New pro camera for dual needs

[Andy_S]

Only my second post here so go easy.

I am a photographer first and foremost but I am planning a partial switch to include a video production side to my start-up business.

I am looking to purchase a pro video camera but there is so much to think about that I really need some help and guidance.

The two sides to my video production would be as follows:

1) Producing aviation enthusiast "in the cockpit" type DVDs. This is an example of the kind of think I mean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZb8ywaHlT4 Also airside/planes in flight and maybe airshow DVDs too. I would hope to also include other transportation subjects at a later date but the aviation would come first as I know that sector like the back of my hand and have some contacts.

2) 2nd part of the business would produce travel/tourist (souvenir) type DVDs. I think I could make a fresh and modern approach to these. This came about as I have a possible trial run with my local tourist office in my town in the UK. They are quite interested to see if tourists type DVDs would sell well.

So I need a pro video camera that could cover both of those areas and be something of a sufficient level that I wouldn't have to upgrade in the future if my business takes off (buy right, buy once).
I currently own a Canon 1DmkIV plus pro L series lenses.

The camera I have considered are the Sony EX1R and EX3. I then had a look at the Sony HVR-S270E and HVR Z7E as they take tapes and this would cut down the cost of recording media a LOT. I am not 100% sure if HDV tape would be ok quality but I think they might.

Sorry for the long post but any help would be really appreciated.

Andy S

 

[David.rhsc]

Ah.

I'm not really a big fan of CF or tape these days so I'll bow out on that camera.

I will say that I've used a z7u (appears to be the predecessor) and I didn't like it much. I can relate to the budget concerns though. SxS is definitely spendy but they are also bulletproof and very fast.

 

[Andy_S]

I believe there is some adaptor so that you can run SDHC cards in place of the SxS ones. Do you have any experience with them?


What don't you like tape? Is there a quality issue or something or is it just a personal preference?

 

[David.rhsc]

I think we have one of those in the EX1r kit somewhere, but I've never personally used it. There is some sort of card reader in the camera bag, but it might not be for that. Not really sure.

Mostly personal preference on the tape thing, but it's logistics more than quality that bothers me. I did have a terrible time with HDV out of a Canon when editing with Premiere, but that was the fault of the codec not the tape. I really do hate having to ingest in real time, I don't like having to store massive tape archives, keeping track of them during a shoot, and so on.

On the camera side, I like the idea of fewer moving parts, no worry about gunk building up because you had to switch tape brands in an emergency, less maintenance, less power draw, and lighter weight.

The real question is do you want to schlep several boxes of tapes onto your shoots and do you want to keep buying tape in perpetuity? It's cheaper at the outset than cards, but at ~$10 USD for a quality tape, it starts to add up.

Again, my thing with tape is personal preference. I've used miniDV, HDV, DVCAM, and so on. Nothing wrong with it, strictly speaking, but I'd rather swap cards and have a download going than worry about tape.

 

[CamVader]

You bring on some interesting points, David. I am so accustomed to tape - 1/2", then DVC Pro, DV when I found out there was an adapter to play DV on DVC Pro VTR's, and then finally HDV once I could start affording my own equipment.

I must open up my horizons with my next camera purchase.

I'm expecting DV tape to be going up in price steeply in the next couple of years to stimulate new technology purchases.

I won't miss the capture hour when I shot too much.

 

[chilipie]

Good point. I tend to think in terms of older still lenses or cine lenses where that's not a problem, so I often forget about it. Really no way to do that on the lens? Baffling.

I don't know, I don't think any of the fotodiox mounts allow you to pass through electronic signals. That functionally changes things.

Makes sense for stills I suppose, since you need the control on the body if you want to do anything other than full manual or aperture priority. I'm using a couple of manual still lenses on my 550D now and I really like having the control on the lens, especially as the camera doesn't have two rotary dials like its bigger brothers.

I do vaguely remember RedRock producing an aperture control thing for EOS lenses on their 35mm adapter, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called, and I've no idea if it'd work on any of Panasonic's offerings.

I won't miss the capture hour when I shot too much.

I actually quite missed it when I moved from tape to solid state Conversion to ProRes is usually a bit quicker than realtime for me but I found it really useful having to sit through every take - much easier to get to know the footage so to speak.

 

[David.rhsc]

Makes sense for stills I suppose, since you need the control on the body if you want to do anything other than full manual or aperture priority. I'm using a couple of manual still lenses on my 550D now and I really like having the control on the lens, especially as the camera doesn't have two rotary dials like its bigger brothers.

I do vaguely remember RedRock producing an aperture control thing for EOS lenses on their 35mm adapter, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called, and I've no idea if it'd work on any of Panasonic's offerings.

http://store.redrockmicro.com/Catal...iveLens-active-lens-mount-for-Canon-EF-lenses

Interesting idea. If there's enough room to get the correct FFD it could be done, although probably not with off the shelf parts. The lens side is EOS EF, but not sure if one could find a mount that would go from m4/3 to whatever mount is on the box side of that live lens thing.

I actually quite missed it when I moved from tape to solid state Conversion to ProRes is usually a bit quicker than realtime for me but I found it really useful having to sit through every take - much easier to get to know the footage so to speak.

Part of the problem for me might have been that I never really had the horsepower to watch and ingest at the same time.