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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Philip Bloom and the Canon 7D by night: Wow !

I downloaded the 1080p and have it on my PC. It looks quite good. I have not deeply pixel peeped it, but it looks pretty good. The 1080p is obviously unaltered by Vimeo. Maybe Vimeo is having trouble with server capacity. The 1080p was very slow for me, which is unusual at Vimeo.
 
Yeah, that was pretty awesome looking.
 
The video shows that the 7D is better than the 5D, but that's about all. If I have to make a video that will only play on the internet then I might consider it, but H264 is a rubbish codec for acquisition, so that pretty much makes it a no go for me.
 
Tom said:
How do people make docs with 35mm or 16mm film? How long to those mags last?
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He did say "most".

There are many reasons to not to choose this camera for a documentary shoot, but that's not to say it can't be done. I once shot a forty-minute documentary using a lens adapter and just one prime lens, it worked great for what I wanted to achieve.

As long as people know and accept the limitations of kit like the 7D and plan accordingly, then there's no reason why you can't shoot anything on it; that's not to say I would though:)
 
As someone who works on docs, I can say that the 12 minute recording limit wouldn't stop my from buying this camera....at all. There might be other issues, but that certainly is not one of them. Even for interviews, 12 minutes is enough time between points.

The form factor/size is so ridiculously advantageous for filming wherever one wants + the low light sensitivity make this camera verrry alluring for docwork.
 
LOL Use 2 cameras, they're cheap after all!
 
Jim Klatt said:
As someone who works on docs, I can say that the 12 minute recording limit wouldn't stop my from buying this camera....at all. There might be other issues, but that certainly is not one of them. Even for interviews, 12 minutes is enough time between points.
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Liam Hall said:
Depends who you are interviewing. Last year I interviewed a tsunami survivor in Banda Aceh who, in answer to a simple warm-up question, talked continually for 29 minutes and the second question got a 16 minute answer.
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But how much of that did you use? Most interviewees can handle a pause every 12 minutes but even if you didn't want to stop their flow AFAIK you just hit stop and then start again for another 12 minutes so it isn't like having to change a tape or film mag that would be obvious to the subject. Seems like in a 29 minute response you ought to be able to anticipate a couple cut points where they are just rambling anyway and it won't be missed.

edit addition:

Emanuel A. said:
LOL Use 2 cameras, they're cheap after all!
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Exactly! You can buy a t1i for $700 and set it up as a static cutaway cam if it is really that critical - and it is a nice backup body anyway.
 
An awful lot of documentaries were made on film back in the day, and 11 minutes a roll worked out just fine since there were no alternatives.

I must say that the Dublin piece reminded me why it is that it is difficult to get a good night's sleep in a hotel in Dublin...
 
One thing I learned from that vid: if you go out filming at night, around bars where large amounts of beer have been consumed, you will find lots of willing and interesting "actors" for your video!
 
Michael Hastings said:
Seems like in a 29 minute response you ought to be able to anticipate a couple cut points where they are just rambling anyway and it won't be missed.
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It was the first time the man had spoken about the tsunami in four years and I didn't think it was appropriate to interrupt him whilst he was telling me how his wife was pulled from his grasp and swept away by the wave or how he held his child by gripping his t-shirt with his teeth or how he came to realise that over 40,000 people had been killed in his town! On the same job, I interviewed a man in South Lebanon and the tape change in that interview happened at the exact moment he broke down - he never reached the same emotional level after the tape change. But yes, if you're interviewing the head of marketing at a bean factory or the grooms mum, then 12 minutes is fine:)

The point is just because 12 minutes is long enough some of the time doesn't mean it is long enough all of the time.

And yes, I have interviewed the head of marketing in a bean factory, but no I haven't interviewed a groom's mum:D
 
Rob Gardner said:
An awful lot of documentaries were made on film back in the day, and 11 minutes a roll worked out just fine since there were no alternatives.
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I've shot documentaries on film, sometimes we kept rolling sound during a mag change and did an end board. Quite simple, but not ideal.
 
Liam Hall said:
I've shot documentaries on film, sometimes we kept rolling sound during a mag change and did an end board. Quite simple, but not ideal.
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Which is what most everyone who rolls dual system sound when shooting with VDSLRs does now too.
 
Matt Gottshalk said:
Which is what most everyone who rolls dual system sound when shooting with VDSLRs does now too.
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I'm sure they do. That doesn't make the best choice though, it just makes it a work around.

Having an operator fiddling with a camera mid-interview is a distraction, so if you can avoid that situation, then avoid it.
 
Or you could have two cameras side by each and flick a switch. They are like $1800 bucks. Hell, if you were shooting docs with them, you could buy half a dozen of 'em

Chris
 
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