Continuous recording DSLR?

[Ger Griffin]

Originally Posted by Stephen Daugherty

I believe he needs something to record unattended for longer than 12minutes - not that he can't synch his videos with a camcorder.

Ive made my point already about magic lantern combined with plural eyes. i shouldnt need to elaborate.
But for the benefit of some, I will.
The continuous record problem has being completely nulled and voided in recent months.
Its a non issue. Especially for a B cam

As for crop factors. I dont need to watch anyone elses videos to see the difference. I have plenty of my own experience. And I brought it into it because it is always an important consideration in DSLR choice.
And its not a crime to bring something new to a thread around here.

RE lenses . What could initially seem like an easy choice in terms of camera body can end up as a long term costly decision in relation to glass. For example the next gen of Canon DSLR bodies will have improved Af in live view mode. So native (not adapted) lenses are an important consideration.
(eagerly awaiting November 3rd when Canon announces my next video camera with full control over EF lenses...)

Sure the GH2 has some advantages too. Drumroll.................

[Ervin Farkas]

I am completely new to the dslr world.... please explain or point me to a tutorial on this crop factor thing.

Thanks,

[Stephen Daugherty]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

I am completely new to the dslr world.... please explain or point me to a tutorial on this crop factor thing.

Thanks,

The focal lengths of lenses do not do a good job of conveying the field of view you get when you use them. Angle of view would be the way to talk about it but it's difficult to understand and also falls down when you mount a lens intended for a larger format on smaller formats.

So instead we refer to the crop factor which is a multiplier used to convert the numbers to what they would be on a 35mm still camera. For example the common lens with a 1.5 crop camera is an 18-55mm lens. When you multiply the crop factor this becomes a 27-82.5mm lens.

It can get confusing but it's not that bad. Just remember to take a lens' focal length and multiply by the crop factor to get the focal length relative to 35mm still film. Then you can get a rough idea of how it will perform. It just takes a little bit of practice.

Ger:

Magic lantern does not offer true continuous recording. Period. It simply restarts recording when a 4gb file size is reached and then restarts. This restart causes a 2-5 second loss in record time. This is not acceptable for most uses. Can you imagine if that happened while someone was giving a speech or exchanging wedding vows? The GH2 or any typical camcorder can record true continuous footage with no gaps and are limited only by battery and memory card. I use DSLRs for my main event coverage but the locked off camera is a GH2 for a reason.

I wouldn't advise people to use hacks or to buy equipment based on rumors of the future. That's a liability I don't think you want to have on you.

[Edward Mendoza]

Ervin, shooters use the DSLR primarily for the "shallow-depth-of-field" look. You're not taking advantage of its strengths if you've got it on a tripod at the back of the church with a wide shot. You should have the JVC as the wide and you should be shooting the close-ups with the DSLR. That way when there are breaths in-between, you can quickly stop and start your DSLR; in editing you can cut back to the wide, which will be recording the entire time without issue.

If you choose the JVC to be your close-up cam, then you should save yourself any heartache with DSLR's (which you wouldn't be using appropriately anyways) and just get an affordable video camera as a wide-shot cam.

[Ger Griffin]

All true Edward.
I dont think a DSLR would really benefit Ervin the way he plans on using it as a Bcam wide.
But it would be good for him to get one and use it that way as over time he would get comfortable with it and then maybe incorporate it into other parts of the day and eventually use it as his A cam.

Stephen I work professionally with DSLRs all the time.
As long as its not the only camera on the job then loosing a few seconds once in a while is not a problem.
Remember you have at least one other cam running ( i have 2 others ) plus a couple of external sound devices.
Im infinitely 'safer' than a single camera operator the way I do things.

[Edward Mendoza]

No doubt, Ger.