comparing HD shooting between dslr and film cams

Well apart from the obvious, like that you can take great still shots with your (say Cannon 7D) DSLR, what at the pros and cons of buying a DSLR for movie making compared with a purpose built film movie cam? Starting with the poo: -most DSLRs lack good continuous focussing capability (note: Sony have started tackling this), have recording time limits of 5 minute bursts of continuous shooting (which is hopeless for docco / interview situations, but no problem for most scripted situations), have nasty rolling shutter effects on fast pans (though iMovie 11 is tackling this with good results), and small crops of their images dont blow up as well as film. BUT there are plenty of positives. For example, the vastly lower price of purchase and operation (-having said that, watch out on this one as you'll probably want to pimp your DSLR with follow focus, monitor, etc). Then there's the fact that you can use all the lenses you might already have, which gives you amazing shooting potential and reuseability to save costs....and the quality of image can look fantastic! They are low light experts and some way outshine film cams in this area. When things get really dark you'll still have colourful images instead of those monochrome wash outs you see with infra-red techniques on film, and the colour noise can be very acceptable. DSLRs are also compact, which means they can fit into small shooting spaces and can be less intimidating for your subjects. Then there is the fact that the digital DSLR output brings in the advantage of easy digital workflow and immediate online capabilities. Gotta love 'em.

free online photo editing apps

sound design for Inception

Insiders' word on sound design for Inception.

"Inception" Sound for Film Profile from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Guitar Monster

Here's an informal rock guitar clip I shot featuring Seth Dodd. This clip was shot at Lemongum (Recording) Studio using my Canon 7D. Light was from a single domestic 40 W lamp and a computer monitor, so hardly any (!) and there is plenty of colour noise as a result. Still, on this occasion the fruit salad adds to the grit and slots in pretty well anyway. The 7D was pushed to ISO 6400 at f1.8 and shutter at 1/50.

Seth - Guitar Monster from Simon Ladd on Vimeo.

Proaim Linear Camera Slider Review

Only $200 AUS to buy a 3 foot slider and have it sent to my door, via ebay. Too good to be true?

The price, service and packaging were excellent, but what about the product?

Sadly the Proaim 3' Linear Camera Slider performs like it costs. Despite the good packaging the product arrived bent. Bends can cause different amounts of force to be needed in moving your camera along the rails, as the 4 separate sliding interfaces hit small humps or slumps and grab, particularly if you are using a weightier lens. This can result in jerky motion. The lack of sturdy design means the slider is vulnerable to further bending.

Most annoying for me is the fit of the base plate to rails. The tolerances are big enough to allow a measure of rocking which can cause camera jolt, particularly when you have a heavy lens. If you tighten the 4 grub screws provided you can reduce rock, but then you are stuck with a stiff and non-slidey experience.

This piece of equipment may be fine for hobbyists but pros will get frustrated...(and they will spend more on an alternative product anyway!) Despite this I would not write off other products from Proaim, but will check the reviews first.

Happy Dogs

I started out wanting to do some colour isolation using Photoshop but then changed my mind to see if a similar result could be achieved in the basic Sony Vegas Platinum Pro software in rapid time. What you see here involves no layers, just one video track, with a some tweaking of colour and saturation. There are a few little breakouts for sharp eyed, but generally a good result for a proof of concept.

Happy Dogs on King William Rd from Simon Ladd on Vimeo.

How much time will lapse before you can pronouce Eyjafjallajokull?

More great time lapse from the Canon stable, with motorised dolly.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Andrew Loyd Webber eat your heart out

Autotune is so over used unless of course its by these guys (The Gregory Brothers):

Music video shot with DSLR

According to PB, this Blues Brothers-inspired video was shot by Paul Lawson using the 7D DSLR. Good filmic quality and shot within the limitations of the camera...ie: no rapid pans so no rolling shutter, etc.

Amazing comparison between DSLR and film.

This series of test comparisons of movie capabilities between the new breed of DSLRs and the benchmark of film, is compulsory viewing for anyone seriously considering HD movie making. Here are links to the first 2 in a series of 3 comparisons:

http://www.zacuto.com/shootout

The final comparison takes on colour and green screen. So far these are real eye openers, so I guess its not totally surprising (though I am slightly awestruck) that the finale to the TV series "House" was shot with a 5D Mkii.

Moon Rise Time Lapse Tester

I'm getting the hang of time lapse using my Canon EOS 7D. Check out this is a very brief tester shot for "Tall Stories - Micro Movies", with music by evocative audio (also me). The weird brown night sky is curtesy of a nearby bush fire. The 16 or so seconds is made up of 444 still shots, and the night time section is in 0.5 slow mo.

Moon Rise in the Burbs from Simon Ladd on Vimeo.

Charlie Patton on guitar

Inside Amococo

I used AIR Xpand 2 as a plug in to Pro Tools to create the music for this clip in about 15 minutes, just recording the first thing that came into my head. I'm playing 4 different "instruments"/ patches at once using Xpand 2, with the complexity coming from using its in-built arpegiator. Feel free to ask me how to do it if you want, or AIR User Group blog has a good video tutorial on the subject.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

I was lucky enough to see Hypnotic at the Adelaide Womad yesterday. Man! Catch them if you can. I could rave about these guys for hours, but i'll just let their clip do the talking.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (USA) from WOMADelaide on Vimeo.

Brainpumper live at Dragonfly

This was shot totally opportunistically with no planning (and no freaking glasses), and it shows! ie: not enough apperature for low light, no tripod or pocket dolly etc etc. But even in a long, skinny, hard, sound-fug of a room, this shows what can be achieved with portable sound recorder in your pocket, and using its small mic clipped to your shirt.

Canon EOS 7D shoot.

Loving my Canon EOS 7D. Here's a video shot with that camera. I used the mono camera mic to record sound and just postioned that within a field of better stereo recordings to bring it to life.

music and travel

Classic retro (1960) orchestral interpretations of modes of transport by Bob Thompson. Love some of the foley / sound effects too.

http://www.sundazed.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1160

funky fusion

Who says they don't make em like they used to? Check out the excellent bit of contemporary fusion from local Adelaide muso Pablo Kordov, found on his myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/pablokordov

Nice one mate.

Surreal Animation

Happy New Year. Let's kick off on a surreal note. Here's an entertaining animation by Jean-Philippe Masson with sound design by Matheu Maurice: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/30/surrealistic-cartoon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29&utm_content=Bloglines