Canon xl 2 ?

D

dvdguy

Hey filmmakers,

So I gathered up enough money to buy myself a Canon XL 2 and before I buy it online, and for those with actual experience, I was just wondering if I could read your opinion. Would mean a lot!

:) thanks
 
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Nice well written blog's cracker. :) Aren't the bright spots of the 7D that it is weather resistant and can display HDMI out while filming? As far as the screen goes, that's why I would recommend the T3i over the T2i, as it has the same articulating screen as the 60D, it allows you to manual control audio where the T2i does not natively without MagicLantern firmware, is a little bigger then the T2i, and has a few added digital bonuses. So I guess you would have to weigh the $130 price difference of the T2i vs the T3i with those in mind. But I can totally understand Gonzo, for projects that are time sensitive and money consuming where you would need the real deal rigs to save you from having to re-shoot scenes simply because it came out a little out of focus. Especially if that difference in time from using the rig vs not would end up accumulating to an amount greater then what you would have paid for that rig in the first place. :) I have a feeling once I get my T3i and play around with it, that at some point I will end up building my own custom follow focus.
 
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Thank you guys for your honest opinion!

I reconsidered the whole thing and after realizing that this cam sure is something I decided to go with the Canon t2i!
-Gooberman: thanks so much for that link you gave me.

-Cracker Funk: yeah, Ill give it a shot (lol), and I was planning on using an external mic anyway! So even better :)

-Gonzo Entertainment: Yeah what you said may be true, but like IndieBudget said, everything takes to get used to! So I think I can make beautiful results ,even after seeing those marvelous videos.

Thanks again!!


P.S. How big are the CCD's? I heard bigger is better ( no grain etc.)
 
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T2i is an amazing cam for the money. I've just made it a personal mission to expose the myths that you can take one out of the box without serious lighting gear, and quite a few accessories, and go shoot a feature on one. You can't. Well maybe you can if you have a LOT of time.

I was working on a location where the filmmakers had 3 days to shoot 25 pages. ANYTHING that slows you down such as

"Damn it! I have a good exposure at 2.8, but Bob who is 2 feet behind Sally is way soft. We're going to have to take the half hour to re-light this scene so I can stop it down to like F 16 and deepen the DOF to get them both is focus"

Or

"Shit! I REALLY want an up angle from the floorboard of her in the car, but it's a trip to hell trying to get the shot framed and focused when I can't see the frigging screen"

aren't minor inconveniences, they are the difference between getting the film made and not.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
T2i is an amazing cam for the money. I've just made it a personal mission to expose the myths that you can take one out of the box without serious lighting gear, and quite a few accessories, and go shoot a feature on one. You can't. Well maybe you can if you have a LOT of time.

I was working on a location where the filmmakers had 3 days to shoot 25 pages. ANYTHING that slows you down such as

"Damn it! I have a good exposure at 2.8, but Bob who is 2 feet behind Sally is way soft. We're going to have to take the half hour to re-light this scene so I can stop it down to like F 16 and deepen the DOF to get them both is focus"

Or

"Shit! I REALLY want an up angle from the floorboard of her in the car, but it's a trip to hell trying to get the shot framed and focused when I can't see the frigging screen"

aren't minor inconveniences, they are the difference between getting the film made and not.
Click to expand...


Hmm, what lenses would be good besides the one Gooberman provided me with? Say, if im shooting INTERIOR's wouldnt I need like a Wide Angle Lens or something similar?

Oh and whats the situation with CCD's on the t2i? If the have any, cause I dont know much about them. All I read about them is they make a difference in absorbing light and have a connection with grainy videos.
 
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All the DSLRs are CMOS not CCCD. The 7D and the T2i both have an 18.6 megapixel sensor that crops the image at 1.6 (a 50mm lens becomes an 80mm lens), the 5DMK2 has a 21.1 megapixel sensor that is full frame (a 50mm is a 50mm).

A basic kit is a wide, a normal, and a close up, so something in the 28mm to 35mm range, a 50mm, and something in the 80 to 100 mm range.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
All the DSLRs are CMOS not CCCD. The 7D and the T2i both have an 18.6 megapixel sensor that crops the image at 1.6 (a 50mm lens becomes an 80mm lens), the 5DMK2 has a 21.1 megapixel sensor that is full frame (a 50mm is a 50mm).

A basic kit is a wide, a normal, and a close up, so something in the 28mm to 35mm range, a 50mm, and something in the 80 to 100 mm range.
Click to expand...


Thanks for that!

Ill have a look. Gotta buy me some. lol.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
T2i is an amazing cam for the money. I've just made it a personal mission to expose the myths that you can take one out of the box without serious lighting gear, and quite a few accessories, and go shoot a feature on one. You can't. Well maybe you can if you have a LOT of time.

I was working on a location where the filmmakers had 3 days to shoot 25 pages. ANYTHING that slows you down such as

"Damn it! I have a good exposure at 2.8, but Bob who is 2 feet behind Sally is way soft. We're going to have to take the half hour to re-light this scene so I can stop it down to like F 16 and deepen the DOF to get them both is focus"

Or

"Shit! I REALLY want an up angle from the floorboard of her in the car, but it's a trip to hell trying to get the shot framed and focused when I can't see the frigging screen"

aren't minor inconveniences, they are the difference between getting the film made and not.
Click to expand...

Did you guys try the trick where you stick a mirror in the place you would want the camera and then adjust and zoom the lens on the mirror to get the same effect? Then flip the image in editing?

In the clip I posted titled Location scout, they use all natural lighting there and use the camera handheld and with a steadicam combo. After that, they made there short film. Here is the short they made with the T2i. Which I thought looked pretty cool :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66MWzGlv3fQ
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
Just giving my opinion after spending the entire weekend with some people trying to shoot a feature on a
5DMK2.

You are dealing with a tiny screen you can't move (except on the 60D). It makes it very difficult to shoot with the camera in odd positions (shoved in a corner, in the floorboard of a car, etc...) where the screen isn't visible. The tiny fixed screen also makes it very diffcult for the director and the DP to both see what's in frame at the same time, expecially since the eye piece becomes unusable.

Shallow DOF is great, BUT unless you light the bejeesus out of stuff and stop the camera WAY down the DOF tends to be so razor thin that it's virtually impossible to shoot masters. People a foot from each other may not both be in focus, and any movement of the talent around in the shot requires almost constant focus pulls. Trying to do this without a follow focus is next to impossible.

You are dealing with the infamous 4 stops of usable exposure. A sunlit window in the room can result in having to throw 2000W of light at the talent so you can stop down far enough to prevent the window from being totally blown out.

This stuff can all be overcome, by working slower, but on a movie set time = money like nowhere on earth.

Don't get me wrong, I am buying one (5DMK2) this weekend, but I have seen first hand that much of what I had read is true. If you think you are gonna take a DSLR out of the box and use it a camera to shoot serious long format projects without a SERIOUS additional gear investment is self delusion.
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Dude, that's sweet that you're getting the 5d. Awesome camera. I mean no disrespect, but I think maybe some of what you're saying is a reflection of the fact that as of now, your experience with these cameras is only through observing others. I'm afraid you've mentioned a couple innacuracies.

It is very true what you said about not having a moveable screen. If you're in tight quarters, and trying to get the camera somewhere where a human can't stand behind, yes, that is a difficulty.

What you're saying about DOF, though, is actually backwards. In no way, whatsoever, are you forced to keep shallow depth of field. I can't help but wonder, if perhaps the reason you feel this way, is because the people you observed are in the crowd that has gone crazy over shallow depth of field, and use it constantly. They probably had a prime on, for every shot, and maybe even a couple ND filters? I dunno, I'm just guessing, obviously, but I can say, with absolute certainty -- if you want wide depth of field, you can get it as wide as you want (that's how I shot my feature, with the T2i straight out of the box). For most of my movie, I kept the f-stop between 8-11, and you can see EVERYTHING in clear view (though, I will admit that you mentioned blown out windows -- yes, I did have blown out windows).

zim9000 said:
Nice well written blog's cracker. :) Aren't the bright spots of the 7D that it is weather resistant and can display HDMI out while filming? As far as the screen goes, that's why I would recommend the T3i over the T2i, as it has the same articulating screen as the 60D, it allows you to manual control audio where the T2i does not natively without MagicLantern firmware, is a little bigger then the T2i, and has a few added digital bonuses. So I guess you would have to weigh the $130 price difference of the T2i vs the T3i with those in mind. But I can totally understand Gonzo, for projects that are time sensitive and money consuming where you would need the real deal rigs to save you from having to re-shoot scenes simply because it came out a little out of focus. Especially if that difference in time from using the rig vs not would end up accumulating to an amount greater then what you would have paid for that rig in the first place. :) I have a feeling once I get my T3i and play around with it, that at some point I will end up building my own custom follow focus.
Click to expand...

The T3i has an articulating screen? Very nice. That's definitely something I would want, very much. As for HDMI, the T2i can be connected to a monitor, but the image is SD.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Dude, that's sweet that you're getting the 5d. Awesome camera. I mean no disrespect, but I think maybe some of what you're saying is a reflection of the fact that as of now, your experience with these cameras is only through observing others. I'm afraid you've mentioned a couple innacuracies.

It is very true what you said about not having a moveable screen. If you're in tight quarters, and trying to get the camera somewhere where a human can't stand behind, yes, that is a difficulty.

What you're saying about DOF, though, is actually backwards. In no way, whatsoever, are you forced to keep shallow depth of field. I can't help but wonder, if perhaps the reason you feel this way, is because the people you observed are in the crowd that has gone crazy over shallow depth of field, and use it constantly. They probably had a prime on, for every shot, and maybe even a couple ND filters? I dunno, I'm just guessing, obviously, but I can say, with absolute certainty -- if you want wide depth of field, you can get it as wide as you want (that's how I shot my feature, with the T2i straight out of the box). For most of my movie, I kept the f-stop between 8-11, and you can see EVERYTHING in clear view (though, I will admit that you mentioned blown out windows -- yes, I did have blown out windows).



The T3i has an articulating screen? Very nice. That's definitely something I would want, very much. As for HDMI, the T2i can be connected to a monitor, but the image is SD.
Click to expand...


The image is SD solely on the monitor or does that count for the whole footage you get?

By the way, one guy is selling a EF - S 18 - 135 Kit, I was just wondering is that kit good? I mean, since its 18-135mm does it exclude every other lens? (a wide, a normal, a close-up) Because this one seems to have a lot.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
The T3i has an articulating screen? Very nice. That's definitely something I would want, very much. As for HDMI, the T2i can be connected to a monitor, but the image is SD.
Click to expand...

Oooo, I didn't know it could at least do SD monitoring. That might be cool, because I just happen to have a portable DVD player with a 7" screen with video-in. Have to test that out.

The T3i also has a new feature called movie digital zoom. Here is a quick link. Should be interesting if the quality is true to what they say. You guys should check it out!

http://www.cinema5d.com/news/?p=5492
 
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dvdguy said:
The image is SD solely on the monitor or does that count for the whole footage you get?

By the way, one guy is selling a EF - S 18 - 135 Kit, I was just wondering is that kit good? I mean, since its 18-135mm does it exclude every other lens? (a wide, a normal, a close-up) Because this one seems to have a lot.
Click to expand...

SD is only for monitoring. You're still recording HD.

18-135 would be nice to have for versatility. My purchase came with an 18-55. Many people recommend your first lens to purchase be the 50mm prime (it's only $100). The prime has a much lower f-stop than the kit lens, and that is something that you will often want. I wouldn't use a prime exclusively, however. First, you might not always want a low f-stop. And secondly, you really need a wide lens, and I do mean NEED. I couldn't do without the 18mm part of my kit lens.
 
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zim9000 said:
Oooo, I didn't know it could at least do SD monitoring. That might be cool, because I just happen to have a portable DVD player with a 7" screen with video-in. Have to test that out.

The T3i also has a new feature called movie digital zoom. Here is a quick link. Should be interesting if the quality is true to what they say. You guys should check it out!

http://www.cinema5d.com/news/?p=5492
Click to expand...

I haven't watched the video, so it's possible I might be missing something. But when I hear "digital zoom", my ears bleed. Anything you can do in-camera, digitally, can be done in post (as far as zoom is concerned), so I would personally never use that. I think it's more for the hobbyist.
 
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Yeah its nothing im expecting to work, but its being stated as a lossless digital zoom. Which as stated in the link, its a must see to believe. Who knows. Maybe those clever Canon engineers figured something out :)
 
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Cracker Funk said:
SD is only for monitoring. You're still recording HD.

18-135 would be nice to have for versatility. My purchase came with an 18-55. Many people recommend your first lens to purchase be the 50mm prime (it's only $100). The prime has a much lower f-stop than the kit lens, and that is something that you will often want. I wouldn't use a prime exclusively, however. First, you might not always want a low f-stop. And secondly, you really need a wide lens, and I do mean NEED. I couldn't do without the 18mm part of my kit lens.
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But whats wrong with using the lens i mentioned for WIDE? I mean its 18mm aswell :) I dont understand the difference. f-stop? How is the f-stop making the difference, dont quite understand hehe
 
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dvdguy said:
I sure hope that place is good to buy from. I mean international buyers cant pay with Paypal so Im kind of worried.
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Huh, I see they list "USA, UK, and Canada only. Shipping address must be a PayPal confirmed address." I wonder why that is? I ordered my 50mm lens from there just a little while ago. Its in shipping and looks like it might be here tomorrow! :D
 
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zim9000 said:
Huh, I see they list "USA, UK, and Canada only. Shipping address must be a PayPal confirmed address." I wonder why that is? I ordered my 50mm lens from there just a little while ago. Its in shipping and looks like it might be here tomorrow! :D
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My god the shipping prices are out of line on this site!! Check this out:

ProVista Airlift Tripod with Pneumatic Centerpost (International express mail = 200 dollars) My god...That costs me over 400 bucks just for the friggin stand.
 
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