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Wow, that came out good... much better than I expected given the 600D speed limit!

I'll have to get a faster card and give it a go.

Yeah ND filter is a must, for the fps override.

However, it also makes your regular time lapses a bit nicer if it's in bright conditions as well, a bit less likely to suffer from flicker.

It's a pity there isnt the 60fps mode for the 550D, it can help make the video play back faster if you are recording at 3fps or whatever. Not too tricky to speed up afterwards though.

It's one of the best camera accessories I've got, by far.

One thing I dont get about tripods though...

It seems if you want anything that can hold some weight, you need to spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

I mean, sure it's nice having options for super lightweight carbon fibre, but a tripod isnt a complicated structure!

Three sturdy legs and a turny bit, if needed.

If I wanted something to hold a bit more weight than what I've got, making my own seems the only practical option.

(Something that would forgo portability and light weight, for sake of rigidity in certian situations without spending moon beams)

As not everyone plans on taking their tripod on a hike through the arctic wastelands or something.

It's a presumably ancient Velbon tripod.

My Dad was on a trip down the country, and found it in an old second hand store way up on a top shelf, got it for $40.

It's bloody awesome!

Obviously not as light as a carbon fibre equivilent or whatever, but it's rediculously sturdy, and didnt cost bazillions of dollars.

Try the shot with HTP ON if the highlights are just clipping before resorting to a more flat PS (i.e. Cinestyle).

Thanks for that! I had a bit of an experiment, and can see the difference. As well as that of a flat style vs not, after some comparisons with zebras turned on.

Also I've been turning up the sharpening... damn! Looks so much better having it a bit sharper to start with, I cant seem to get it that good myself. (Have only got Sony Vegas to use)

Filming a racetrack event this coming week, so also bodged together a crane out of some stuff in the garage.

Kit 18-55mm works really well, being super light and having IS.

When I set it to 35mm, even examining a still frame I cant tell the difference between the kit lense and my Samyang 35mm. So after it's been recompressed onto Youtube I doubt the casual observer will be able to tell much difference. (And based on Youtube analytics thing, most people watching my vids do so from a mobile device, so not exactly massive screen 1080p to nitpick things)

When it's on the end of a jib the better ergonomics or brighter lense of the 35mm dont help much, and the extra weight is a big hinderance as because of the length/leverage it means I've got to add a lot more counter weight. (Have made it a bit tider than lead weights in a bag now, haha)
I'll be wanting to get lots of depth of field because focus pulling isnt overly practical, so set to 18mm works great as crane type shots look best with a wider lense when the foreground is in the pic anyway, in my opinion. Have also got Samyang 8mm to use as well, but will see how that goes.



Will probably use the 35mm for some other shots just on the tripod though, which is where the MUCH better ergonomics really shine.

Either way, my editing and the creative part of throwing together a fun to watch video are where I'm going to need to focus my efforts. It's easy to get caught up with tech stuff and forget why you're filming something in the first place!

Whoa thanks guys! This is the kind of info I'm after.

Regarding shutter speed, I have definitely noticed the difference in various things.

For example filming cars at a track, can make the difference between motion blur on the wheels, or weird effects like the wheels looking like they are slowly spinning backwards. Having closer to 360 degrees helps for that.

Alternatively with skateboarding or similar where everything is happening really fast, a super fast shutter speed looks a lot better especially if slow motion is in mind.

Thats good to know about the sharpness, I've been wondering if it's my PP or not but I can never seem to get sharpness or contrast looking quite the same as a pre applied style.

To me sharpness does kinda seem better to have in there pre compression, as wouldnt the contrast/sharpened edges count be competing with the noise for which detail gets captured in compression? (just a guess)

ML features are ever expanding! And it can be a little overwhelming for new users.

So I was just wanting to hear some opinions on a general guide for best standard practice / starting point for filming with a 600D for giving the best scope for adjustment etc in PP.

Was thinking along the lines of:

-Set to 1080p, 24fps or 30fps as desired

-180 degree shutter speed

-ISO 100 if possible

-Neutral or flat picture style (If the total scene is within the dynamic range without a flat profile, are you better using a normal one?)

-Set sharpening, contrast, etc to zero

-Auto set the white balance? Does this matter much if this is a little off, if doing PP?

-Does ETTR mean anything useful for video/non raw? Or best to expose 'correctly'?

-It seems to be in debate currently, are there any tangible benefits to increasing the bitrate?

I've probably missed a thing or two, but you get the idea.

I think their advertising / promotional videos border on being misleading.

They advertise it as though you can just buy one, stick it on a pole, and then have this amazing crisp clear footage while you do your thing.

When in reality it takes a lot of time/effort setting up mounts etc, minimising vibration, no feedback from the camera till you review the footage after, and needs to be smashed into oblivion with the editing stick to get decent footage, which still wont look 1/10th as good as the promo shots.

They market the hardest to use camera, to the people who are least likely to have used one before.

I realise that a camera doesnt magically include production values etc, but it seems that's kind of implied to the layman user that it's just fire, forget, and upload.

I was thinking it could be a way to get 720p without 60fps or the crappy downscaling.

But yep I get what you are saying.

Also perhaps just downscaling the 1080p sized picture in post to 720p could give a better effective resolution anyway I guess.

Dont know, just a thought!

Since the bitrate is consumed by movement or detail, and the normal 720p 60fps mode leaves a bit to be desired quality wise compared to 1080p...

How about adding black borders around the frame of a video taken at 1080p, with the idea of cropping it to 720p in post?

(So the video would only effectively be captured in a smaller square in the middle of the frame)

I would assume that the completely black border will consume little/none of the bitrate, leaving whatever bitrate you have for concentrating on the 720p centre portion rather than spreading a given bitrate thinner across a 1080p full detail frame.

The cine version has a declicked apeture ring, so you can smoothly change apeture mid shot without clicking etc...

And the focus scale is on the side, rather than the top, I think it's in T stops or something rather than F stop.

I think it comes with some geared rings for a focus/apeture pull too.

Unless you're planning on apeture pulls though, it's probably not worth the $$$ over the usual one, as you're never going to get narrow depth of field in any useful way with this lense anyway. (Very big depth of field is the great thing about it)

Depends on what you want to film to be honest... it is SUPER wide.

Part of which means that you have to get reaaaallllyyyy close in order to get someone/something in the picture.

I made this with a 600D / Samyang 8mm / 55-250 kit lense...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwKO74cwl78

Most of the shots with the 8mm, they had to skate so close that they almost hit me half of the time, and still looked miles away in the footage.

It's great though that it has MASSIVE depth of field, I normally just set it to F8, infinity focus and the depth of field is like 10cm to infinity.

I kinda chuckled that there's a cine version though.

The focus ring is pretty much useless with so much depth of field, unless you're at F3.5 in which case it's a bit soft for my liking anyway, a focus puller would have an impossible task to focus a lense that has so much in focus, and what's out of focus is *only just*.

I guess adjusting brightness with Iris pulls would be the main drawcard vs the normal version.

It's a bit niche though, there arent too many situations where I could think it's really useful for filming apart from sports etc I guess.

If I had my time again I'd probably buy the Sigma 10-22 instead, a little more expensive but useful in a LOT more situations.

Google a program called deep sky stacker.

Also go into your camera options, and turn on Long exposure noise compensation.

This is 36 intervalometer'd pictures stacked together, F1.4 35mm ISO 800, 10 sec exposure using Deep Sky Stacker:

http://iforce.co.nz/i/seseacdy.be2.jpg

On a really clear night with no moon out, away from the city lights. Still pretty amazing the detail you can see though.

I've got the samyang 8mm and 35mm (non cine versions) and I had the 85mm for a short while.

For video I prefer using something with zoom and image stabilisation though (kit lenses 18-55 and 55-250)

If you've got a good follow focus setup then these lenses are good as the front element doesnt move or rotate, and they have big wide slow focusing rings.

However it obviously depends on your particular application etc.

It's nearly impossible to film something moving with F1.4, even with the 35mm... Worse with the 85mm.

With a photo you can take a really great photo of something with a really narrow depth of field... With a video you need about 3-4x the depth of field in order to have a chance of making a video that looks like the camera man wasnt drunk.

If you're set on buying the 70-200mm, I'd just use it in conjunction with the kit 18-55mm you've got and spend the change on a nice viewing screen, or mic or tripod or something.

Again it totally depends on the application, but I find primes really frustrating to try and use for video, moving closer or further away arent always as much of a practical option like they are for photos.

I wouldnt pay too much attention to lense reviews, for how this impacts using it for video... Remember they usually have people pixel peeping corners of test charts at 100% crop on a 20 megapixel picture.

Having a 1080p video with compression, aliasing, etc etc I've not noticed any meaningful difference between any lenses I've used so far for filming stuff, although that's limited to kit lenses, samyang lenses and a few other randoms. So your milage may vary.

Another thought then....

Currently to zoom from 3x zoom to 10x zoom you hold down the button and it slowly zooms in.

Would it be possible to amend the speed of this, and/or set a zoom to/from point?

For example a 'digital zoom' menu could look like

Point A: (say 3.5x zoom)
Point B: (say 6x zoom)
Time period (say 2 sec)

So where it starts from, where it goes to, and how long it takes to get there.

Would be rediculously handy, using the optical zoom means you have to refocus as you go...

Digital zoom is brilliant because depth of field and focus plane etc etc stays exactly as is, it's just that the scope of the controls for it is limited.

I didnt shoot it with that white balance, I shot as RAW and then chose it that way intentionally.

I like it being blue, I think it makes it look a bit more surreal, gives a cloudy looking appearance rather than looking like the sea.

It's in no way a 'natural' looking pic regardless of white balance, no long exposure is in my opinion.

Thanks for constructive comments though, I see where you guys are coming from.

Looking forward to getting out there a bit more as summer is just starting to come into swing here.

bigger:
http://iforce.co.nz/i/elwr5hy0.yyt.jpg

13 second exposure at ISO 100 and F1.4 with a Samyang 35mm.

Dont think I could have taken this pic half as well without some of the ML features!

-Used the FPS override set to 5fps, and LV display gain to focus correctly in the dark. (as it was dim moonlight only)

-Used HDR picture mode as exposure bracketing to quickly get a picture with the exposure levels I wanted, while spending a minimal amount of time out in the cold smelling like rotting fish and gannet poo 

Was out taking some photos of some boats, and just about stood on this little guy...

Then thought it was kinda funny that cars on the motorway at 100kph were just meters away from one of the slowest things which was on its own journey home too... Just on a different scale of distance and time.

Pretty narrow depth of field at F1.4 that close, so was pretty happy that the Snail kept going in a straight line over that distance haha.

Set the FPS override function set to 2.5 FPS down from 24, and fired away... too easy!

I pretty much never use autofocus, and find the in camera apeture control annoying, so dont mind the fully manual Samyangs. Have got the 8mm, and 35mm is on its way.

I've got a 'Rony' F1.7 55mm pentax lense that takes some nice pics, think it should look pretty good for film too.

Digital zoom with the 600D is a gift from the heavens for manual wide primes

Hey thanks Malcolm, that's a great help.

I'll look into that picture style.

I had a go at doing what you said.

I found a clip that I liked the look of, and then split all of my footage into the groups of differing lighting conditions and then tried to tweak them to match as best I could:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwKO74cwl78&feature=g-all-lik

I've learnt a whole heap about what to do/dont do for next time, so looking forward to getting out there again

I think next time I'll shoot in 1080p with the goal of making a 720p or 480p video (what most people probably watch it at on youtube)

So that I've got lots of leeway for shooting really wide so I dont risk missing anything off the edge of the shot, and then cropping it with panning later if need be.

Hey guys,

Took some footage yesterday in varying light conditions, where I'm at the mercy of natural lighting.

Panning with a fisheye lense means that there's no way I could use any additional lighting or anything without it being in the shot (not that I've got any, haha)

And generally was optimising towards the lowest shutter speed possible, for maximum detail on fast moving objects.

I've been trying a few different things to make the colours look natural/good, but not quite there yet.

Shooting in the 'neutral' picture style with a few different lenses on a 600D

(mainly Kit 55-250mm, Samyang 8mm, Sigma 24mm F1.8 )

In Sony vegas loading:

Colour curves, Brightness and contrast, Sharpen, saturation.

I've generally adjusted the brightness slightly up or down to suit, sharpened it, and then eyeballed saturation and colour curves so it's not too blue (As I probably had whitebalance orienting towards blue while shooting, woops)

However I've not managed to find something that looks good, and if I'm using the fisheye lense or the stock lense, they seem to give slightly different colouring to start with.

In the footage below the colouring etc isnt consistent between clips, because I've just still been trying to find a 'look' that I like. Then try to make the rest of it consistent with this when I'm happy with something.

I think at around the 25 second mark is what has come out the best so far...
Although I realise that shooting into the sun, away from the sun, in overcast etc its not going to be possible to make it completely consistent I guess. Will keep this in mind for next time.

Is 'Neutral' good to use, or are there alternatives which are better? I dont have any 3rd party picture styles loaded, thought I'd try get my head around the normal ones first.

I'm also thinking I might try 1080p next time and ditch the 60fps in favour of better clarity etc.

If anyone can impart some of their knowledge and experience for some good ways to shoot initially or grade colours afterwards, or any other constructive advice it would be much appreciated!

Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYC6N7Fzz7U

Hey I just had a random thought about the synch issue today.

I know with the Canon 600D at least, in the 'play' menu there is an edit function.

With 'cut start' and 'cut end' and one or two other integrated functions for trimming the video.

(I'd say most people have never used this, as it sucks)

Any chance of hijacking these perhaps, to help try cut the WAV and/or .MOV to sync with each other?

If the audio lagged by xzy amount each time, you could cut the start of the clip to match it.

Although, sounds like its unpredictable at the moment.

Yep I'm up to about 13000 with my 600D.

Apparently 7D shutters are rated for 250,000, I'd imagine a 5D should be that or more.

How you'd reach that though unless you shoot a hell of a lot of timelapses, I do not know

There are some battery grips that you can buy that have a 240v mains power input, so you can run it forever onwards from a wall socket if that's an option for you.

Gadgetinfinity.com has a few variations, I got the cheaper one for 600D without it, but now kinda wish I bought the mains power version.

Another option is that there are Remote controlled car batteries which are 7.2v already and 5000-6000mah, you could modify a battery grip to accept one of these.

That looks great, nice work.

Did it work well?