I had a fantastic Saturday at Propville’s Dog and Pony Show @ Sandbox Studios.  No, this was not a canine and equestrian show.  Rather, this was to discuss video as a technology that is converging with still photography, and to play with some HD video cameras as well as DSLRs that shoot video.

PANEL DISCUSSION:

Our panelists for the morning were Jon Felix, Director of Photography, Raj Gajwani of Silverdock, and Mark Rutherford of Lux Imaging Services.

Each panelist spoke a bit about their ventures into motion pictures, narrative differences between still and video, business practices, and technical & aesthetic considerations. Basically it was discussed that even though technologies are converging, the usage of each medium won’t freely jump back and forth as they have different purposes. Stills are good for drawing people into a moment, as well as allowing exploration of details in a product. Video is fantastic for narratives and storytelling. Yes, Greg Williams did a fantastic job with Megan Fox in Esquire.  But it was alluded that the piece was a rooted as a photoshoot performed with a video camera, and not a dual-purpose dealy-o. The video on the website is really just an added bonus.

LUNCH!

Our sustenance was graciously provided by Jacqueline Burns’ Work of Art Catering. Their wonderful, fresh, and tasty sandwiches, potato & chick-pea salads, as well as a delicious burnt caramel brownie were all outstanding.

PLAYTIME!

The second half of the day was spent oogling over DSLRs and video cameras on two separate sets.

The interview set talent was comprised of production virtuoso Boris Zubov and musician/composer Elise Lebec. Unfortunately, I was unable to hear any of the content as we were all clamoring over the JVC GY-HM700U, Nikon D90, and Sony PMWEX-3. I must note that solid state recording in all of the cameras (especially the Sony and JVC) kicks the snot out of DV tape recording from my heyday in broadcasting. The JVC can record directly to FCP .mov’s too! The Nikon’s cool. But it’ll take some time before it achieves camcorder status and functionality.

The kitchen set was a little more under control as Megan, Teri’s assistant from Propville made sure we kept quiet on the set during shooting (however, I heard that the interview set calmed down after my group switched to the Kitchen set). Guy Arnone, of Arnone’s Little Italy, showed off some skills while telling some amusing stories. He whipped up a fantastic caprese salad as well as some awesome stuffed peppers for us camerafolk to enjoy.

The cameras on this set were the Canon 5Dmk2, Nikon D5000, and JVC GY-HM100U. I got to play with the cameras on this set, and here are my impressions:

Canon 5Dmk2

The setup I worked with had a Beachtek audio mixer/preamp with an overhead set boom mic. A Hasselblad Zeiss lens was also used with this setup. After using camcorders for video, manual focusing (especially on the heavily dampened focusing ring on the Hassie lens) is such a chore! If I set the camera onto a tripod, it would’ve been fine. But, I chose to move about the set. The LCD screen doesn’t seem up to task with active video work, as I found myself rolling focus a lot. Then again, I probably just lack skill. The manual video controls are nice, but I essentially just used exposure compensation to bring up and down the levels as I moved about the set. Someone later slapped a Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AIS lens on this baby and that looked awesome. I guess there is something to be said about the full 35mm frame DOF and some good old school glass. All in all, a nice setup, but it wouldn’t be my first choice for video work.

Nikon D5000

I’m used to my D200, so this camera felt like a toy! The swivel screen feature is nice, especially shooting at odd angles. Lack of manual focus during video recording (the same with the other DSLRs) made moving about the set a bit of a nuisance. Other than that, it’s a quaint little package. And for ~$900, if you want to play, this is quite accessible. Also, this wouldn’t be my first choice for video work. But it’s novel.

JVC GY-HM100U

Ah!!  Finally a proper video camera. I could move about the set and not worry too much about the technical aspects of focusing and the like. Just fire it up and shoot. The ability to go from 720/24p all the way up to 1080/60i makes it a proper versatile video tool. The Nikon can only shoot 720/24p, and the Canon can only shoot 1080/30p. It of course, has automatic modes for hassle-free shooting as well as creative-freedom manual modes so you can manipulate things like iris/aperture, shutterspeed, and focus (with a focus assist function so you don’t go nuts finding focus). Oh, and this shoots to SDHC cards too, for fast fast post production workflow.

Closing Thoughts:

Thank you Teri and Propville for putting on such an informative event. I’ve been out of the video field for a bit, and this event gets me back in the current mix. IMHO, DSLRs w/ video are cool and all, but not quite ready for heavy use. The JVCs are my pick for now. Though, it would be nice to use some high quality photo glass for video sometime…decisions decisions.

Also, big ups to all the sponsors, talent, and panelists for the event:

JVC
Snader & Associates
LiveBooks
Sony
Adolf Gasser’s
Sandbox Studios
Calumet Photographic
Work of Art Catering
Elise Lebec
Boris Zubov
Guy Arnone
Mark Rutherford
Raj Gajwani
Jon Felix

You guys were awesome!

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