2 Answers

• Reputation: 0 Q&A: 0 0 0 0 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0 SPG

  0 0 Easier? No. You have to be much more careful with your exposure and they don't autofocus like a prosumer HD camera will. They can only shoot for 12 minutes at a time (NBD really), and they have a few other quirks as mentioned in the other answer. Cheaper? Depends. There are some cheap HD camcorders out there for about a grand that aren't half bad, a bunch of really good prosumer ones in the$2,000 to $7,000 range, and then the real deal that starts at $17,000 and goes way up from there. If you're already a still photographer with a lot of good Canon lenses then the new 7D is only $1700 or the T2i is only $900. The problem where this still ends up with a "depends" answer is that if you're serious about using one of these DSLRs for video you'll need a lot of lenses and accessories to make them work well. Pulling focus is a PITA so you'll need a monitor or viewfinder, then you'll realize that the lens barrel has a 90 degree throw from macro to infinity and is way too touchy to get good focus pulls, so you'll need a follow focus attachment and lens gears for $300 (ultra cheap) to $3,000 industry standard. You'll then need 15mm rails to mount that follow focus and then you'll be attaching so many parts that the camera quickly gets swallowed up in a sea of expensive gear. Sure you can shoot without a lot of the add ons, but if you're serious and will be shooting a lot, the add ons will make life a lot easier and help you get a better finished product. My personal DSLR setup clocks in around $10,000 which is nothing compared to a Arri or even a Red. But here's the thing...they can shoot some absolutely stunning visuals on a par with cameras that cost ten times as much like the Red or even 35mm film cameras. DPs that are used to working with the big guns generally don't like using them because of the limitations while up and coming DPs love that they can achieve similar looks to 35mm film for a small fraction of the cost. SPG answered in Filmmaking Week about 1 year ago | Report 2 comments by Grainy and SPG… 0 0 thanks SPG! One of my concerns is with movement - shooting out the window of a moving vehicle for an extended take, say. It seems like this is a big weakness - limit the movement in one's moving pictures. Grainy commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Ah yes, the infamous Jello shutter. The nature of how the CMOS sensor scans the image will make for some interesting effects on a fast pan past some vertical columns, but in reality how often are you panning that fast past vertical columns? A slow pan will be fine so it's less of an issue than people who haven't shot much with these kinds of CMOS cameras think. That means that Jello shutter will affect every CMOS camera including every Red camera too. Again the tradeoff is beautiful images with shallow depth of field for a fraction of what it used to cost. If I have to avoid making the Blair Witch Project 2 on a 7D, so be it. SPG commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 0 Q&A: 0 0 0 0 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  0 0 Easier no. But, they are enormously cheaper and deliver amazing quality. I just shot a national television commercial for klondike on the canon 7d. Downsides are that their single chip does very poorly with jerky movement, they overheat much more easily, they cannot record for long periods of time, and they have no professional integrated sound recording. But these are all things you can get around and the ability to interchange cheap (prime) lenses is one of the best filmmaking educations available for the cost. Hey Adam, has the forum ever considered getting some for it's classes? Zeek answered in Filmmaking Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

  Share this answer with a friend: