Why DSLR ?

[Bill Grant]

Yeah,
I've not had that happen Tom, but I encourage all videographers in my area to continue to use video cameras. I'll keep moving further ahead and we'll all be happy.
Bill

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

I agree with a lot of what has been mentioned; although I'm not a fan of Technicolor Cinestyle or working from a flat low contrast/colour base and much prefer to dial in a rich colour/high contrast, such as my own basic "Velvia" Preset for the 5D, which leaves much less work to do in post for my video footage and stills images.

My work involves a 50/50 split of stills & video. For years I've needed to carry two complete seperate pro- stills and camcorder systems... but now I have that all in one package. Yes, some things can be a pain, especially the constant need to sync sound and extra add-on tools for viewing and steadying the system...but the resultant quality of both stills images and video is outstanding.

To be able to film high quality HD footage, take a series of full-frame 21MP stills images mid-shoot, and then continue filming without the need to run back to my bags to change camera to a camcorder, is a huge plus for me.

In fact, I'm just about to travel in a few hours time on a one month-long video/stills shoot in Italy and Holland, to film the 6th movie in the GlobetrotterWorld series. My main tools will be the outstanding Canon 5D Mark II with Hasselblad finder, Zoom H4, Sony WRT & WRR wireless mics, Cinecam shoulder/waist brace, Steadicam, Vinten/Manfroto tripods & monopods, plus a rack of Canon, Nikkor and Pentax 67 lenses. I will be shooting from the air, land and underwater. I can't wait to get back on the road on a another adventure! :)

[Greg Fiske]

Tom,
Very good point. I'm green, with more experience I might grow to share that opinion, I don't know. What I aspire to be is a good story teller. The story is king. We are all placing bets (by buying our equipment) on what a bride will value most. Does a bride care about the shot going from indoors to outdoors? I think vdslr users are skilled enough to nail what matters.

I like the non dslr work by Joe Simon. I guess people don't use lens adapters on videocameras because they are too much trouble? I've only really been studying vdslr footage. Anyone have a very good example of an Ex3 wedding (which I have no experience about)? For vdslr, a 20-40 minute deliverable of this stillmotion trailer would be a job well done, IMO:

suelyn + theo // i'm savory, you're sweet on Vimeo

[John Wiley]

Good point Tony. Being primarily a videographer, I never really thought about the fact that for some people, having one camera for both means halving your kit/baggage.

Also your mention of underwater shooting brings up another point of how versatile these cameras are. They are small enough to bolt to the inside of a car or easily take underwater, can blend into a crowd or to be put on a handheld steadycam rig, etc, etc.

This is one of the reasons DSLR's have become popular with most surf videographers I know. You can stand on top of a hill with a 600mm lens and shoot from far away, then later that day jump into the water with a housing and a fisheye lens and shoot water. Then afterwards, snap a few photos of the sunset as well - all with the same camera and a handfull of different lenses.

[Lee Tamer]

I'll chime in on the subject. The reason I use DSLRs is I am a student film maker and I simply cannot afford a camera like a Sony EX 1. I have used a Panasonic HVX200 with a Letus adapter and it was such a hassle to use the adapter. I cannot see why anyone would want to use the adapter instead of a DSLR. The adapter makes the camera so much more top heavy. I have seen things shot on a DSLR that look on par with things shot on the HVX or the EX1. Then again maybe I just havent been a videographer long enough to notice the difference.