Comments on: DSLR News Shooter website

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:41:39 +0000

Yes, there’s a strongish argument in my mind that DSLRs just aren’t that well suited to shooting video news, both in terms of editing the files and also in terms of focusing etc.
On the other hand as a primarily stills shooter my 5DmkII gives me a high-def video option in a news environment without having to carry extra gear (with the exception of a small mic such as Sennheiser MKE-400), where otherwise I probably wouldn’t be carrying anything with video-capability at all… and for that I’m grateful, so I can live with the downsides….

By: Philip bloom

Philip bloom — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:34:43 +0000

I still edit on the day stuff for magazine show and no way would I ever use a DSLR for it due to the editing issues. We need a fast FCP plug in for log and transfer or something like that.

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:32:10 +0000

Hi Phillip,
You’re of course right that everyone faces the same problems with editing the H.264 files… but for those with looser deadlines they can maybe afford the time to transcode to ProRes etc, whereas if you have to edit video of a breaking news story for TV news on a laptop in the field, I’m not sure transcoding is really going to be an option.
I realise for a polished piece you’re probably going to want to transcode, but if it were me I think I’d just decide to do a rough edit with the native files and transmit it.
I’m still holding out some hope that someone will work some magic with OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch on OS X and the native files will become more reasonable to work with, but perhaps I’m deluding myself
Regards,
Ben

By: Philip bloom

Philip bloom — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:22:42 +0000

Dan has the same problems as anyone trying to edit 5dmkII or 7d stuff fast and that is the h264 files. Until a DSLR maker can make a camera that records in decent format workflow will continue to suck!