My New Canon 5D Mark II - Back To School
So it finally arrived. A HD-DSLR all of my very own. Don't worry, I intend to take some serious photography on this beast, not just use it for video recording. I don't mind fessing up that this thing has crippled me financially, hence having no decent lenses to start with. Those will follow shortly, and so for now I am going down the adaptor/second hand route and have already had some interesting results.
Working for the BBC for four years handling cameras daily means I have picked up that subconscious knack of just grabbing the camera(s) I'm used to and not really thinking about getting them up and running. By now, the usual routines are all second nature, like anyone's job. I can pretty much pick up any camera and get going fairly quickly. Every camera has it's specifics, but they also share common traits and functionality. But not with HD-DSLRs; having had a play this evening, I can honestly say I am excited, scared and intimated by just how different filming on the 5D is going to be.
Don't worry, this isn't new news to me, I had done my research incredibly thoroughly. Buying a camera like this cannot be a rash decision. But even with all the research, it still feels refreshing, scary and odd to instinctively reach for a certain control or think about setting your shot up in one way, and then having to stop the autopilot part of your brain from kicking in and to double check everything. Methodical thinking is the order of the day.
However, if you really need me to sum up my first impressions of shifting from a true video camera to a HD-DSLR, I would describe it as thus;
It is like going from Driving a Car, to a Tank.
With no co-pilot.
In the dark. On ice.
And it's raining. On the edge of a ravine.
The results will be/are remarkable, but by The Force, you absolutely have to know to know what you are doing. Currently, this is all new to me, and so I don't have a clue. I am a rookie with my own camera; and I find this (oddly? perversely?) massively exciting.
I can't wait to re-discover whatever the hell it was that got me interested in cameras/editing/film-making/directing in the first place. Recent experiences with Mancattan/British Film/BBFC/UKFC bollocks has left me rather despondent and at times wanting to jack it all in.
However, looking through a lens on a camera like this and taking a picture/shot/clip does something in reality that the manuals, tech checks, blogs, comparisons, info sheets, tests and critiques can never do.
It allows you to capture a little pieces of magic. That is priceless.
Working for the BBC for four years handling cameras daily means I have picked up that subconscious knack of just grabbing the camera(s) I'm used to and not really thinking about getting them up and running. By now, the usual routines are all second nature, like anyone's job. I can pretty much pick up any camera and get going fairly quickly. Every camera has it's specifics, but they also share common traits and functionality. But not with HD-DSLRs; having had a play this evening, I can honestly say I am excited, scared and intimated by just how different filming on the 5D is going to be.
Don't worry, this isn't new news to me, I had done my research incredibly thoroughly. Buying a camera like this cannot be a rash decision. But even with all the research, it still feels refreshing, scary and odd to instinctively reach for a certain control or think about setting your shot up in one way, and then having to stop the autopilot part of your brain from kicking in and to double check everything. Methodical thinking is the order of the day.However, if you really need me to sum up my first impressions of shifting from a true video camera to a HD-DSLR, I would describe it as thus;
It is like going from Driving a Car, to a Tank.
With no co-pilot.
In the dark. On ice.
And it's raining. On the edge of a ravine.
The results will be/are remarkable, but by The Force, you absolutely have to know to know what you are doing. Currently, this is all new to me, and so I don't have a clue. I am a rookie with my own camera; and I find this (oddly? perversely?) massively exciting.
I can't wait to re-discover whatever the hell it was that got me interested in cameras/editing/film-making/directing in the first place. Recent experiences with Mancattan/British Film/BBFC/UKFC bollocks has left me rather despondent and at times wanting to jack it all in.
However, looking through a lens on a camera like this and taking a picture/shot/clip does something in reality that the manuals, tech checks, blogs, comparisons, info sheets, tests and critiques can never do.
It allows you to capture a little pieces of magic. That is priceless.
