What equipment for big project?

eclipsechaser

Hi everyone,

I'm going to Australia to video a total solar eclipse. I've done plenty of photography but video will be new to me.

Zoom (needs to be about 40x) and recording quality are the two main factors.

I don't know whether to:
a) go with a consumer camcorder with a big optical zoom and decent sensor.
b) go with a Canon XL range and use an XL EF adaptor to utilise the high quality EF lenses that I already have.
c) Use my EF lenses with my dSLR (Canon 7D).


The adaptor has something like a 7x magnification factor, so using an EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS would be perfect wit that option. If I use my dSLR, I would be using a 400mm f/2.8L IS but I would also have to use my 2x extender.

I really have no clue about video-recording. I'd love to hear what board members think!

frozenfrozen

7d will be perfect, just get yourself an efficient method of copying your media from memory cards, because video really eats up space.

You should look at magic lantern, it's a custom firmware for EOS cameras. I'm not sure if the 7D is supported, but if it is then happy days.

If you're recording the sun make sure you get some sunglasses for your camera. polarizer would be needed I would say, but I've never done anything like this before so maybe not.

How big is this big project you speak of? Do you have a large budget? If so definitely rent a RED camera and capture the eclipse in 5k.

m83

I'm not sure if the 7D is supported, but if it is then happy days.

It isn't.

frozenfrozen

m83 wrote: »

It isn't.

Not a requirement anyways, it just adds some nice features for video

eclipsechaser

Thanks for your helpful reply.

It's good to hear that the 7D is perfect. As I'm totally ignorant, can you tell me if it will produce better, as good as or slightly worse images than an XL1S? Memory shouldn't be too big an issue. The main part that I need to video is only 3 minutes long. I have a couple of 8GB cards so that should be fine!

The project is big but personally funded. How much would a RED cost to rent for a week? I wouldn't mind picking up an XL1S and then selling it on for roughly the same amount of money. I like this option as it would allow me to video and shoot stills at the same time. However that might turn out to be too ambitious.

As for safety stuff, I know exactly what I'm doing there so that won't be a problem. Here are a few stills from previous eclipses in case you're interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eclipsechaser/sets/72157606229799193/

Cheers,

Daniel

frozenfrozen wrote: »

7d will be perfect, just get yourself an efficient method of copying your media from memory cards, because video really eats up space.

You should look at magic lantern, it's a custom firmware for EOS cameras. I'm not sure if the 7D is supported, but if it is then happy days.

If you're recording the sun make sure you get some sunglasses for your camera. polarizer would be needed I would say, but I've never done anything like this before so maybe not.

How big is this big project you speak of? Do you have a large budget? If so definitely rent a RED camera and capture the eclipse in 5k.

frozenfrozen

Fantastic shots!

The red rental would be easily over one thousand for the week, and easily a thousand more on rental of the lenses, so it's pretty much out of the picture, it would be madness to pay that unless you had someone funding your project (get into contact with nasa and ask them if they want to send you 5 thousand to do it properly, and let them have the footage after. No seriously, do it! You never know what might happen!)
7D would be much better and less hassle than the XL1S

Be careful with your sd cards on the 7d, you're going to want to make sure they are high speed, else the video might stop recording during the important part! (When the buffer fills up and can't write to the sd card fast enough)

Since you're new to dslr video, check out cineform as an intermediary codec to help edit your video, this will allow your computer to play it back smoothly while editing, if on a mac use Prores 422.
You will also want a neutral colour profile for video so you can grade in post to recreate the actual look of the eclipse. This can be done by turning down contrast and sharpness on the camera, or getting a colour profile like http://philipbloom.net/2011/09/18/pictureprofiles/


Also to colour grade get davinci resolve, there's a free version which would be perfect to get the colours you want. You would need to somehow use a full licensed davinci resolve if you wanted to work with red footage, but there are some other huge things you need to work with RED too.

Rew

RED's take a Canon EF mount as far as I know so you can use your existing lenses. Nice bit of kit but you may find it a steep leaning curve dealing with 4k RAW video! (does 5k stills)

Whatever ND filters you use for shooting stills will be fine for video if your using the 7D. 7D is a crop sensor so your getting extra magnification there as well as your 400mm and the 2x.

frozenfrozen

(The RED epic can actually record at 5120×2700 at up to 96 frames a second, just thought i'd correct that !)

Rew

Yes I was thinking of the Scarlet the Epic is just that epic!