Video advice needed
 

Well, its not a camcorder. I bought a T2i for my wife mostly. But I was drawn to it by the 1080and 720 video ability and the fact that she could shoot nice pics.

I have had it a few days and right now I wished I had my V1U back. I realize I went from a 3cmos camcorder to a single small cmos but Im not having much luck getting any video that looks even ok to me. I have seen youtube examples but most seem to be interviews and such where the subject is fixed. Im wondering if anyone has used this camera for action video like surfing or football ( just examples) .

I just shot some waves breaking into a cliff at the beach. Looks pretty good, unless I try to follow the wave. Then I see not so much the rolling cmos issue but more of a choppy look as if I was shooting 24p but Im shooting 720p@60fps

Is it possible to use a faster shutter speed ? I have a lot of reasearch to do in the next few weeks. Id really like to use this camera to shoot video from an RC helicopter but I may have to use my HDR-HC9 instead

Well,

As you said, it's not a camcorder. And you are going to have to learn to coax the product out of it. There is a learning curve, and it's probably steepest for people who are not well versed in either film, or SLR use.

Yes the shutter speeds can be changed. But you are incorrect in saying "I went from a 3cmos camcorder to a single small cmos..." The size of the CMOS chip in the T2i is more than 10x the size of your previous chips. That's not your problem.

You're going to need to learn how to shoot. Traditional camcorders let us get away with a LOT of bad techniques.. and they mask it. Not so with the DSLRs.

Welcome to filming. :)


(and by the way, I filmed two soccer games last week with mine. I am posting a sample as we speak, just for you.)

Thanks Peronne after playing with output settings thins are looking better but I would love to see those samples . As you said I have a whole lot to learn.

If you are filming from RC Helicoptor you maybe better of doing it with HC9. With a very large sensor in T2i getting long DOF will be difficult, unless you amount a wide angle lens on T2i. Then these WA lenses are much heavier than your kit lens, making them unsuitable for RC flights.
A common trick for filming from RC plane is to use a reflecting mirror to get multiple views in flight. So I don't really want wide angle as its VOF will be larger than the mirror, yet you need almost infinite DOF. For those purposes, a small sensor light weight videocam would be ideal, assuming you are doing it outdoor with ample light.

Ok, here you go...

Now everything in the WORLD should be wrong with this....

1. Shooting wide when these cams are really not well suited to shooting wide
2. Shooting action when these cams are not great for action
3. Shooting with the kit lens which "everyone" thinks is crappy
4. Shooting directly into silver bleachers with the sun on them, which should alias like crazy
5. Shooting into a chain link fence, and soccer nets. All of which should alias and moire like crazy.

So you be the judge.

YouTube - MVI 2672 1080 30p


On and ignore the audio. It's just the built-in mic. This was filmed for the coach's purposes and reference audio was all that was needed. I didn't even bring a decent mic.

Very nice. Smooth pans.

Here is what i shot today. Im using a manfrotto monopod hence the shaking.

That looks pretty good actually. My pans are smooth, because I was FINALLY able to get a real tripod. Took a number of years but finally convinced my office to pony up some budget for it.

But why 60p for that scene. Try 30p, unless slow motion is your thing.. Best resolution is 1080

Also, for most shooting, use 1/60. If your image is too bright, shut down the lens Fstop or you are going to have to add ND (Neutral Density) for the bright outdoor filters.

Chris- this is the best results to the web I got. I shot at 1080@30 , 1080@24 and 720@60. With 1080 the choppiness was bad. However that could have just as easily been in the render or output settings. I had all these setting down pat with HDV but now moving to a different codec means more tweaking. I will go shoot the same shot today at 1080 and see what the results are like

Thank all of you for the help. Ill eventually get there

And yes, I wil;l be purchasing a different tripod. Just sold a Gitzo mountaineer with video head, needed something smaller for this DSLR

What do you mean choppiness? I shoot sports on 1080/30p all the time. In fact, that sample I posted was 1080/30p with a 90 degree shutter.

What I mean by choppiness is the clip looks like a web video being viewed on a computer with a slow processor. Not a smooth feed. But again, this could be in my output settings from the media encoder. Just have to play with it more this weekend