Video shot with Canon 60D

[Stelios Christofides]

Paphos in Spring on Vimeo

This is my first video in HD shot with my Canon 60D

[Spiros Zaharakis]

Did you shot the whole thing at f22?
You managed to defeat the DSLR effect. It looks like it was shot with a regular video camera (except for the funky zoom shots)

[Stelios Christofides]

Spiro

I have shot everything with the 60D and the kit lens 18-135mm, Manual focus (with follow focus rig).
What is the DSLR effect?
I must say that I did not expect it to be as good as it came out. I have on order now the Canon 17-55 f2.8 lens as I plan to use my 60D as a complementary to my Sony Z5 for weddings.



Stelios

[Spiros Zaharakis]

Stelio,
There are two things that distinguish DSLRs from video cameras. One is low light performance (when using fast lenses and not the kit lens of course) and the other is shallow depth of field.
Other than that there is no real benefit on using a DSLR instead of a regular video camera.
Shallow DOF leads the eye to your subject while blurring the background.
To do that you usually need a foreground object on your footage and a wide open aperture. It doesn't work with flat scenes.
Your footage didn't show anything that could not have being achieved with a low cost HD camcorder and that defeats the purpose of shooting with a DSLR.
Also zoom while recording is usually bad with video cameras but with DSLRs its not just bad, it is... hmmm how can I say it and still be polite?

Anyway.

The key to using the DSLR to your benefit is to treat it different than your video cameras. Forget zoom-ins and zoom-outs (you can do rack focusing instead if you need to do something)
Use the shallow DOF to your benefit by using a wide aperture and framing your shots in a way that exagerates the effect (foreground-background)
Get faster lenses (at least a low cost used manual focus 50mm f1.4 or f1.7) to be able to take advantage of the low light abilities.
Learn to treat the DSLR like it was a movie camera and not a video camera. Watch some movies with that in mind to see the difference.
And before you shoot a wedding with these two cameras do some test shots with various settings to see where you get the best match between the two, it will save you a lot of time in post.
You can start with neutral picture style and try some settings with lower contrast and saturation (on the DSLR)

[Gianni Paolella]

I agree with Spiros,
nice shoot, nice place....but if I use my little Canon Legria HF20 I have the same pictures and the same format in full HD.
If you use the DSLR instead the camera you have to do what the Videocamera in not able,otherwise for many reason the Videocamera is better!!!
My Idea for weeding is to use the videocamera for the wide shot and the dslr for the close witha a nice DOF,otherwise the videocamera is able to do all I need.

[Stelios Christofides]

Thanks Spiro for your detail answer. Your are right, so as Gianni that the shallow DOF is the reason to use DSLRs; but I shot this video just to see how it would come out and how to handle it. The next practice is to learn how to use the "shallow DOF". I also wanted to see if the 60D gets hot when using it in the sun. It didn't.

Stelios

[Chris Westerstrom]

while I agree with you guys about the DSLR look and using DOF to your advantage

I don't agree that it is the only thing that makes it look better.

I shot this little clip about a year ago, it was the very first thing I shot with my 7d. I just basically wanted to try it out shooting some friends and playing around before deciding to do anything professional with it.

So, I had a kit lens, 70-200 2.8 and a 50 1.4, the kit lens was what I used most.
Having no ND filter, I shot the whole thing in slow mo (ok, I got carried away now in retrospect) because the double frame rate allowed me block more light.
Almost all outdoor scenes are shot at f16. Nothing graded whatsoever, not knowing the camera I was playing around with settings, shooting mostly with everything wrong haha, as in high contrast, sharpness and saturation.

when I compared it to the HDV footage Sony FX1 that a buddy shot on the same day, the color and contrast were far greater. In other words, it still looked more filmic.

Lapoint Easter Surfout 2010 the week on Vimeo

I am a big fan of the old skateboarding videos pre digital revolution, I love the deep focus shots of skateboarders like Natas Kaupas in california sun, it has a special look.
The only thing I look out for now is aliasing in deep focus shots

When I shoot something professionally these days, the short focus has it's advantages, but the main advantage is being able to choose when to have it and when not to

[Chris Westerstrom]

keep in mind that was my first little play thing with a DSLR. I know it's not perfect, not graded, but my point is that you can get some good shots without always haven't to push that it has crazy low DOF.
At least, in my humble opinion

[Stelios Christofides]

Yes I agree with you Chris, I didn't buy the 60D only for the "crazy low DOF" but because it is a camera first and "camcorder" second.

Stelios

[Chris Westerstrom]

my point as well! Choice is good

[John Wiley]

Hi Chris,

So the whole video you didn't use anything longer than the 70-200mm? Did you crop in post at all (apart from the obvious digital-zoom-replays)? A 70-200mm will not be very useful at any of the breaks around the Gold Coast, unless you are standing in waist deep water or only want line-up shots! I've got my Tamorn 70-200mm already and I'm waiting on my 550d body and a 2x converter to go and shoot some surfing stuff.

[John Wiley]

Originally Posted by Spiros Zaharakis

Stelio,
There are two things that distinguish DSLRs from video cameras. One is low light performance (when using fast lenses and not the kit lens of course) and the other is shallow depth of field.
Other than that there is no real benefit on using a DSLR instead of a regular video camera.

DSLR's have far more in their favour than just DOF and low light. Dynamic range and colour reproduction for example, are much better from the DSLR's than a regular camcorder. And that's before you even consider lens selections, size/portability, frame rates (not many camcorders even offer 720p60) price, etc. Shallow DOF is what started the HDSLR craze but it became a revolution because of many more reasons than that alone.

[Chris Westerstrom]

Originally Posted by John Wiley

Hi Chris,

So the whole video you didn't use anything longer than the 70-200mm? Did you crop in post at all (apart from the obvious digital-zoom-replays)? A 70-200mm will not be very useful at any of the breaks around the Gold Coast, unless you are standing in waist deep water or only want line-up shots! I've got my Tamorn 70-200mm already and I'm waiting on my 550d body and a 2x converter to go and shoot some surfing stuff.

Hey John, sorry, I forgot to mention I had a 1x converter, in other words an additional 100mm, so I was shooting at 300 which is more like 480mm, that stopped the camera down to 5.6 as well.
I didn't do any cropping or digital zooming, it was shot in 720 50p the whole thing.

Focus was a bitch as I didn't have a loupe of any sort, and being as Portugal is on the west coast, I had the sun on my lcd screen for all the shots I took in the morning.
I actually prefer a camcorder to the 7d for filming surf, in the future, I'll only shoot 7d from the water, I ended up just missing too much footage, and this was primarily at reefs where the waves broke int eh exact same place.

[Brian Brown]

Also, note that you'll want to use an ND filter outdoors in daylight, to enable you to shoot at 1/50 shutter and still maintain some larger apertures on the lenses. They also sell variable ND filters that are great for video. Stopping a lens down too much creates "diffraction" that degrades images. Adjusting the shutter above 1/50 creates strobing.

The upside of all of this is that, with an ND, you can get some shallow DOF while shooting outdoors at daytime and still maintain proper shutter speed/angle.

There's a few rack focuses in this video I made in VERY bright snow conditions, to give you some idea of what an ND filter can give you:
YouTube - RMNP: Nymph & Dream Lakes in Winter

[Stelios Christofides]

Brian
What ND filter did you use?
I have ordered an ND4 filter. Will it do the job?
Camerafilters.com - Detail

Stelios