simple edit

well, here's my first post of mark ii footage.
 
This is shot with my favorite sigma 50mm 1.4 lens and recorded with the built in mark ii microphone. Edited in iMovie, simple cuts only edit, no audio remix. Its mostly a test of me learning how to pull focus and how the microphone performs. Overall I'm very happy with the setup.
 
I originally thought the auto exposure was going to be a problem, but i figured out how to lock the exposure for difficult lighting situations, and found that i don't really need to for most shots.
 
The built in microphone seems to work pretty well, you have to be careful to not make noise while adjusting the focus or zoom. I want to experiment with an external mike attached to maybe the hot shoe? is there such a product? it would add to the bulk of the rig, but might be worth it in some conditions.
 
Pulling focus is interesting, especially with such a large aperture lens. the depth of field is incredible short. I'm experimenting with moving the camera instead of the focus ring, that seems to be more natural from the viewer's perspective. One day I'll be as good as hitchcock.
 
Battery life is a problem. especially since everyone is out of stock on the mark ii batteries. I've been turning off the live view when not in use.
 
The transition between shooting movies and stills works pretty well. it takes a second or two for the camera to switch between full SLR and movie+liveview mode, but i think its worth shooting in dedicated modes rather than the combo mode in which the still performance is abominable.
 
The mark ii records 1920x1080 h264 QuickTime .movs at around 40mbits/s. I haven't tried the VGA mode yet, I don't expect i ever will. Interesting choice of audio sample rate. I would have chosen 48K. The .mov format is really convenient for my workflow, no conversion required. I haven't been able to find a timecode or meta data track yet, but that kind of makes sense since there's no way to set that up in the camera. There's also a thumbnail file that could be used as a proxy if necessary.

editing and blogging video is really hard. randy is right. we need to make it better. iPhoto does a good job of bringing the data in, iMovie does a good job of putting it together. but its still really difficult to tell a story. but at least it looks good when shot on the mark ii.
 
more to come.
 

Posted via email from agnoli