Brian Firth
12/13/2009
I don’t claim to be a professional in either photo or video but I do have a keen interest and am always looking forward to learning more about high end photography and videography.
Having said that, this seams to be the year an average person might be able to afford a quality still camera that takes reasonably quality HD video.
Here’s a bit from an article from a gentleman named Wilson Rothman who I’m guessing is English or maybe a Kiwi, somewhere where they use terms like “borked.”
This year’s killer upgrade is video, specifically, high-definition video. The Nikon D5000 has 720p at 24 frames per second; Canon’s T1i shoots 1080p at up to 20fps. The question is, will you use it?
I said it before and I’ll say it again: Shooting higher-res video with larger sensors and big honkin’ lenses is awesome. They wide-aspect shots have a cinematic quality, and make better use of light in the room for a more natural feel.
BUT—yes, big ole “but”—the fact that autofocus is pretty borked when you’re shooting videos means you get naturally lit cinematically scoped blurry videos, unless you and your subject remain perfectly still.
Here’s a link to article where he does a great job at wieghing the differnces between Canon’s Rebel T1i and Nikon’t D5000 http://gizmodo.com/5234607/canon-rebel-t1i-vs-nikon-d5000-entry+level-dslr-battlemodo two relatively affordable but very quality cameras that both feature High Dev video.
If you’ve been an extra good boy or girl this year ask Santa for a Canon 7D for your best buy in the semi professional DSLR/HD video arena.
Here’s some more plagiarized material from Matt Buchanon again over at Gizmodo that illustrates the point:
With video, the 7D simply has the upper hand—video is very much a legitimized use of this camera, not a secondary one like the D300s. (As expected from a company with an entire wing dedicated to camcorders for pros and consumers.) Not only does it have full manual controls, I find that it’s slightly easier to use that the D300s while shooting video—not to mention the whole shooting in a real video codec at 1080p, yadda yadda.
Here’s the link to that article:
http://gizmodo.com/5400595/canon-7d-review
And all of Gizmodo’s best gadgets:
http://gizmodo.com/tag/bestmodo/
