Flyin’ Solo With The Canon 7D
This was a first for me. I’m used to shooting HD video – heck, just about everything I shoot these days is HD. Today was special because it’s the first time I shot HD on a video DSLR camera without any help from a sound guy or a grip or a production assistant or another DP. Today was a challenge of high order. I had to light, mic and shoot four interview subjects in four different locations on the Canon 7D with no technical help at all.
I used a variety of lenses – Canon and Nikon. My favorite interview lens is the Canon 50mm f/1.4, followed closely by my Nikon 135mm f/2.8. The camera shoots really well in low light compared to a regular HD video camera and there’s absolutely nothing like it for the price.
This stuff was shot “news style” meaning we had very little time to set up and light things. One of the interviews was strictly “available light.” As a result, it falls short of my standard but it’s a testament to the camera that we were able to get something that is very usable.
These shots were quickly graded using Magic Bullet Looks.
Rob,
They all look good. You’re relying on your news shooter experience to do these shoots; you never had a sound guy or grip and rarely a PA back then. Still it looks fine from what I can see. All of your subjects wore glasses I noticed, but you didn’t catch a key light in any of their eyes. And I had to guess, I’d say either the doctor (1st) or Mayor Nutter (3rd) were the available light shoots.
Reminds me of my days doing corporate video. Very similar expectations. Still–you beat my experience level any day of the week. Nice job!
Amazing results with DSLR. It’s so hard for a lay person to picture you doing this fine work with such an unassuming piece of hardware. People are using these things to make entire movies now:
http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2009/11/24/The-apocalypse-goes-1970s-pop-scifi-in-THE-ARCADIAN
I think they may have been using a 5D, but still, shooting a movie with an SLR? Amazing. And the low light stuff looks great.
Thanks, guys! The learning curve is so steep…I feel like a college kid again!
rp
The visual work will always amaze me but being an Audio Engineer I was intrigued by the Twitter Pic & the rig setup behind the camera. Specifically the sound recorder… I eagerly await the specs on that..