Just posted my first proper video from a production 1DmkIV cut in with 7D footage from a Jimmy rigged Ice cycle cam I hastily put together.

Shooting on ice – 1DmkIV and 7D play nice together and get published DSLR News Shooter (http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2010/01/06/shooting-on-ice-1dmkiv-and-7d-play-nice-together-and-get-published/)

Dan

Fun video!

Brings a whole new meaning to the term "steadicam sled". Or maybe that's your steadicam sleigh? :) (BTW, I thought the slight bumpiness of the surface was fine for those shots.)

Another wonderful film from you Dan. Everytime I've been to China it's been very hot so it was great to see it in a different season - I gather it snowed pretty heavily in Beijing for the first time in 60 years. Loved the ending too!

haha! Than was fun Dan!

LOL! A great mode of transport...did you notice the stuck-on homemade sleds made from wooden chairs?
Using the sled as a kind of roving dolly was quite affective and added a lot more interesting footage to the video clip. Well worth watching on a cold snow-bound afternoon in England. :)

Hi Dan

First of all, great short. I really enjoyed watching this one and your other videos on dslrnewsshooter.com. I'm a newbie at video or photography and been reading the posts here on dvinfo for a while. I want to apply for the film academy this summer (continuing law just makes me sick to the stomach) in vienna and want to use the time until then to acquire some knowledge and make some shorts and docs. I will be traveling to China in february and wanted to do some beauty shots and if possible a short documentary about the 3 parallel rivers in Yunnan. But I heard from a friend that the region is really snowed in this year, so that i thought of staying a little longer in beijing and maybe do a short story. I wanted to ask you whether it is possible for a newbie to learn how to handle the 7d within a month or if i should go for a 1000-2000$ hd camcorder plus extra audio. the material from 7d looks really beautiful, but i'm afraid that it's mostly the person behind the camera and not the camera itsself.
Thanks for the advice.

Cheers Xin

Xin, It is of course the person behind the camera but I do believe with the right accessories you can get to grips with a 7D setup in a month. Have a look at what Wellington Kuswanto from Singapore has been doing after attending one of my classes before Christmas. Xmas Singapore 2009 on Vimeo and Happy New Year 2010 on Vimeo

Dan

Hi Dan

It's just amazing what such a little camera can capture. I would really like to get one and all the fancy equipment. But I'm a student with no income other then my parents generosity, so i can not ask them for thousands of euros for camera equipment. How much do you think is the least amount that i have to spend to get a gear to capture footage for a documentary with the 7d?

I primarily want to make short doc because i want to have something to show people. Especially when i apply for the film university this summer. There is also a lot of state sponsored funding programs, which you can apply for, but they almost always require that you already can show a respective film or documentary (and well you also need that good idea for a project =))

So thank you for your help. All I have now is this

I have a (crappy) tripod
a 18-55mm efs f4-5.6 kit lens from a canon 1000d - does this work on the 7d?
a 50-200mm? and a 30-80mm? yashica/kyocera lens - i dont know if there is a mount for them....
a panasonic hdc sd20
and hopefully what will turn out to be a good idea and enough will power to do this.

what else is essential?

I'm sorry if all this sounds confused, I'm kind of reorganizing myself right now.

Hello from Vienna

The 18-55mm zoom will work, but it's only really good for daylight shooting - or with a good array of lights. It would be good enough for learning the camera, and the zoom range (29-88mm) is perfect for a human-scale narrative film.

A key skill for a filmmaker is to schedule things efficiently. They say that the only tool that a film producer needs is a telephone. You can rent everything else as needed. But to be efficient, you will want to schedule all production during one or two weekends. I don't know about Austria, but in the US, you can rent a full compliment of top L lenses for a weekend for less than $200. You could barely buy the EF 35mm f/2 for that.

Best of luck with your project!