Sunday, September 13, 2009

Canon 7D

Canon recently announced the Canon EOS 7D which can shoot 1080p 24p HD video, as well as 720p (including 60p for overcranking). The format of choice for Canon is AVCHD. The camera is intriguing because I'm already considering going the route of getting a 35mm adapter for my HMC150, but I do not currently own any professional lenses. We're also wanting to get a "real" DSLR camera, so why not combine the desire for shooting HD video with the ability for nice DoF videography and a nice DSLR?

There are a few videos that have popped up featuring footage from this DSLR shot by some of the best in the business. Here are a few of the links:

What's clear by these samples are that the 7d seems to remain relatively stationary, shot almost as if they were taking stills. I love these kinds of shots where the action exists within the shot (as opposed to whip pans and intentional "shakycam"). Because this camera uses CMOS sensors, there's the risk of "jello" or rolling shutter, so it appears the filmmakers were careful and played to the camera's strengths. I have yet to see evidence that there is rolling shutters with the 7D but I'm sure it's possible.

2 comments:

Phillip Gibb said...

I am also wondering about getting a DSLR (HD-SLR).
First to sell my Panasonic and then consider a Canon 550D or this new 60D.
However, what concerns me, is how easy is it to edit AVCHD, and how mush do you sacrifice with that encoding.

Brian Wilson said...

If you're editing on CS5 I think it's really easy to edit with native AVCHD. I use FInal Cut and transcode to Prores. With the HMC150 it seems like I'm fairly limited in just how far I can push the image with color correction, however I've been very impressed with what I can do with the 7D's image. Both the 550D and 7D have a higher bitrate to their clips so I think that helps.