DSLR and HDV: What is your kit?

[Scott Brady]

With our upcoming Africa Trans-Equatorial adventure for Toyota just a few months off, we are currently spec'ing out HDV platforms for both high-quality still images and 1080 HDV. We will likely end up with two full kits and a back-up HDV camera (likely the Vixia I have shot nearly 100 hours with).

Just a little research into the subject leaves me in a fog of unnecessary gadgets that wont survive 30 minutes in a Congolese rainstorm or even a day in the Arizona dust. I suspect some of you have figured out what survives, and I would love to hear what works for you.

Some thoughts include:

Camera Body: 5D MKII is currently on the top of the list
Lenses: We have a 70-200 2.8L IS and a few other L lenses coming in.

Microphone: Playing with a Rode unit at the moment.
Focus Assist: Lots of recommendations for Z-Finder. How about a 5" HDMI screen?
Stabilization:
Tripods that are light and sturdy, yet allow nice panning.

Of critical note (I expect for all of us), is that this stuff must survive two months in West Africa and allow for run and gun and various other nastiness.

Thanks for any ideas or recommendations.

 

[nwoods]

I am just starting to learn about dSLR, so I have no advice to offer, but I did find Vincent LaForet's website to be very informative:

- http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/mygear/
- http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/mygear/lenses/
- http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/mygear/configurations/

 

[PNWDad]

Look into the soft "waterproof" camera cases. There inexpensive, and 99.99 percent waterproof. I have been using plastic trash bags for downpours. I know the camera shop has a few "expensive" plastic bags for sale. As far as dust goes, the guys going to Burning Man tell me to never ever ever switch lenses, use a fixed lens with no zoom pushing in and out, and use ziplocks over ziplocks inside waterproof boxes. All this, and you still will get dust everywhere in the camera.

I know the pro level nikons are magnesium bodys with o-ring seals. My D300s is plastic with paper gaskets. I also have been looking into the 5D MKII for this exact purpose. Ill keep my eyes on this thread. Thanks

 

[ywen]

Do you need extreme low light performance and use ultra wide lenses?

If no to the above two questions, then a Canon 7D is better. More frame rates (smooth slow-mo) and a body that is better sealed from the elements than the 5D. Not to mention the improved ergonomics for video shooting.

Or the 60D with the same video feature as 7D, and its flip-out rear LCD for shooting from obscure angles.

 

[Scott Brady]

I don't carry any lenses slower than F2.8.

My final Canon lens kit will likely be:

70-200 2.8L IS (Already have)
24-70 2.8L
16-35 2.8L
50mm 1.2L

Interesting comment on the better dust sealing on the 7D. I was not aware that it was better than the 5D MkII. That has been one serious advantage of my current kit with the Olympus E-3. There is simply no more durable body than that little machine. I typically shoot in full downpour. But, Olympus failed with the launch of the E-5 IMO with no 1080 video. The low light ISO performance is also severely lagging behind Canon.

 

[ywen]

http://canonfieldreviews.com/7d-1-weather-sealing/

You should also consider getting multiple bodies. Given your lens kit, perhaps 3 bodies. In a dusty environment, most of the contamination will occur during lens changing. I believe all the lenses you have have some sort of weather sealing. Nothing is worse than to see dust spots on the video..

 

[Scott Brady]

Unless I am on an adventure motorcycle, we always carry two bodies and a pocket camera (Leica D-Lux). At the moment, I was considering two 5Ds, but you now have me considering the 7D and a 5D, as it would be a nice compliment to the 70-200mm with the magnification factor.

On the ADV Moto, we only carry one body and one lens, which with the Olympus was a 12-60mm F2.8. I would likely just carry the 24-70mm 2.8 on a full frame body. We also carry the Leica D-Lux as the back-up, but that will likely be swapped out to one of the new Sony or Pentax units which have 1080 HDV too.

 

[ywen]

Yes a 7D and 5D combo will also work nicely.. just be sure to set the camera to output equal lookin colors..

http://www.zacuto.com/shootout Good split screen comparisons of the image differences

What about a 2x teleconverter? I'm thinking 200mm with a 1.6x crop might not be long enough to compress the vast African landscape.. More important than the ability to "zoom-in", the longer reach will give you a greater sense of scale.

 

[ywen]

R u guys planning on employing ND filters into your workflow? I would imagine sunlight will be plentiful.. To acquire any form of shallow DOF shots, and keeping the shutter speed low for pleasant looking video, you'll need a substantial kit of ND filters for all your lenses.

Check out Philip Blooms report from his India shoot.. many helpful tidbits

http://philipbloom.net/2009/07/21/g...ommercial-in-delhi-india-on-the-canon-5dmkii/

 

[bajasurf]

http://canonfieldreviews.com/7d-1-weather-sealing/

You should also consider getting multiple bodies. Given your lens kit, perhaps 3 bodies. In a dusty environment, most of the contamination will occur during lens changing. I believe all the lenses you have have some sort of weather sealing. Nothing is worse than to see dust spots on the video..

As usual, I am somewhat confused by this article especially after reading the responses at the end of the article. For instance, the 3rd response by Christen Eriksen and the last response on the page by Anders Svensson. Click on "newer entries" after Anders response and there seems to be many conflicting tales.

 

[Scott Brady]

We rock a handful of ND, split ND and warming filters.

This is quite an exciting development in HDV. I love the idea of being able to shoot stills and video with one rig. That has always been such a challenge for us in the past.

 

[ywen]

might want to look into variable ND filter, so you can have creative control over the image without the hassle of re-attaching/changing filters all the time.

 

[Michael Slade]

I say ditch the ND filters and just concentrate on the shots and not the gear.

 

[ywen]

ND filter is pretty much a necessity in any professional video application. The problem with the DSLR for video is that it doesn't have built-in ND filter, unlike all video cameras from the pro-sumer level and above.

Stills capture have the flexibility of using ultra-high shutter speeds to compensate for the exposure, when a wide-open aperture look is desired.

However with video, you're basically forced to shoot at a fixed shutter speed to preserve a natural/comfortable look of recorded motion. 1/48 for 24fps, or 1/60 for 30fps... If shooting at higher shutter speeds, you'll get distracting choppy motion. If shooting at lower shutter speeds, the motion will blur, leaving motion trails on the screen like one of them old LCDs with slow redraws. Likewise, it is also not advisable to vary shutter speeds from shot to shot. Doing so will result in extremely distracting motion rendering shifts when these shots are spliced together during editing.

Here's a video demoing the variable ND filter in action - changing exposure level without changing the f/stop, shutter, and ISO.

http://vimeo.com/16035154

 

[Lost Canadian]

ND filter is pretty much a necessity in any professional video application. The problem with the DSLR for video is that it doesn't have built-in ND filter, unlike all video cameras from the pro-sumer level and above.

Stills capture have the flexibility of using ultra-high shutter speeds to compensate for the exposure, when a wide-open aperture look is desired.

However with video, you're basically forced to shoot at a fixed shutter speed to preserve a natural/comfortable look of recorded motion. 1/48 for 24fps, or 1/60 for 30fps... If shooting at higher shutter speeds, you'll get distracting choppy motion. If shooting at lower shutter speeds, the motion will blur, leaving motion trails on the screen like one of them old LCDs with slow redraws. Likewise, it is also not advisable to vary shutter speeds from shot to shot. Doing so will result in extremely distracting motion rendering shifts when these shots are spliced together during editing.

That's some good info ywen. Thanks.