What camera is best for me... Canon 5D mkii or the 7D

[dnavarrojr]

Another great advantage of shooting video with a DSLR is stealth... When I showed up somewhere with my Canon XH-A1, it would draw a crowd and sometimes it made shooting things inconspicuously a major problem. But when people see me with my T2i, they mostly ignore me.

Also, if you saw the movie "Up in the Air" with George Clooney the Wedding sequence is amazing. You see footage of the wedding from all different angles that all syncs up in the timeline. They were able to do that by sticking 25 camera operators in the wedding crowd with 5DM2's in tuxes and wedding dresses and unless you specifically look for them, they blend right in. So you don't notice all those camera people shooting video... stealth! Plus, if you saw it in the theater, you know that footage from most DSLRs upscales to 2k for movie theaters VERY well.

I shot a short film for the 48 Hour Film Festival last summer on my T2i and it was amazing looking on the big screen.

 

[Village Idiot]

I don't understand everyone's obsession

Maybe I am wrong, I don't have a lot of knowledge of video

Maybe I am way off base here and I am underestimating the abilities of the newer technology.

I also only included the important stuff, I wasn't trying to say that everyone was wrong, I just didn't know enough about it. DSLR's may well be quite capable, more than I imagined. I haven't used one for video, nor do I have the skill to get a decent video probably anyway. But people do still buy the $5,000, $10,000, and $40,000 cameras so there has to be a reason. Does say a 5dmkII with the necessary accessories compare well with a dedicated video camera in that price range? I couldn't say. Sorry if I offended someone by knocking the idea, but these were my thoughts and as stated "I didn't know" and just wanted to hear people's position.

What was already stated, the ability to change lenses, the ability to have an extremely shallow DOF, and the ability to shoot in poorly lit conditions because of larger sensors and better high ISO sensitivity. The people that spend more than $5,000 on a video camera are doing so because they have the budget. For less than $5000, you can get a good HDSLR setup with an external recorder, a rig, and several lenses. Cheaper primes work just fine for video. It's not very often you actually see a camera zooming in and out during a shot.

There are downsides, like the possibility of overheating, the jellow effect, and other quirks, but for the price, you can't get the quality out of a dedicated video camera and the options that you can get in an HDSLR with video.

This is a video for Vincent Laforet's Reverie. It was a video he shot for Canon to show off the 5D MKII. Although it had a fairly large budget, a person does not need 20 different lenses and a helicopter to make a good video, just some imagination and the know how to produce it.
Reverie on Vimeo)

 

[dnavarrojr]

I don't understand everyone's obsession

Maybe I am wrong, I don't have a lot of knowledge of video

Maybe I am way off base here and I am underestimating the abilities of the newer technology.

I also only included the important stuff, I wasn't trying to say that everyone was wrong, I just didn't know enough about it. DSLR's may well be quite capable, more than I imagined. I haven't used one for video, nor do I have the skill to get a decent video probably anyway. But people do still buy the $5,000, $10,000, and $40,000 cameras so there has to be a reason. Does say a 5dmkII with the necessary accessories compare well with a dedicated video camera in that price range? I couldn't say. Sorry if I offended someone by knocking the idea, but these were my thoughts and as stated "I didn't know" and just wanted to hear people's position.

The disadvantages to shooting video with a DSLR are still many... Only supports 12 stops of light (compared to a RED ONE that supports 18 stops out of 24), limited to shooting 4GB of footage per clip (typically 12 minutes at 1080p), not ergonomic, harder to handle unless you spend a lot more on special rigs, record in AVCHD or MPG4 which is lossy compression, etc... I'm working as a camera operator on a feature film this summer and the executive producer decided he wants to shoot with the RED ONE specifically because there will be a TON of color grading and special effects, so he wants to shoot in RAW. Even at rental prices, it's over $100,000 with all the Cinema lenses. I think we could still do it on DSLRs, but he's an old school producer and doesn't trust them. That said, we've only got the one RED, so he's agreed to let me shoot additional angles with DSLRs at the very least to compare footage.

 

[Offhand]

Mike, you figure that a Canon 5D is capable of shooting better than most video cameras out of the box. With good lenses and shooting RAW still files are going to be way better quality than 1080 and it has terrific low light because of the sensor size and depth of field. Of course, the 5D can't shoot video at that high RAW level. But dslr's probably blow anything comparable in its price range away. The Canon XLs are twice the price, though DSLRs do have other video issues like overheating, rolling shutter when you pan quickly, etc.

Sorry if I repeated what was said. I didn't see that there was another page of posts.

On the sound front, if you're serious about getting clean sound, invest in a good digital recorder with XLR inputs and decent preamps (most cheap decks have noisy preamps that come across as hiss when you up the levels). XLR are the big 3 prong plugs that lock in. The lower end recorders have 1/4" mini plugs, which are okay for casual use. But they don't provide a secure connection so, if you're on the move, you can get noise from stress and twisting on the contacts. I was never a fan of the Zoom recorders but know a few people that like them. I like the Marantz decks and Tascam makes some affordable ones with decent preamps and XLR inputs. The higher end Sonys produce really nice clean sound but have really clunky, awkward interfaces. It's best to have another guy doing sound handheld ENG style with a mic or with a boom and constantly monitoring levels using headphones and watching the meters. You'll also not want to skimp on good mics. You'll probably need several types, depending on the conditions, including a decent cardioid for hand held (lobe shaped sound pickup that doesn't pick up noise behind), directional and some wireless lapel mics. Check out the Digital Rev videos on YouTube. Pretty simple roving, single camera, single-user DSLR setup with decent sound. They use wireless lapel mics.

 

[DiskoJoe]

i would suggest going to flickr and doing a camera search so you can see images taken by both. But either would be great. The 7d is more of a working camera where the 5d is a little more artsy. so decide which fits your taste more. If you get two 5d's you can do HDR video. which is very awesome but you have to have two cameras to capture the different exposure levels.