Saturday, April 24, 2010

A friend of mine asked me this question:

Hey Tim !

How are you ?

I've been following your work with your Canon 7D, pretty good stuff :) ... I also read you blog ( by the way, I was amazed by the two legged tripod trick :P ... ) and you seem to be right person to ask about cameras :).

I've been thinking of buying a 7D but at the moment it's a bit too expensive for me ... I was looking at the 550D, the little brother of the 7D I heard ... as I'm a beginner in the DSLR world, I was wondering if that's actually a better idea than the 7D, for the moment being.
What I'm really looking for are the HD video features and they seem to be similar in some ways ... am I right ?
I just wanna know how happy you are with your 7D and if you heard of what the 550D can do, video wise ...

Thanks!

To which I replied:

(the greetings first, which I took out, out of respect for my friends privacy)

Since I don't hear much talk about the 550D I'm assuming it must be an older model.

If the 7d is expensive, then I'd buy the Canon T2i, just came out a couple months ago and it basically shoots the exact same video/codex as the 7D. Really there is no difference in video mode. The cameras main difference is in photography and the body construction. Thats the main difference, and it comes in under $1000 - the best deal out there for a new and up and coming director like yourself! Never in the history of filming could you get this much camera and opportunity for so little. I think the video controls might be a menu or two buried, but not a big deal considering the price.

I am happy with the 7D. The biggest challenge I face on an almost daily basis while shooting is aliasing. There are tricks to help minimize the effects but I run into at least 2 to 3 times a shoot. While the 7D is great & revolutionary in so many ways ( anyone still talking about 35mm Adaptors?), its a steeping stone camera and I look forward to future models where these bugs can be worked out. I'm currently working on a narrative film shot on the 7d using external audio ( only use camera audio as a guide track ) so I will post more about the work flow of using audio shortly.

Hope this helps!

~Tim



No comments:

Post a Comment