frame.
If you already know full well up front that the camera will give you motion artifacts, why bother to use it in the first place? "Fixing it in post?" Now, that is talking like a true cinematographer would, right?
I could see spending maybe upwards of $5,000 for a CMOS+roling shutter camera, but not more than that. Anything past that much money would have to be a rolling shutter type 3CCD camera.
They are already shooting 30-40 million dollar movies with the Panasonic HPX3700 Varicam, the one with the sCCD sensor. Frankly, if I were able to make a movie in that budget range, I would not be allocating it to a CMOS sensor camera. We know it is much cheaper and simpler to make than CCD sensor, better in low light, and need less power to run. But the built-in disadvantages are just too severe to ignore.
There is not much you can do while shooting to correct rolling shutter. That is why they call it "rolling shutter."
Btw, nice work.
dslrnewsshooter.com/2009/09/26/pinknoise-systems-5dmkii-and-7d-audio-cable/ has answers about the audio cable.
Why ask them to come up with something, therefore, when you have plenty of prime choices out there for digital moving pictures made by companies with a video track record, such as Canon, Panasonic, Sony, JVC, et al?
Nikon as a company just does not have the decades-long track record and reputation of a video camera maker when it comes to recording moving images like video. As do for example Canon, Panasonic, Sony, JVC, Arri, etc, etc.
I am not sure why you are all ganging up on Nikon, anyhow. I don't hear many wonderful stories about HD-SLRs being made by Sony, for example. I would believe that it is up to the officers of a company or some other big shots what they are going to be making for products and what they will not. I guess Nikon is comfy with being a maker of mostly still photography gear, no?
BTW: nice Cam... im gona sell my CANOn hv30.
look forward to seeing some daytime shoots, and maybe a 5d / 7d comparison shoot sometime :)
Me encanta todo...!
Enhorabuena... yo quiero una de esas!!
can I know what music is in the video?? please
or what tipe of music is it
again, very well done!
(she spoke in Portuguese!)
"Another night in Xicheng District" might be more accurate.
嘿嘿
7D
raised eyebrows at 1:19 and 1:24 hilarious! ;-)
"I used to charge for this!" !!!! heh heh
love the red streets
happy filming!