HDDSLRs Work Better With a Fast Memory Card
A growing variety of new “prosumer” DSLRs have the ability to capture HD video and are referred to as VDSLRs (yes, the ‘V’ in VDSLR stands for video) or HDDSLRs. If you’re considering the Nikon D5000 or the Canon EOS Rebel T1i, for instance, you’ll be equipped with the ability to make true high definition (HD) video using your new HDDSLR.
So what’s the big deal? Why is it better, or different, shooting video with a VDSLR instead of your trusty video camera? The biggest difference is the ability to use different lenses. That’s what the pro film makers do – they use different lenses for different filming techniques. Now you, as a prosumer, can do that too! Screw on your thrifty 50 and enjoy filming with dramatic depth of field. Do some editing, set your video to music, and you’ll have friends and family cooing over your latest art project.
As a superb example of what’s possible, the video below was shot with a VDSLR. It was featured on Nikon’s recently-announced contest for creating a 140-second video. There are some real gems featured in this contest, but this video was one of the outstanding ones. They used interesting angles, did it in black and white, paired it with dramatic music, and much more. Check it out…
Finding Forgiveness is a true story about a day in my life as a Figure Skater when I was going through difficult times and relied heavily on my art form to help find composure. Being a starving artist brought tremendous pressures on even the littlest things in my life. A fight in my relationship left me without release. The one thing I was truly good at brought us together, yet inevitably tore us apart. From time to time, there was only one place I could turn to… A place where one day I found forgiveness.
Finding Forgiveness Credits:
Music: Shine by Ulrich Schnauss (Domino / Universal Music) / www.ulrichschnauss.com
Filmed by Bryan Spinelli / Spin Media Productions LLC / www.spinmp.com
Produced & Edited by Joseph Gazzola / www.josephgazzola.com
Actress: Courtney Perrone / www.courtneyperrone.com
Shot entirely on DLSRs.
The HD version can be found on www.josephgazzola.com
About the camera gear they used to create Finding Forgiveness:
Lenses:
Canon Telephoto 70-200mm – f/2.8 L Series
Camera & Accessories:
Edited on Edius
Jib, Dolly, Tripod with Par 64
One of the hidden costs of buying a DSLR is the memory card. And if you’re going to take advantage of making some creative videos on your HDDSLR you’re going to be happier if you get a larger, faster memory card. Why? Because shooting video eats up a lot of space on your card, and it requires that the card is fast (allows data to be written to the card quickly). An excellent choice for a video card is SanDisk. Check out SanDisk’s new Extreme Cards.
If you’d like to see more examples of video shot with VDSLRs, investigate Vimeo’s HDDSLR group, DSLR Cinema on Vimeo.
Related Links
Photofocus, published by Scott Bourne, is a good resource for updates on what’s happening with VDSLR Just search “video” on his blog. Scott is a Canon shooter and appears to be doing a lot of video on DSLR. He’s well known and a thought leader in the digital photography revolution.
Thanks Greg, we really appreciate the support.
I’ve been shooting video for a long time with the Sony Z1s and FINALLY have the ability to use good lenses and have shallow DOF. It’s so nice. You’re right on about the cards. I used an 8GB SanDisk Extreme 60MB/s for the majority of the shoot but had to keep dumping it to a laptop on set and shooting a 4GB Ultra II in the meantime. The Ultra II did work ok, but was definitely much slower to start/stop and transfer.
Digital memory,to me, is something that I seemingly will never have enough of. It’s as if megabytes and gigabytes have become an inseparable part of my day to day existence. Ever since I bought a Micro SD Card for my Nintendo DS flash card, I’ve been on permanent watch for high memory at cheap prices. It’s driving me absolutely nuts.(Submitted by N3T 2 for R4i Nintendo DS.)