T2 photographer/filmmaker's POW

[David Barnes]

I bought the t2 last month and finally can chip in a few words about it. For photography it is a great camera for film/video it is more like an old fashioned film camera. You have no control over focus and no fast way to do it all as one man band. This is the short of it. Now I will try to go over all the other bit and pieces.
Lenses. Easy piesy. 100-300 4.5 £139, 50/1.8 £84, 20/2.8 £225.. Still need to buy a normal lens and that will be 35/2 circa 225 new or 176 second hand. I decided to stay away from very heavy w/a zooms but the 20mm is quite heavy. My line of reasoning is as follows if I have money I would like to upgrade to 5D. So all lenses will be still very usefull in slgihtly different category but still very useful.
Support. I have considered all various rigs but all they do is make the rig very heavy. I don't think that all my life I will be handholding the camera. So a good tripod is more important. Somehow with all the dicsussions about the rigs people forget that tripod is the best image stabiliser there is with all the usual provisos, etc. So I bought a very heavy mafrotto 058b. Height from over 2 meters down to 50cm. cost £95 I also bought a medium size video head. I also have my old trusted culman tripod just in case. They are not flimzy little things but heavy bastards good for large format film cameras or alternativy for any full size HD video kit.
Lights I bought 2 small 300 wtss heads with barn doors falling off. £50 and a bit of wire bup everything right. New cost in the region of £150.
Sound Still have my old and trusted Sennheiser MKE66 with a small stereo jack adaptor. Sound received an immediate boost in quality and levels. I think I bought it for £99 about seven or eight years ago.
IN action
I compared visually HG20 and T2. On normal screen little difference but with HMDI cable the colours of T2 simply popped out. The grain levels were similar with one disadvantage that HG20 was always focused while T2 was loosing the focus all the time with any little movement but this is something that needs some new and better way tog et around it like Magic Lantern. HELPPPP!!!!!
Problems
Had to upgrade my card reader as my old card reader simply could not read the fast SD card. £3.50 from Ebay.
Have serious problems to edit on my computer though it is a fast machine. Pinnacle stuio 12 ultimate simply is not cut for it. Got an upgrade from site and no MOV. files can be seen at all. This is an upgrade. I looked up on various threads and found a free software that edits and shows the MOV files for free. So how can I cut between HG20 and T2 in Studio????

[Sam Kanter]

Upgrade to Pinnacle Studio 14 HD Ultimate. Works perfectly with mov files, no transcoding.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Although the 50 1.8 is very affordable and takes decent pictures, it doesn't cost much to upgrade to an f1.4 Nikon or Canon that have much better focus rings and half an f-stop more speed.

[David Barnes]

Hi I acept that maybe it is faster with more convenient focusing but it is seldom that I have used a lens that fully open. The lens produces a more acceptable results a f2 and the difference is only 2/3 of a stop. does it rreally worth the difference? PLease also do not forget that 50mm with T2 it becomes an 80mm. this shortens even further the focus where the smallest movement will take the person out of focus. Unless you can keep a person almost perfectly motionless......

[David Barnes]

Originally Posted by Sam Kanter

Upgrade to Pinnacle Studio 14 HD Ultimate. Works perfectly with mov files, no transcoding.

Thank you I will try.

[James Donnelly]

Originally Posted by David Barnes

I compared visually HG20 and T2. On normal screen little difference but with HMDI cable the colours of T2 simply popped out. The grain levels were similar with one disadvantage that HG20 was always focused while T2 was loosing the focus all the time with any little movement but this is something that needs some new and better way tog et around it like Magic Lantern. HELPPPP!!!!!

I don't believe Magic Lantern or any firmware update can fundamentally address this issue. The problem is that the T2i is physically handicapped for focusing while shooting video.

The HG20 and T2i have dedicated sensors to achieve fast auto focus, but in the case of the T2i, when the mirror is up, for live view/video shooting the AF sensor is not seeing the image anymore, so the camera relies on phase detect on the main sensor.

This will always be far too slow, and the lack of accuracy prevents it being smooth enough for use in shot, which is why people only use manual focus along with a loupe to assist focusing. If you want full time auto focus you still need a camcorder for now. I imagine this will change in the coming year or two.

[David Barnes]

I understand the technical limitation of the camera but this does not prevent me from wishing for alternative or improvement. All I am saying that T2 for filming behaves like a film camera so it is needed to be treated like one. This means more than one person is needed to operate it for sound and vision.

[Terry Lee]

Well is it the T2i or any DSLR camera capable of video recording? The issue you are highlighting is that it is difficult for a single person to focus the shots therefore a focus puller is needed to focus the shot.

[George Pada]

I believe that DSLR videography brought back the magic...

I mean we used to auto focus, auto gain and auto white balance and now we fave to learn fountamental of cinematography in order to get the job done!
Is like telling to a 20year old DJ to stop playing music with the laptop and start spinning vinyl!!!

It requires extra effort but it expands one's capabilities! ;)

[James Donnelly]

Originally Posted by David Barnes

I understand the technical limitation of the camera but this does not prevent me from wishing for alternative or improvement.

Ok, I guess I misunderstood you. I'm still not clear how a firmware update is going to help.

Originally Posted by David Barnes

All I am saying that T2 for filming behaves like a film camera so it is needed to be treated like one. This means more than one person is needed to operate it for sound and vision.

Originally Posted by Terry Lee

The issue you are highlighting is that it is difficult for a single person to focus the shots therefore a focus puller is needed to focus the shot.

Originally Posted by George Pada

I believe that DSLR videography brought back the magic...

I mean we used to auto focus, auto gain and auto white balance and now we fave to learn fountamental of cinematography in order to get the job done!
Is like telling to a 20year old DJ to stop playing music with the laptop and start spinning vinyl!!!

It requires extra effort but it expands one's capabilities! ;)

We are being forced to learn a new skill at the moment, which for me is great. In the creative process, focus absolutely belongs in the hands of the film maker, not a sensor / algorithm.

There are situations where you want a dedicated focus puller, but for most, this will not be the daily reality. In either case, we need the next generation of remote control focus control systems to trickle down to the mass market. For one man band set ups, a follow focus is great, but what if you're on a stabilisation system? You can't touch anything above the gymbal, so you still need remote control.

So much to look forward to, so much to get excited about right now!

[Marc Faletti]

So David, you use autofocus normally, and you don't like how the T2i does it, is that correct? Not sure if it's the T2i's "fault" per se -- these are photography cameras and lenses with autofocus designed for *photography.* It just so happens that the icing on the T2i cake (shooting video) is as good as the cake, so we make due.

I have seldom had trouble on a tripod or with a shoulder mount manually controlling focus with the T2i -- if I am shooting something like live concert footage, I just tend to keep one hand on the focus ring at all times. If I am on a shoulder mount, the second hand stabilizes the camera. Would that not work for you?

Once you do go to manual focusing, you should definitely look into an eyepiece like the Zacuto Z-Finder if you haven't already - Z-Finder Pro 3x . That will make it so much easier to pull focus when the LCD is at 3x zoom.

Best of luck!

[Kent Frost]

I really need to take a picture of what I'm talking about here, but I have actually "frankensteined" a sort of "handle" out of an old Bogen tripod video head with a Bogen clamp that screws into the tripod socket of the camera, and allows me to stabilize the camera with my left hand, while the right hand is free and much sturdier to control the exposure and focus.
However, when using the Glidecam HD-1000, this becomes an issue.

[David Barnes]

Just came back from St. Petersburg and shot a lot of family shots but in between sneaked in some of my own stuff. So far I am more them pleased with the camera performance. Though for me it does show a need for a fast 24mm and 35mm lenses.
Re: battery life. On the initial charge of the battery it shot over 400 shots and 3-5minutes of video and then I rechanged. So far I shot over 1200 shots and 5-8minutes of video. I did not find any issues with battery life but I was always careful to turn off the camera when not in use. Towards the end of battery charge there was an issue with camera responding slower and slower for shots with flash but nothing beyond that and it was acceptable.