DSLRs: am I just being paranoid?

[Bill Edmunds]

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

Us techies will rip it to pieces and go on about compression, moire, aliasing and all that.

Do you do anything to combat that?

[Danny O'Neill]

Nope, because to the client. It doesn't matter one iota. Just don't shoot certain types of brick wall :)

[Colin McDonald]

I had an interesting conversation with a BBC chappie yesterday and it might be topical here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/wedding-...ml#post1671494

[Nigel Barker]

Lay viewers care little or nothing about moire as they have been seeing it on TV newsreader's stripy shirts for years. It's us straining for technical perfection who worry about these things.

[Philip Howells]

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

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Think about this. When in a hollywood movie do you see them zoom? Generally never. The reason is the zoom is un-natural to the human eye. We cant do it, we need to move our feet to get closer and thats then a dolly shot. So when we see it we feel un-easy. Thats why hollywood doesnt zoom, they jump cut or dolly. Thats one reason to re-consider using zooms. If you went DSLR you cant zoom, as you say, no servo.

Audio is done hollywood style also, all external for the good stuff like the lav mic and readings but for general action like the bridal prep we use onboard with audio gain. Honestly dont have a problem with it.

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Unfortunately this is inaccurate. Movies are not events and aren't recorded like events so the techniques used can't be compared. Although it's true zooms are used less in movies than event television that's due to the nature of the beast - at least in the way most of us make our programmes, not "dollying in" imposing on the event, but changing focal length from out of the way.

Zoom lenses have been used extensively in Hollywood movies since decent versions were invented. I happened to be watching a DVD of a classic, the French Connection, last night and Friedkin (no mean director) uses two long, fast zooms in the first 5 minutes - and FWIW a gross violation of the 180 "rule" some people (not Danny) are so fond of quoting. To give another more recent example, the opening few minutes of The Bourne Ultimatum contains many short, sharp zooms which, along with his unusual closeup framing have rightly earned Paul Greengrass his eminent reputation as a director.

Finally, film audio has to be recorded separately not because of any virtue in the system but because (with a few exceptions in the amateur world) you can't record sound to film in the camera. In fact film/audio sync control in film-making adds cost and cabling we wedding people would find unacceptable. Finally, much Hollywood style audio is re-dubbed in the sound studio afterwards so I doubt the complete accuracy of that statement also.

None of this detracts from the benefits DSLRs can give but let's not get them out of proportion.