A Day Of Play - A well rounded 7D Test
 

Alright, so I got my 7D last week and I took it out on the day I got it and shot some footage, well I finally got around to editing something together and this is what I came up with.

YouTube - Day Of Play

I wanted to test the rolling shutter and how it would effect Steadicam work. The very first shot is a good example of a worst case real world scenario (dark black vertical bars against a high contrast bright background) and I am happy with how it turned out.
All Steadicam shots where with the Steadicam Pilot with a Canon 10-22mm.

I also wanted to test hand held with a long lens. Everything at the playground is with the kit Canon 17-135mm lens.

Then I wanted to test the DOP in a darker room. All the interior shots are with a 50mm 1.8 with ISO at about 400-500.

And lastly I wanted to test slowmo. So all the last shots where 60P put through Cinema Tools. Again, very happy with how they turned out.

Let me know what you think!

Andrew

Thanks for posting the clip. Beautiful little short. Nice to see the whole family celebrating your first day with the 7D.

Thanks! Yeah, I am absolutely in love with this camera... it is PERFECT for me being an incredible STILL camera and an amazing VIDEO camera all in one. Much better than lugging around both a DSLR and a bulky HDV camera around. Love it!

Andrew, That was great... now put it away and bring it out every 10 years and show the wife and kids.. maybe even the turtle... you all will get a kick out of it...

I was sure the 10-22mm was going to work guite well with the video...

Great stuff! The footage you've shot so far of your family is priceless.

Andy:

Beautiful shooting. Nice demontration of the camera's capabilities.

My wife and I both watched it, and it reminded us of ourselves 33 years ago. We had two kids a year apart. Yours look pretty close too ?

No video in ours days, so you make sure you keep this safe because it will be a treasure in the future. We had a few rolls of Super 8 taken over the years, so we have some recorded memories. Irreplaceable.

Yeah, for some reason... I have not made too many home videos... especially odd being that I make my living shooting video. I guess the saying about the shoe makers kids never having nice shoes or whatever holds true. This camera will defiantly change that, it's so easy to whip out and shoot a quick clip and not have to worry too much about lighting, tapes, etc. Really a great camera! Thanks for all the compliments.

I am impressed in many ways & realize I got a lot to learn. I just got my 7D, shot yesterday testing it out really for the first time. Can I ask you some questions:

1. Regarding video editing, what do you use and what do you suggest for me being a beginner, wanting something easy to use, be able to accept MOV files, cost, & not something I will quickly out grow & wish I did not buy?

2. How do you download a video so it is still so clear yet small enough to post on youtube/internet? I just downloaded a free version of AVS4you software (do you know that software/impressions?) to begin learning how to edit but when I converted it to a INTERNET type file it was still pretty big & the quality was bad when I made that file compared to the larger settings it had as options.

3. How did you get the shots sweeping around your kids & hold the camera so steady? I was having all type of problems keeping the video steady with a tripod yesterday. I was shooting some shots with a 400mm prime for surfing so I know that is a factor.

I am not Andrew, but here is what I would do in your situation, assuming PC.

1, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, use with NeoScene from Cineform. Later you can upgrade to Vegas Pro.

2. In Vegas Pro, I use a 1280 x 720 mp4 setting that does well. Works well with YouTube and Vimeo.

3. You have to stabilize. In lens IS not made for video, from what I can tell. Shoulder brace, weighted stabilizer. I am betting that is what Andrew did. This camera is not for hand holding in the configuration out of the box. With long lenses, shelter from wind, and maybe get the lens itself stabilized with a rails support, at least for video shooting.

Jeff,

Yeah, those are all good answers. I'm on a mac so I'm using Final Cut Pro just fine without any plugins. I export using a default YouTube setting in quicktime. Works well enough for me. As far as stabilizers, I wouldn't say my steadicam work was all that stable... It was really difficult trying to shoot my kids who are so short without flipping my steadicam into low mode. I am considering getting the Merlin as it seems like a good fit for the 7D. I think the Pilot is a little over kill for such a light camera. The other thing that helps the footage to look more stable is that I used a 10-22mm lens at 10mm for all the steadicam work.

^^^ Andrew & Chris, I got a pc, will the Vegas Movie Studio Platinum & NeoScene from Cineform be the right choice in my application?

My history, starting about 8 years ago:

1. Pinnacle Studio

2. Premiere 6 & 7 with a board

3. Premiere Pro

4. Picked up Vegas Movie Studio, to see why so many were tauting Vegas. Tried a little, it was different from Premiere, so I kind of put it away.

5. Vegas Pro was offered with a great upgrade deal. I bought it, along with Cineform intermediate program because I was moving into HDV. Vegas is all I use right now, along with plugin that are great additions for Vegas. Adobe has moved to advances, but I stopped updating. I found myself always going to Vegas because as I learned it, it seemed to be much easier to use, and results seemed to be better.

I use Vegas Pro with my Canon 5D material, and I am guessing that Movie Studio will do okay with it. I think Pro just offers more functions.

Jeff, If you want to just play around and not get too bogged down with editing but at the same time make your footage look like you took days and days of editing, may I suggest a really fun program called Muvee Reveal.

Years ago I was asked to shoot a car show with a still camera and somehow put it all together in a TV spot... so I go out and take hundreds of pictures, come home and picked
out the ones I thought were good and started to put together a slide show using Adobe Premiere.. I worked on that thing for at least a week, thought it looked pretty good, but something wasn't quite right and I just didn't like it... the music didn't sync up with my fades and the pan and zooms just weren't working....

Then on a whim I just put all of the stills into Muvee, put a nice song in there and let the program have at it... took about 5 minutes, and I was saying wow... played with it a few
more times trying out the different options and it all turned out great...

you don't get all of the controls you have available to you with Vegas ( I use that also )
but the output is nice and its fast.. and later when you do get the itch to move up to
Vegas or Premiere then you can also intermix the Muvee output with your Vegas masterpiece...

And it works with the stills and the video from your 7D without having to resize any of it
before it goes into Muvee... it also gives you many options when you output the footage..
Web, Iphone, HD.. and other outputs.

Here's the site... incase you want to download the tryout...

Store - Best quality home movie with high definition support | muvee Reveal

I hope this doesn't turn into a software or workflow thread, I really hope this can stay about the camera it's self and what it can do. Thanks guys!

Andrew, sorry for the hyjack...

Can you tell us more about how you stabilized the camera when shooting the footage...