D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Canon T3i / 600D, 60D, T2i / 550D, 1D Mark IV, 7D, 5D Mark II.
Panasonic DMC-GH2.
Nikon D7000, D5100, D5000, D90.
chrishull3
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by chrishull3 »

No its its strait from the 550d Doughie,i am not into grading although i know its the done thing now adays, what do you think of the colours.
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Doughie
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by Doughie »

I think the colours are fine Chris, very good in fact. These D-SLRs will take a bit of getting used to as far as video as they're so different to shooting with a normal camcorder. and the picture profiles need playign with. Sharpness down to minimise aliasing and moire probs, and contrast down, etc.

Actually the opening scene with the waving tall grass/reeds reminded me instantly of one of a "scenic" vid on vimeo and that's called "Mols in July" and was filmed on a Canon HG10 hard-drive HD cam i think in Denmark.
Here's that video, shot 2 years ago, and cut in a wide aspect-ratio (2.40 : 1) which I think works well. This one is definitely color-graded (with Magic Bullet Looks) and i have always liked the golden tones for the wheat etc, especially the scene starting at around 2:44secs :

"Mols in July":
http://www.vimeo.com/1403211
chrishull3
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by chrishull3 »

Well they certainly were over the moon on vimeo for that Doughie,i dont post many but have yet to have a single comment even on arne wildlife that was second overall and won the wildlife section in a fairly large competition here 2 years back ,regarding that danish film it had great scenes only for my taste there was a tad too much colour, with the 550 colour can be pushed up to get that look in camera, i know camcorders like the FX7 can as well .
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by chrishull3 »

http://vimeo.com/16275897 some more october filming, i am am undecided,this is vimeo compressed but what i like least about DSLR video is the fact that panning is realy a no go area.
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Doughie
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

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what frame-rate you filming at Chris?

I filmed yesterday with 550d/T2i too.
I chose 30fps at 1920x1080. Panning is ok. It's important to choose the best shutter-speed and for most 'filmic' visuals, you should try to shoot at 180degre shutter (film term) which is 1/60th sec at 30fps. If shooting at 25fps, try 1/50th Sec. At 24fps, again 1/50th sec is probably best. You don't *have* to shoot at those shutter speeds, but for certain reasons, it's best to lock shutter speed at one value. I would shoot Manual, lock shutter-speed, lock aperture, choose a focus setting that will work for the lens and aperture you are using (large aperture = very shallow DOf = need to be very accurate with focussing). I was shooting at f5.6 with a very wide-angle lens, 12mm (=19mm in 35mm terms) and fixed-focus at around 4feet. I tested the focus with the 'focus-expand' mode. Good enough.

Panning with 24 or 25fps, yeah, you do need to really limit it, or be very conscious to do slow or minimal pans. As I think Stephan said recently in another post, as much as possible you want to keep the camers static, no zooming, no panning and let the action happen in front of you. that way you avoid the 'amateur video' look and also any isses with panning and zooming at a low-frame rate. Certainly shooting at 24fps or 25pfs at 100th sec or faster will get stroboscopic and look 'Saving Private Ryan'. that MAY be the look you're after, but generally for progressive-scan cams, a shutter speed of around 1/frame-rate works pretty well. Out-doors if it's bright, you will almost certainly need a Neutral-Density filter (or polariser will help a bit of you haven't got an ND filter) to achieve the sort of shutter-speed you want.

As i say, yesterday was really my first day of shooting commercially with a prog-scan D-SLR and yes it's a learning curve. you need to think about a lot more stuff than with a traditional video-camera, thats for sure. Exposure, focus, white-balance, frame-rate, panning, composition, all kinds of things which are already important with any video-camera, tend to take on a greater importance when using these small, light prog-scan dSLR tools.

Plus i was using a Steadicam device (commercially) for the first time with a Canon dSLR borrowed from a friend, outdoors, in a strong wind!! now thats a whole bunch of extra things to deal with. Stabilisers really dont like strong wind, especially with a light-cam and a light-stabiliser....
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by Stephan »

It seems to me not all scenes are equal in your video, regarding 'strobing look'. Some experimenting with shutter speed, as Doughie said, should help you indeed.

Overall I love your colors. Maybe sometimes slightly too saturated for my taste, but they're rich and they feel so true. The close-up of the squirrel (01:41 - 01-45) is gorgeous. And the bull deer with the autumn colors (02:47) wow, incredible shot!

Forget about pans, you don't need them and I think they will ruin your work more than anything else. Instead, try taking different angles of the same scene (like you're already doing but maybe more), some close-ups, some cut-aways of other subjects, cut them all a bit faster on your timeline maybe, and you're all set for some very, very nice video!
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by chrishull3 »

Doughie Stephen thanks for the inputs,my october shots were from differnt days fiming so i guess they are bound to look different in some ways, i know panning can be left out or to a minimum and i can live with that,i have been using auto and only adjusting the aperture manualy, the shutter and iso are my bugbears, i have to be on manual to adjust these and i have not got to grips with this [thick or what]Doughie i dont think that bit of film looks as bad as you are kind of hinting[joke], Stephen regarding saturation on my 1080P tvs and my main pc the saturation with my 550D on neutral setting with the colour leval i like looks fine but on my laptop it looks on the vibrant side.Doughie so you now have a dslr did you get the Nikon you were thinking of. All the best Chris
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by Doughie »

chrishull3 wrote:Doughie so you now have a dslr did you get the Nikon you were thinking of. All the best Chris
I was borrowing a friends 550D. Not mine, but it's fun to play around with it.
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by chrishull3 »

http://vimeo.com/16582939 footage taken a few months back,lacock where feature films have been made and clovelly where the author Charles Kingsley lived.
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Re: D-SLRs vs 35mm film

Post by Doughie »

We have a new "Video ShowCase" forum so i have moved Chris Hull's new video to that forum and here's the link :

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=208
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