ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT

SO, let’s start with the essential equipment.

There are detailed guides on all the sections covered here if you search the pages dropdown menu but it all gets a bit wordy and boring so this is an overview of the kinds of stuff you’ll be confronted with.

Canon 7D.  Or 5D. Or 1D. Or GH1. Or Nikon D500. Or… in a year’s time all DSLRs will shoot video. So jump on board.

I don’t know much about the Panasonic or Nikon offerings but you can bet your sweet ass that Sony is looking at all this with a great amusement and preparing to drop an almighty bomb of a camera on our heads so we’ll be spoilt for choice very soon. My prediction is that a Sony crossover will be unbeatable ergonomically, but the Canons and Nikons will slug it out for image quality if only for their significant headstart in lenses. My experience has been exclusively in the Canon world, but a lot of the lessons learned can be applied to all these cameras. It might well be that Sony will simply continue to be the leader in video and not give a monkeys about the infinitesimally small crossover stills/video market, but given that there are approximately ten times the number of stills photographers compared to videographers that might be a little dumb.

So… with the 7D You’ll often get offered a choice of a couple of stock lenses, a 15-55 and an 18-135. They’re APS-C lenses and by all accounts pretty rubbish. I got the 18-135 because I’m a video guy and I wanted as much play on a single lens as I could get cheaply. Doing it over I’d probably get the body only and go for a better quality zoom but hey…)

Best price I found got me the camera and lens for just under £1,200 inc VAT and the Kit 18-135mm (hmmm). I reckon I got a bargain but you can probably find a few quid less if you’re really hungry.

The camera is set up as a stills camera and as such it’s not particularly optimised for video. However, there are very handy picture profile settings and some customisable features that you can enable that will get you much closer to the kind of control you’ll want.

Lenses

Once you start on this journey you will very quickly develop a hideous lens addiction. Once you’ve been bewitched by the shallow depth of field, the honey-like image quality you’ll be on a quest for the best combination of lens and material, the best fit for the shooting you’re doing, with exotic 1.2′s or mind-blowing telephotos winking at you from the bearpit of eBay. The good news is there are probably ten times as many stills photographers out there as there are videographers which means more kit, which means more secondhand bargains. Vintage glass works too and there’s always going to be some new way to bring a different dimension to your filmmaking through your choice of lens. That infinite flexibility is the real charm of this kind of work.

My experience so far has shown me that a lens that works brilliantly in stills situations doesn’t work anywhere near as well in video situations. My gut instinct was to go for a multi-purpose high quality zoom lens to emulate the way I’ve shot on an EX1 but what I’ve found that the best results have been with a ‘fast’ lightweight prime, particularly for handheld work. I’m afraid trial and error is the only way, but maybe you can learn from wretchedly amateurish fumblings.

Support

First and foremost get a good tripod. Stills cameras are not ergonomically designed for shooting video. Video cameras have super smart image stabilising technology to eliminate all that handheld shakiness. Some stills lenses do, Canon’s IS technology is fantastic and it makes a huge difference but not all their best lenses have it so you’re kind of on your own there. There’s no shortage of clever solutions to supporting the camera with an over the shoulder, or gunstock rig to help you keep it steady. Some are hideously overpriced (Zacuto take a bow) and some are just expensive (Redrock take a bow), but I’m afraid you’re going to need something, that’s the painful truth. Check Vimeo for examples of videos that have been shot with the tell-tale handheld epilepsy cam. It’s rancid and vomitworthy and amateurish and the people who post their videos are clearly blind. Don’t do it guys, come on. There’s all sort of bits and pieces you can acquire that build up on rods or what not. It all adds up and it all has a purpose but you just have to be sensible with your wallet.

Focus

Mmmm, lovely lovely shallow depth of field. Oh shit, it’s out of focus. Forget the autofocus when shooting video, you’re on your own. I know some insanely talented focus pullers and it’s a job for those with balls of steel. You’ll notice on most 7D videos that the focus buzzes in and out a lot. That’s actually not too bad too be honest, but it just shows you how tricky it can be. That job’s made more tricky because you can only use the screen in Live Mode when shooting on the 7D and 5D. It’s a decent screen but there’s no peaking and no zebras (magic lantern firmware update fixed this on the 5D) so you really do have to have your wits about you. There’s some solutions available, but as always these come at a price.

Picture Profile

Shooting stills the cameras are set up to deliver high contrast, saturated images, with the sharpness pretty high. Unfortunately this just doesn’t work for video. You’ll want all the latitude you can get for maximum flexibility when you grade. There are plenty of picture profiles you can download but if you can’t be bothered, then just start with the Standard setting, turn the Contrast down all the way, turn the Sharpness down all the way, and knock the Saturation down two notches. And off you go.

Audio

Yes the audio’s shit. Yes you need an alternative solution. No, don’t bother, honestly.

Post Production

The camera shoots H.264 which is a rancid codec for video, great for mastering to the web, but for acquisition, not so good. But until they come up with a RED like Raw solution we’re stuck with it. You’ll need software to convert it for editing, you’ll need software to actually do the editing and you’ll really want software to sync up your separately recorded audio. You’ll probably want some noise reduction software to clean up your high ISO shots and of course you’ll want software to grade the bastard once you’ve shot it. I’ve done a lot of research into this and the mind boggles. H264 is hideous and it’s like buying Leo Messi then chopping both his legs off. Daft. The world of DSRL filmmaking is evolving all the time and we now have the EOS1 plugin for importing direct to Final Cut Pro, but if we can start to see an uncompressed HDMI capture process then there will be even more developments. Stay tuned. Pluraleyes, Neat Video, all names you need to know if you want to get the best out of the camera.