bob lorrimer

Check out my 7d GATEWAY Key promo for DOF!

On ROCK BOTTOM (I left my primes at home) I was photographing myself and the zoom and auto focus is helpful.

I was really not able to take advantage of the DOF ability of the 7d in my film. The only way I can besure of a head and shoulder shot is to have the camera at arms length on wide angle so that I could auto focus and set it running! (I must get a cameraman!). The wide angle obviously gives rise to a background sharper than I would prefer. I would normally 'stand off' for a head and shoulder shot say 8 feet.

To be honest I am still feeling my way with the cam..so I look forward to learning from You! You are going to love the 7d.

I have just bought Philip Blooms 7d Tutorial which should give me a few pointers.

All are tools Sean, with pros and cons. The achilles heel of the 7d is sound. Even with an off board stereo MIC the gain, which cannot be controlled, can give rise to unsatisfactory sound.

ROCK BOTTOM used bits and pieces of original sound in the background but narration was recorded direct into my SONY HD CAM via two RODE NTG1s.

A pro would record sound separately .. so it would not be a problem .. but I am not a pro!

Length does not really pose a problem - my 8gb cards hold half hour of 1080 25fps. I only have 4! And I filled three for the above 2 min 40 sec cut! They are currently quite expensive but you can buy larger ones and of course they can be formatted and used indefinitely.

I convert my footage to ProRes 422 for editing in FCP.
Audio also must be conformed to Aiff 48khz for problem free editing.

Fortunately I have a very good friend who has an intimate knowledge of the Apple Mac system and he sends me tutorials and advice. Without his help I could not have advanced at all!

I would not like to use the 7d on a PC. I think it might be one headache of a work flow. Others might be able to offer advice on PC and the 7d.

The large sensor of the 7D and interchangeable lenses, DOF and low light ability make the camera highly desirable to video users.

I expect VIDEO cameras with larger sensors and interchangeable lenses will now come along
but in the mean time....

A video that does the job.

You are right, Robert, the downside of photographing myself is the lack of camera movement, and I had to engineer some slight tracking in post.

You have a lovely fluid style to your work and I have your video on hand as a tutorial!

For those who have not seen Robert's film:

Chekov's Children

vimeo.com/6579282