I just saw on CanonRumors the press release of the 60D.
Here is the executive summary:
- 18 MP APS-C CMOS sensor
- Advanced creative features with Basic +
- Vari-angle 7.7cm (3.0”) 3:2 ratio LCD
- Full HD movies with manual control (same settings as the 7D)
- DIGIC 4
- ISO 100-6400, H:12800
- 5.3fps shooting for up to 58 JPEGs
- 9-point cross type AF System
- iFCL metering with 63-zone Dual-layer Sensor
- Integrated Speedlite transmitter
- In-camera RAW processing
Priced at about 1100$, it is probably going to replace the 7D as the second camera for a lot of shooters (and main camera for a lot of people too!).
Other than its attractive price point, I really like the vari-angle LCD. Its usefulness is very context dependent but for shooting from a tripod or steadicam device, it is going to be a life saver. Actually, I think it is THE feature that will make this camera a must have for a lot of HDSLR shooters.
We will have to wait for official reviews before calling it a 7D killer, but lets say everything looks like it since they share so many features.
Note: Canon also released a bunch of pro lenses, we will talk about these very soon.
You can get it (reservation) here from BH Photo or from Amazon
. Hurry up, I think they will sell quite fast!
I dont post clips (from others) often (maybe I should?), but I think this one deserve some visibility for many reasons. First because free running (aka parkour) is cool, second, because it was shot with an HDSLR (Canon 7D) and, finally, because it was made by a visitor of the blog (who turned into a friend) who could use some exposure: Chad Bonanno.
When Chad contacted me a few months ago about how to balance a Glidecam 4000 with an HDSLR, I thought he was a wedding shooter then forgot about it until I saw the video he has been working on. Lets just say that I was wrong!
About Dan
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I’ve lived here my whole life. I started up gymnastics when I was about 13. When I graduated I left gymnastics and started freerunning. Since then I have turned my passion into a career and a full time job. I am also currently pursuing my career in stunts an plan on making this a life long journey.
I had the idea to shoot a high production video for quite some time but I never had the behind-the-camera skills to do so. So for a long time it just stayed an idea. When I met Chad banana I realized that my idea could become real some day. So we sat down talked it out and got to work. We spent 5 weeks of filming trying to pump out as much as we could each day. This became tough once my body started to get tired of filming each week. But despite injuries and aches and bruises we pushed through to the end. After all the action was done the video was then given to Paul Darnell to cut and edit. Once that was done, the torch was then passed to Chad bonanno. He worked his magic on the video and gave her a little nip/tuck. Finally, after a ling process the monster had come to life. So far the video has gone way beyond what we had expected and we hope it continues to do so.
About Chad
My name is Chad Bonanno, I am a Art Director and Animator based in Los Angeles, and also do a lot of action and glamour photography on the side. I have taken a particular interest in the Canon 7D series, and that is my weapon of choice. I hooked up with Team Tempest in 2009 and started doing design and animation projects with them, but when the time came to give one of Team Tempest members Dan Mast a new Demo reel, I jumped at the opportunity. Using the Canon 7D , a Canon 16-35mm and Canon 10-22mm (also a Tameron 10-24) and a GlideCam 4000, we got to work. Shooting all over LA, in locations such as downtown LA, UCLA campus , Santa Monica , and Hollywood. The shoots are pretty fast paced, since the freerunning moves are very flowy and quick, you have to have your setup locked down before shooting. On the other hand, it is a run-and-gun situation because a lot of the locations we shoot prohibit parkour due to liability issues amongst other things. Victor Lopez assisted in many of the 5 days of shooting as a coordinator , Victor being a lead member of Team Tempest, guided day with creative direction while I worked out the camera moves and angles. I used 2 other B camera shooters, Dave Kim and Mark Williams.
Here are a few behind the scene shots I selected. I piked these because they show the scale of Dan jumps and also give an idea of the camera man job!
The overall result is excellent and we should expect more from Chad in the coming months in this domain.
A few technicalities
- The shooting was done in 5 days, spread over 5 weeks.
- Keeping the action in focus was done by shooting at f4-f5.6, measuring the distance to the subject and trying to keep up with him!
- Grading was done In After Effects
- Mostly desired item for the shoot would have been a quick release plate on the GlideCam to reduce the setup time
Gear used
For various reasons, I rarely post videos from others on the blog, focusing instead on creating original content. Yet, I can’t resist the urge to show you this clip from Clemens Wirth. The guy is super creative and mix 5DMrkII footage with visual effects perfectly.
I asked Clemens to share some tips and he gladly accepted.
He shot almost everything with the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro
For those who never saw the MP-E 65, it is a manual focusing lens with a macro ratio of 5:1. As far as I know, it is the only commercial lens with such a magnification factor. While hard to use, it can produce some incredible results as Clemens showed us.
I have been working real hard for the past few weeks on a music video we shot for one of my friend. I shot a few clips for him in the past (the single camera on tripod kind of thing) but this time, he wanted something more. Since I am always up for a new challenge and I was totally naive about the amount of time it would take to shoot the clip, I accepted.
While the whole thing could have been done in a weekend under perfect circumstances (and a bit more experience and preparations), we did a few mistakes that really made it harder to do the edit.
Since I am the kind of guy who loves to show my errors in front of thousands of people, I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of all the things I learned so it could help anyone who would be crazy enough to start the same endeavor!
Note: a lot of these tips are targeted at people crazy enough to do clips which require lip sync. If you can keep the images and the music separated, things will be much easier.
Planning
Having a plan in your head is good, but not enough. Music video are all about timing and if you dont want to end up with blanks in your sequence that you wont know how to fill, make sure you have a storyboard covering the whole clip! In my case, I totally forgot to get something to cover the bridge section of the song, 32 seconds of nothingness… I guess it is good to stir creativity.
Syncing
If you can find a clip concept where you can get away with lip syncing, do it! It is a huge time sink. That being said, in the case you have to show the singer actually singing, here are a few pointers:
- Shoot with as many camera as you can (see below)
- Prepare a MP3 version of the song with a very loud and short BEEP at the start and end.
- Use an electronic slate to sync the various camera together (in case because the audio is not never perfect)
- dont start editing until you have trimmed and synced all your clips
Shooting
Bring as many camera as you can! In our case, we only had 2 5DMrkII and I wish we had at least one more. The more coverage you have of each sequence, the easier it will be once you are in the edit room. For Traumatic Head Injury, I decided to focus mostly on the head so we shot a few versions with a close up cam on Jon face (using a 100mm Macro
The shooting settings were f4 to 5.6, 1/50 sec at between ISO 800 and 1600. Shooting with a wider aperture would have been asking for trouble since it was already hard to manage the depth of field. I would strongly advice you to use zooms when working in tight spaces since they make framing so much easier.
Framing
Don’t capture the singer lips unless you have too. This way, you can reuse sequences in other part of the clip and no one will ever notice. Also, in a multicam setup, make sure there is a significant change in the point of view from one cam to the other, else it just feels weird when jumping points of view.
Lighting
We shot the clip with minimal gear. We only had two cameras, two tripods, a slider and three lenses (50mm, 24-70L & 100macro) but no lights. Fortunately, the surgery lights were quite good but I wish we had a few more to put at the back of the ’surgeon’ to have a nice outline. Actually, if there was one piece of gear that I would have rented for this shoot, it would have been a few small spot lights, preferably LED to not eat the place too much.
Location / preparation
Location is important. We had access to a surgery room and I think it really contributes to the feel of the clip. I wish we could have used more of it. For example, I wish we had a shot of the stretcher coming in the surgery room for the intro sequence, or as a dreamy sequence in the bridge section.
Unfortunately, all these good ideas are worthless if you can’t execute them! So make sure you visit the location a few days before and give yourself enough time to come up with concepts and shots.
Consistency
If you are going to shoot multiple take of a scene, make sure everyone does the same thing every time. And if you see the singing head at the same time, make sure the actions always happen at the same time. This may sound obvious but it is so hard to execute perfectly. We had a lot of issues with this for our clip, so much that maybe 40% of the footage was unusable because of a lack of consistency.
The solution (that I figured afterward) is to have someone narrating the actions as they are coming while watching the initial shot on a laptop.
Editing
My first idea was to assemble all my clips as a single multi-clip in FCP and cut from there. Unfortunately, it did not work, my machine was not able to manage the 16 simultaneous HD sequences, even with a RAID-0 of 2 VelociRaptor
What I would have done differently?
Lots of things, but the one thing that hurt me the most which I could not fix once in the edit room was the lack of coverage of some parts of the song. At the beginning of the clip, I am forced to cut on the beat while I know (as most of my friend told me) that it would have been better to be off beat for a few cuts to increase intensity and expectations.
Unfortunately, I couldnt because I would not have had enough footage to make each shot look different. This is why getting coverage is important and you can never have enough cameras filming at once! Never!
Conclusion
I have shot films, wedding video, travel and corporate video and let me tell you: music video are the hardest! If you are getting paid to to it, make sure you allocate 2-3x more time for edits and don’t sell yourself short. I am sure there is a lot of money to be made shooting music video with HDSLR, but that is something I will leave for others!
The result
Here is the first minute of the clip. The current grading is a place holder, made under a minute in Magic Bullet Mojo, until the final style is applied.
Things are moving fast here: I talked about the book two weeks ago, received my copy last week and just finished my first reading. Verdict: I am loving it! To put it simply: it covers almost everything! From shoot preparation, gear selection, editing, etc.. It gives a solid foundation to any photographers who wants to move to video.
It is all about the content…
First, the book assumes only one thing: you are a photographer shooting stills and you want to learn how to shoot video. That is it. It goes over all the lingo, gear and processes used in cinematography and give you a working knowledge of what is required and involved in a shoot. The content goes wider and deeper than any DVD training material I have seen so far. Read the rest of this entry »
PeachPit has a new book targeted at photographers who want to move into the video business. It is called, From Still to Motion. You can get the free chapter “Playing with the Light” here.
Judging by the content of the sample chapter, it seems to be targeted more toward the pro / serious videographer but the lighting concepts hold true what ever the gear you use, from Kino Flo lights to DIY setups.
Take a moment to download the sample chapter and read it. If you like it, you can pre-order the book here
Finally out! It was about time.
I will not list all the new features (over 200), if that is the kind of stuff you like reading about, head over the official Apple page. Instead, I will list the features that mean the most for us.
First, facial recognition. I already talked about it in my Aperture 3 prediction about 8 months ago. This is a big thing if you are often shooting the same people. I am just worried about how long it is going to take to pass over my 192 gigs of pictures…
Next on the line is Places. Another feature that most travel photographers will love. I know because I had to geotag over 2000 pictures when I came back from Vietnam. Not a fun experience! At the local scale, it is also going to be useful to organize pictures when doing on a location scouting day. I used to import them in iPhoto just for that and it was a real pain.
Video import and playback directly in Aperture! I love this one for two reasons: first because it is going to be useful to do everything in a single operation and also because it shows how Apple recognize HDSLR as a trend and not a novelty. As soon as I finish the download, I will see if it if possible to batch process video files automatically for conversion to ProRes.
Slideshows. I never used these in Aperture. I preferred working within either Lightroom, Animoto or Motion. But, with the new slideshows, I just have one thing to say: wow! I am impressed. 95% of the work I used to do in Motion is doable in Aperture and it looks even easier!
Finally, Brushes. It was about time Aperture got these! None destructive editing at the pixel level has been the reason why I moved to Lightroom (ok, also because it was faster!). I am glad the feature is now in Aperture since it saves a round trip to Photoshop for 95% of the image corrections.
While waiting for my review, you can read what Chase has to say about it. He was on the beta list so he probably knows more than me!
Note: You can upgrade to Aperture 3 from the Academic version of Aperture 2!
Note2: I havent found an electronic version for the full product, so I had to place an order and download the demo.
Some people are just luckier than me. The folks at Still Motion put their hands on a 1DMrkIV and had the great idea to make a side by side video comparison with the 5D and 7D. Read their comments here and check out the clip.
I have been playing with Animoto for over a week and think it is something you guys might be interested in.
What is it?
Animoto used to be a slide show creation web application but it has recently added video capabilities. So you can now mix stills, video and music to create a very pro looking video.
Think of it as Motion for dummies.
What sets it apart from other slide show apps?
First, it is web based. This mean you don’t have to install anything and once created, the slides are already available to others (according to your security preferences) and can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Second, the transitions are gorgeous and fit with the music. What ever the number of pictures you sent and the beat of the song you selected, the transitions will always be in tune with the music.
Third, Animoto supplies a bunch of royalty free songs you can use without worrying about being sued.
Finally, if you pick a pro account, you can remove all references to Animoto in the clip/player and make it look like the whole thing was your own creation.
Show it to me!
To demonstrate the application at its most basic, here is a clip made by letting the system run free. I just selected a bunch of pictures from a lingerie fashion show and then picked a song from the library. I did not reorder or adjusted anything other than spotlighting a few of my favorite shots.
WARNING: VIDEO NOT SAFE FOR WORK
This is the “brute” stuff coming out of Animoto. It is always possible to go back and tweak the display order afterward but I was curious to see what would happen if I let the system run wild.
Why you might need it?
Clients (at least in the wedding and portrait business) are now asking/expecting slide shows, often the same day as the shoot. While it is possible to generate one in Lightroom or Aperture, they tend to look more like a PowerPoint presentation than the work of graphic artist.
Using a solution like Animoto creates a very pro looking product in a very short amount of time (pick your selects and song, upload and then then download the high resolution file and you are done!).
How much does it cost?
Animoto prices its service according to the flexibility it gives you. Either you use it for fun or as a pro, the commercial account being the only one I would recommend for any client work since you can remove the Animoto logo and claim the work as your own! Prices are:
- 30$ for the all access pass for a year.
- 99$ for the 3 month commercial (keep reading to make this 4 months) access.
- 250$ for the full year commercial access.
Rebecca, our Animoto friend gave us a coupon code to get an extra month out of any 3 months commercial package purchase if you enter 5dtips on this page or use this link to get the other packages. The promo code is good until December 31.
On the flip side…
While super easy to use, it would be even better if the developers added a LightRoom / Aperture plugin to directly export the pictures to the site at optimal size and also a compressor droplet to downr sample the clips to a reasonable size.
My other suggestion would be a bit more flexibility on the aspect ratio of the video so it would work better in portrait mode. Then again, I guess they would have to redo all their animation/transitions…
In conclusion…
While it is not a tool I would use for every job (I am a control freak when it comes to slides), I think it does an incredible job at quickly creating a pro looking slide show. I did not have the time to test it with video but will very soon.
I just completed the 101 and 102 classes of the 5DFilmSchool training and would like to share my thoughts with you about it (as some others have already done).
I have been watching training videos for a while. Like I said in a previous post, I am a big fan of Lynda.com and spent countless hours in front of my computer learning about new software/techniques. This also means that my expectations regarding training video are high, very high. According to my experience, to be effective, a training has to: have the right pace, be precise (never leave any confusion in the head of the audience), have useful content and be entertaining. Lets see how the 101 class rated according to these criteria.
Note: I watched the digital download version and I suggest you do the same. It has a better resolution than the DVD version and you can watch it right away! Read the rest of this entry »
