New Testingstan

Questor wrote:DSLR's are nice, but they do have some limitations. I would not recommend using a DSLR you've never used before to film a documentary. Also, the onboard mics are universally horrible. If you're looking for something where you can buy lenses for both, take a look at the Sony NEX range. I think Canon may have a comparable range as well.

Yeah, seriously. DSLRs are getting a lot of attention recently for movie-making but they have a lot of limitations you need to work around, mostly as a result of the fact they're made for, well, photos rather than movies. A good example is the some-times screwy way electronic lenses handle aperture that can be a major headache for movie making but utterly irrelevent when taking a photo.

Manus Dei wrote:

Questor wrote:DSLR's are nice, but they do have some limitations. I would not recommend using a DSLR you've never used before to film a documentary. Also, the onboard mics are universally horrible. If you're looking for something where you can buy lenses for both, take a look at the Sony NEX range. I think Canon may have a comparable range as well.

Yeah, seriously. DSLRs are getting a lot of attention recently for movie-making but they have a lot of limitations you need to work around, mostly as a result of the fact they're made for, well, photos rather than movies. A good example is the some-times screwy way electronic lenses handle aperture that can be a major headache for movie making but utterly irrelevent when taking a photo.

News to me. I know most DSLRs have some basic movie recording features but it would've never occurred to me to try and use one for any kind of serious video production work.

A DSLR was used for Act of Valor and Tiny Furniture. It's possible to make a feature film with one.

Yeah I have a couple friends that filmed their entire documentary on a DSLR. Came out okay.

Manus Dei wrote:Yeah, seriously. DSLRs are getting a lot of attention recently for movie-making but they have a lot of limitations you need to work around, mostly as a result of the fact they're made for, well, photos rather than movies. A good example is the some-times screwy way electronic lenses handle aperture that can be a major headache for movie making but utterly irrelevent when taking a photo.

My favorite video-SLR moment was listening to a teacher who'd ignored my recommendations (because " just don't like Canon") and paid a stupid amount for the EOS they filmed that episode of House with.

He was really annoyed when the autofocus was loud, and there was no auto-zoom.

It's almost like professional DPs/cameramen who are used to manual focus and manual zoom can operate them well, but they're not right for amateurs, amirite?

Said teacher did eventually buy a NEX, and loves it. That's a nice camera, even though it does have the aforementioned lack of auto-zoom, but it's doable without the loud/useless autofocus.