HD video camera?

[MarcusGHedwig]

You watched it in HD I assume? And I think what you're perceiving as interlaced and liney (while he's panning, I assume, seems impossible to see on a still image by definition) is actually the image stabilization, cuz he recorded it at 30p - agreed it's not perfect, but hardly a deal-breaker for my needs when it does such a good job with color accuracy (for the price), even in low-light; color and contrast I thought were quite solid, definitely far from crap IMO

And the HV20 vids are indeed impressive, but I want a warranty and decent performance without a big ol 35 mm lens hanging off the end (again, this is as much for impromptu hand held stuff as it is for pre arranged shots on a tripod)

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Congrats on the 650 though, I bet the quality will be incredible!

 

[drew_drummer]

Certainly hope so!! I'm gonna take Jordi's lead and get some M42 lenses and an adapter. Seen some really decent stuff with that combo.

 

[Sloan]

I just pulled the trigger on a GH1. It's so hard for me to save money and spending it all in one click has brought me to the verge of puking, but I've wanted a camera good for video since i was in like jr. high (i dreamed of one day owning an xl1. lol). Looking for an affordable general purpose lens and i'll try to remember to post some useful shit here.

I plan to use it mostly for documenting live shows, so low light and fast action.

 

[C-Martin]

I haven't been a part of this thread because i don't know much about digital cameras, so i couldn't really give any useful input, but i have been reading since it started because i have been researching to purchase a camera to shoot some videos. I thought i'd share my impression of the T3i that i just purchased.

I almost went with a camcorder, the Canon HF S10, after seeing some really impressive footage taken with it, but after a lot of research i decided to give the Canon T3i a try at a local store and after playing around with it a bit i decided to purchase it. Payed 550$ with the kit lense, a camera bag, an extra battery and 16GB SDHC card. I could've gone with the T4i but it was slightly more expensive and i read many times that the image quality on it is just slightly lower than it's predecessor on pictures. The t2i seemed identical to the T3i for even less money, but the t3i has the swivel screen which i find almost necessary if your going to be shooting a lot of video at high or low angles, or if you want to film yourself without any help.

After trying it out briefly yesterday, i am extremely pleased with my purchase. This is an amazing camera and it does not disappoint with either photo or video. I've used analog SLR before so i already knew how to work with it but my wife, who barely knows anything about photography, was easily able to get decent shots after a bit of practice. This is possibly one of the best cameras you can get in this price range if you want to shoot both pictures and video. The only drawback is that it's auto-focus isn't too great, it's noisy and seems pretty slow, but in most cases manual focus is the way to go, and with a bit of practice you can get pretty quick with it. I find focusing manually produces much more professional looking shots, especially in video, since you get to dictate what the audience will focus on and lock on to it to get a more detailed image rather than having auto-focus constantly adjust the focus. For photos, it also seems to be a bit slower than other cameras i've tried like the Nikon 5200, so taking sports shots or moving targets like pets or kids might be a bit trickier, but for the price it performs way beyond what i was expecting a camera of this price point to do. This is a great camera to enter the world of dSLR with!

 

[Sloan]

An interesting thing I've observed about the Panasonic GH series and other micro 4/3 cameras is that there are adapters for almost every kind of lens. I just bought 5 lenses, teleconverter, two old ricoh SLR bodies, and two cheesy hot shoe flashes for $40 off a dude via craigslist. They are all Pentax K (PK) and I found an adapter for about $10. Obviously these are totally manual with no auto features, but now when the camera gets here I'll have something to shoot through. Will try to post results...

 

[kev]

I bought a D3100 back in Christmas 2011. If that's anything to go by I'm sure the D3200 is awesome

 

[nakash]

I haven't been a part of this thread because i don't know much about digital cameras, so i couldn't really give any useful input, but i have been reading since it started because i have been researching to purchase a camera to shoot some videos. I thought i'd share my impression of the T3i that i just purchased.

I almost went with a camcorder, the Canon HF S10, after seeing some really impressive footage taken with it, but after a lot of research i decided to give the Canon T3i a try at a local store and after playing around with it a bit i decided to purchase it. Payed 550$ with the kit lense, a camera bag, an extra battery and 16GB SDHC card. I could've gone with the T4i but it was slightly more expensive and i read many times that the image quality on it is just slightly lower than it's predecessor on pictures. The t2i seemed identical to the T3i for even less money, but the t3i has the swivel screen which i find almost necessary if your going to be shooting a lot of video at high or low angles, or if you want to film yourself without any help.

After trying it out briefly yesterday, i am extremely pleased with my purchase. This is an amazing camera and it does not disappoint with either photo or video. I've used analog SLR before so i already knew how to work with it but my wife, who barely knows anything about photography, was easily able to get decent shots after a bit of practice. This is possibly one of the best cameras you can get in this price range if you want to shoot both pictures and video. The only drawback is that it's auto-focus isn't too great, it's noisy and seems pretty slow, but in most cases manual focus is the way to go, and with a bit of practice you can get pretty quick with it. I find focusing manually produces much more professional looking shots, especially in video, since you get to dictate what the audience will focus on and lock on to it to get a more detailed image rather than having auto-focus constantly adjust the focus. For photos, it also seems to be a bit slower than other cameras i've tried like the Nikon 5200, so taking sports shots or moving targets like pets or kids might be a bit trickier, but for the price it performs way beyond what i was expecting a camera of this price point to do. This is a great camera to enter the world of dSLR with!

Very true, I bought one myself for christmas... Pretty amazing dslr for the price.

Try to get an m42 adapter and some good manual lenses, video will be much better. Last weekend I bought a Super-Takumar 50mm f1.4 for 65€ and a mamiya/sekor 55mm f1.8 for 20€. Much better than the standard canon 50mm 1.8, and build quality is awesome.

 

[TLTD]

Be careful with DSLR overheating, and some of the limitations. I went with a similar Canon camcorder so I could record weddings and get the whole thing start to finish. For the $500 range, those are great. The newer one (Canon Vixia HF G10 I think) has a more DSLR lens so you can actually get depth of field, follow focus, good low light...but that's about $800 at the lowest. I'm definitely upgrading to that, as mine uses tapes and is nothing close to film look (Canon HV40), although I've been using conversion lenses and making money with it...I always take a Nikon DSLR with me for the receptions and artsy shots and my wife uses it for photos.

That G10 sure looks like it'd be great for everything, I was so close to getting it but didn't get paid for a wedding argh.

Another thought...if you want to walk around and do videos of events, your kids, whatever...DSLR is NOT the way to go. Although, I've gotten better at doing that...it's a bitch to get good shots without a tripod or a Konova slider or something.

*I see you sort of got BOTH now. Awesome. I have been thinking about adding more cameras, I might get the same DSLR so I cahave more angles. You REALLY need about 4 cameras to do a good live capture of something. I have some really crappy third and fourth cameras for switching angles but it's so much better to have that coverage.

 

[TLTD]

I bought a D3100 back in Christmas 2011. If that's anything to go by I'm sure the D3200 is awesome

I'm looking at getting the 3200...we use a D90 and it's tricky but we make it work for a lot of videos. Looks like now you have everything I wish the D90 had for video. The look you get with Nikon...guys that have Canons always say my shots look like movies. I agree. I never have to color correct with Nikon. It's excellent with colors. It's been used on a few music videos and things too because of that. Too bad they didn't set up the D90 so it would lock the exposure though..I have to hold the A/E lock (but I do like that the auto exposure is always perfectly set when it does set itself but holding that button sucks/unless you have lenses with exposure rings).

Awesome thread.

 

[Potshot]

I've got a hacked Panasonic GH1 with 3 Canon FD lenses and two extra batteries I'll sell you for a good price. Video it captures looks absolutely stunning, and the still image quality is awesome too, but I'm upgrading to a Nikon D600.

I wouldn't do that if I were you haha, I went to a D600 after selling my hacked GH2 and Olympus OM-D, had the voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95 and that on the GH2 was ridiculously awesome.

The D600 however is a steaming, fucking turd. I've had the sensor cleaned 3 times now since purchasing it late December due to the oil and dust spots, which despite what any Nikon fanboy on forums will tell you, are a persistent and annoying problem. Actual operation in video mode is atrocious, the only way to get exposure information is to map a function button to photo info during live view, but you'll then have to exit live view and adjust the aperture and such to the values you see with that info screen on as you can't adjust the aperture in live view. Also the "uncompressed" HDMI out is useless as it has 5% black bars around the border.

Considering I spent about the same on this camera with a 50 1.4 as I did on the GH2 with the 17.5 0.95, I rue the day I made this decision. Currently in a shitfight with Nikon over the false advertising of the HDMI out which was my primary reason for buying it.

Pony up the extra for a D800 or go Canon would be my advice, take it or leave it at your own discretion

 

[Ashgarth]

Does anyone here still use film cameras?

In april I'll go to a festival in the sahara desert, and I don't want to bring my 600d, as I don't want to spend 4 days in the desert not being able to charge the battery or having not enough memory for more pics and bullshit like that.

But I thought on taking my dad old Canon AT-1, and the 28mm.

The thing is...which film would you recommend or chosse?

I want a color film...and I'm thinking on ISO200, as I'll spend some days in Marrakech and then go to the festival in the middle of the Sahara desert, so I don't think there'll be low light problems hahaha.

I was thinking on the Fujifilm fujicolor superia 200, as I can get a 3 pack for 12€.

 

[MatrixClaw]

I wouldn't do that if I were you haha, I went to a D600 after selling my hacked GH2 and Olympus OM-D, had the voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95 and that on the GH2 was ridiculously awesome.

The D600 however is a steaming, fucking turd. I've had the sensor cleaned 3 times now since purchasing it late December due to the oil and dust spots, which despite what any Nikon fanboy on forums will tell you, are a persistent and annoying problem. Actual operation in video mode is atrocious, the only way to get exposure information is to map a function button to photo info during live view, but you'll then have to exit live view and adjust the aperture and such to the values you see with that info screen on as you can't adjust the aperture in live view. Also the "uncompressed" HDMI out is useless as it has 5% black bars around the border.

Considering I spent about the same on this camera with a 50 1.4 as I did on the GH2 with the 17.5 0.95, I rue the day I made this decision. Currently in a shitfight with Nikon over the false advertising of the HDMI out which was my primary reason for buying it.

Pony up the extra for a D800 or go Canon would be my advice, take it or leave it at your own discretion

I really don't need the video TBH, I don't do much video work as it is, but the sensor issue is definitely a concern I've had. I think I might just go with a Canon 5D Mark II and get a Nikon D7000, too. I prefer the Nikon for my workflow, but I really like the 5D Mark II as well, as that's what I use at work when I need to use our studio. If Canon would just put another wheel on the front of the camera, in front of the shutter release button, I'd be all for it, but apparently that extra wheel makes all the difference for me

 

[Potshot]

Yeah I've always preferred the Nikon setup, most disappointed with this camera as on paper it appears perfect. Here's an example for you, I've had over 8000 shutter actuations now and the sensor was cleaned last week, obviously this is processed to exacerbate the issue a bit, but you get the gist. Terrible.

 

[Sloan]

Finally got the GH1 yesterday. Spent five minutes making these clips, but stayed up till 4:30am trying to get goddamn Lightworks latest free beta to render correctly. I never really worked out. Video editing has always fucking sucked.


This was not shot at 24p, just default camera stuff here.

Panasonic Lumix GH1 ($350)
Fotga PK-M4/3 Adapter ($10)
Ricoh XR Rikenon 50mm 1:2 Lens (About $5)

Lens is very dirty.

 

[GuitarHack]

Great info in this thread!

@sloan holyshit at 15seconds.

@drew Opinions on the 650D? What Lens(es) did you get. I can't decide between the 60D with 18-135 or the 650D with the 18-135STM. After MANY hours of video reviews (I am addicted to digitalrevtv on youtube ) the autofocus in video mode isn't near where it needs to be for me to happily let it make focussing decisions so that isn't an advantage for me (on paper it was, in practice, nope). Manual focus in Video is fine anyway for more control.

60D +'s

Faster Burst mode (and prolonged, not just for 1 second before the buffer fills up like on the 650d)

Battery Life is 2x 650D

Prism viewfinder (brighter than mirror on 650D)

Top dial and back dial/wheel to assign for ISO, F, etc...


650 +'s

Newer Digic 5 processor

Higher ISO (although not convinced it produces great results, but you can set it higher)

DAMN TOUCHSCREEN for all Menus and settings!!

Touch the screen to set the Focus area of the shot (damn brilliant watch a video review)

Same Image quality as 60D in a cheaper camera

Lighter

Any opinions?

Thanks

 

[drew_drummer]

I'm really digging the 650D right now. Haven't done too much video yet, as I'm assembling my kit. I have the stock 18mm-55mm kit lens, and a Yashica Yashinon 1.7 50mm lens. I'm working solely in manual mode. I did this shot last night:

The touchscreen is genuinely amazing to use. I don't even bother with the ISO button to be honest, as it's all right there on the screen. I've setup my colour profiles using the VisionColor profiles, so I can get a more flat image directly from the camera, which makes it easier to colour correct later on during the edit stage.

So it's slow going right now. But I'm having fun at any rate!

 

[Charlie E.]

@sloan holyshit at 15seconds.

 

[GuitarHack]

I'm really digging the 650D right now. Haven't done too much video yet, as I'm assembling my kit. I have the stock 18mm-55mm kit lens, and a Yashica Yashinon 1.7 50mm lens. I'm working solely in manual mode. I did this shot last night:

......

The touchscreen is genuinely amazing to use. I don't even bother with the ISO button to be honest, as it's all right there on the screen. I've setup my colour profiles using the VisionColor profiles, so I can get a more flat image directly from the camera, which makes it easier to colour correct later on during the edit stage.

So it's slow going right now. But I'm having fun at any rate!

Thanks for the reply Drew. Shot looks pretty Cool! Was that the 50mm? What was the shutter speed? I looked up the VisionColor profiles, good tip there.

Thanks again.

 

[drew_drummer]

Yeah man it was the 50mm M42 lens set to f16. Shutter spead was about 160 I believe, and ISO was 100. 15 second exposure iirc.