This video was made on December 23rd using the Alpha 55 (AVCHD recording) hand held, with SS enabled, and the Carl Zeiss 16-80mm zoom. This video has been uploaded in full 1080p HD and can be viewed at high resolution if you have a fast enough connection. The soundtrack is a classical guitar piece I wrote ten years ago, on the last day of the year 2000, when snow was falling by moonlight which I guess the music represents a bit better than mid-day.
Some camera-mic sound has been left in place for two of the takes, and the shot of the stone wall uses active phase detection AF during video. This was not possible for most takes, as the snowflakes falling made the focus constantly change as they passed the focus zones!
Hope you enjoy it! The camera got very wet with snow – you can see where flakes landed on the lens filter – and ended up being wiped down many times. Eventually, after going into a shop for a few minutes, everything steamed up. But it seems fine after letting it dry out and warm up. It was not very cold, around 1°C for snow to be falling like this.
– David
Tag: movie
Alpha 55 1080p HD video – snow in Scotland
NEX-5 live sound
I’ve been using the NEX-5 with accessory mic – and sometimes, by forgetting to bring it, without. Today we had the Ripon City Morris side in town, and I was taking still shots using the Nikon D3X with the new Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S G lens. The NEX was grabbed as an afterthought for video.
Well, the wind noise with the built-in mics was just too much; most of my ‘footage’ ended up on the cutting room floor. After I’d got the portraits and other shots I need for the Nikon test, I nipped back to the studio and got a 4.5m high Manfrotto lighting stand fitted with a ball head. The NEX got its accessory stereo mic (set to 90° coverage) and the 16mm lens, and despite the wind level, was hoisted aloft for the last couple of dances in the square. The 30 minutes recording time really helps. My framing was not perfect, so two of the video clips were cropped down from the original 1080p, in iMovie. It is an instant process, just select the clip, select the crop tool and trim.
Despite very definite winds blowing around the pole-mounted camera and mic, there were no wind noise issues at all. So: for outdoor shooting, the accessory mic is essential.
Here is a video made the week before, entirely using the ECM-SST1 microphone, which has no wind noise at all – see this post: ECM-SST1 microphone handheld clips.
– DK
NEX-5 with ECM-SST1 mic
Some parts of this were very close to large PA system speakers; others were close to dangerous loud instruments of war, notable Border fiddle and Scottish bagpipes from the Coldstream town pipe band (not the same as the Guards, this is the locals not their namesakes!).
Hand-held, mic set to 90 degree coverage not 120 degree. The NEX-5 only offers auto gain, not manual control of sound of any kind. 18-55mm OSS lens, stabilised but not always in stable hands. Widely varying distances from sound source to mic.
Hopefully a fair view of what the NEX-5 does in this kind of situation; and a view of why, despite the awful weather, I really don’t want to retire to somewhere warm and lose this place!
– David
Nikon D5000 short film with pull focus
Though autofocus is not possible with live video in any current true DSLR (the Panasonic GH1 promises this) it is possible to use pull-focus effects with a little planning. We now have a Nikon D5000 – it won the competition for best fine image detail when comparing results frame by frame with Canon’s nominally higher resolution rival. It was also a very good deal, £629 inc VAT with an 18-55mm VR kit lens and a SanDisk Ultra II 8GB SDHC card plus Crumpler Messenger Boy 2500 bag thrown in free (from Jacobs). You Tube sample –
Canon EOS 500D video test
The clip originally shown here has been replaced by an edited selection, shot in a mixture of 1080 and 720 modes, assembled using iMovie and written as a 720p final project for YouTube. Don’t mean to cause confusion, some visitors may have linked to this post already, and I do not want to add another post. Please feel free to link directly to the YouTube vid or to this page.
Canon 5D MkII: 30fps 1080p, 21mp, ISO 25,600
United Kingdom / Republic of Ireland, 17 September 2008: Canon announces the full frame, 21.1 Megapixel EOS 5D Mark II: the first EOS with full High Definition video capability. They also announced a new 24mm f1.4 lens.