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Category Archives: videos with 60D

Just bought a second 60D

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60D

Canon 60D no lens

I like the camera so much I bought another one. As some of you know, I shoot most of my video with a Canon 60D. I have been wanting a second camera for a while now. Back in the film “daze” I always had at least two cameras (2 different types of film), sometimes the same bodies. Well now I have it again. Having the same body makes it easy to switch cameras. I thought about the Canon Rebel T3i but don't like the sone it makes when shooting stills and the viewfinder is too small. (Note the video side should be fine) The cost difference is not bad and I can use the same battery. I also considered a non Canon camera, the Panasonic GH2 which some say is better for video. That camera was hard to find. Not many of the dealers have it. I have yet to my hands on one. At NAB it was not shown because it is sold through the consumer division and I did not see one at the show. Most of their Image Stabilized lenses are too slow in the aperture department and I love IS lenses.

For me the Canon 60D has been the best camera for what I do. Video and stills. It is the best camera for video Canon makes in my opinion because of the size of the sensor, the manual controls including audio and the swivel LCD. Most of the newer cameras have not improved the video enough for me to buy them. It is also a pretty good still camera as well. It is a nice compromise of both. I have already done a shoot with both where one was a wide shot and the other was more tighter on a person doing a intro to the program I am currently working on.

Does Image Stabilization work when shooting movies?

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FF Intvu

Does Image Stabilization work when shooting movies? This question was asked on DV.net.

Yes, I wish more lenses had it. All this excitement over primes and none except the EF 100 Macro has it. Canon needs to turn the EF 24-70 f2.8 into an IS lens. I have the EF 24-105 f4 IS for that reason alone.

IS is one of the best inventions for video shooting. My use of it goes back to Sony's TR-101 Hi8 camera. I got shots with that camera I could not get with my Betacam.

Now with HDSLR's it is essential to have IS lenses because of the CMOS rolling shutter. I have had to edit a few videos where rolling shutter ruined shots I needed because the camera was handheld. This would not have been a problem with IS. I turn the IS on and it goes away.

I usually use my Canon 60D with out a rig for hand held. All of my reports from NAB for this site were done with the 24-105 with IS turned on. I also handhold my EF 70-200 f4 IS as well.

Also when using the 640×480 crop mode in the 60D IS is a great help because the image is so magnified. This was shot on a heavy DV6 Satchler tripod.

Here I am with my handheld rig. The camera is mounted on a CamCaddie which I brace against my body. I also have a Hoodman Loupe on my flipout LCD on my 60D.

@ Hoodman Booth 3

Final Cut Pro X Works!

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With all the hoopla about Final Cut Pro X, I thought it would be a good idea to try out it with an actual project. FCPX may be missing features from the last version but you still can cut a professional video. I have been doing these real estate videos for some time. All before using Final Cut Pro 7. This is the first video that I did only with Final Cut Pro X. It was shot, edited and uploaded in one day, last Saturday. The editing went fairly quickly. Most things were faster. There are some good new tools in FCPX.

The video was shot with a Canon 60D and Sennheiser G2 wireless recorded in camera for on camera the talent. I then imported the raw video from the SD card into a folder where I keep all the other raw video from doing these real estate videos. I opened FCPX and imported the Canon's native h264 QuickTime’s footage into a new event. I did no conversion on .m4a voice over audio as well. In FCP7 I would render both the video and the audio to ProRes LT and .aiff. I brought in .png, .jpeg and Photoshop .psd's for graphics into the Event Library. Some have complained that .psd’s don’t come in as layers in a sequence. I have never liked that. I would always convert .psd’s as .png’s so they would be one layer. If you wanted to turn off a layer it could be done in Photoshop. I do like having multi-layer .psd’s in Motion.

After creating a new project, I laid in the first shot and added a fade in by doing a dissolve from black on the video. I like to emphasize the audio so I added Voice Enhance in the Inspector panel and turn off one of the audio channels of the two that the camera shoots.

Also I went to the Open in a Timeline command and added AU Peak Limiter from the Effects panel for the voice. A lot of the same keyboard short cuts still work like Command + to zoom the Project Timeline. (S now turns on and off the Skimming)

The next thing I did was that I went to Crop button in the Viewer and added the Ken Burns Effect to do a slow zoom on the shot.

Next I laid in the next shot and added a bunch of stills to the timeline. I put a transparent graphic over the stills and stretched it to fit. The “magic timeline” where it adjusts worked very well. I add more stills and video. When I put in the music for the video, I liked that I could add a fade in or fade out by pulling a little diamond near the edge if the clip. When I was editing in the “magic timeline” the music stayed in place as long as I was not at the beginning of it. Nice Touch.

The rest of the narration was added next. I voice enhanced the audio. Then I had to adjust the stills to fit the narration. There are rubber bands for the audio in the Timeline view. I had to learn how to use the new Titler. It behaves quite a bit differently that FCP7. There are many more options for titles.

Once I added the video tag on the end I was ready for making a movie. I selected Export Movie under the Share menu. The video rendered to ProRes in 18 seconds. That was very impressive because any rendering is done as I edit. I then converted the video to h264 for YouTube in QuickTime Player like I do on a regular basis. That was at it's usual pokey self. Then to YouTube.

1000fps for free – using Motion Optical Flow instead of Twixtor

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This is from our friends a Crumple Pop:

“We were inspired by Oton Bačar’s incredible bmx videos on Vimeo to experiment with retiming 60fps video shot on the Canon 60d. Specifically, we were interested in whether an obscure feature of Apple Motion called “Optical Flow” could achieve results that were comparable with Twixtor.”

“After a lot of experimentation, we came up with a workflow that yields pretty solid results. As is the case with Twixtor, Apple Motion handles some shots beautifully while other shots get turned to ripply mush. Which is better, Motion Optical Flow or Twixtor? It seems to be more or less a draw, with Apple Motion having the distinct advantage that it comes bundled with Apple Final Cut Studio and is therefore free if you already use FCS. Either way, you’ll need to pick and choose the best bits with the smoothest motion and the least mush.”

“For their test, we used a Canon 60d with a Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, 59.94fps 1280×720, shutter at 1/1600. It’s important to mount the camera on a tripod, turn off AWB, and pick a scene with a relatively simple background (like…snow).”

“The basic workflow is to 1) Shoot at 59.94fps 2) Bring the footage into Motion and retime to 15%, 3) Export from Motion and conform it to 23.98fps using Cinema Tools. Then bring into FCP and edit.”

Here is a tutorial that shows the nuts and bolts:

 

Tutorial – Canon 60d 1000fps using Apple Motion instead of Twixtor from CrumplePop on Vimeo.

“Note that I say we shot on a 7d, but it was actually a 60d. Sorry.” And here is the final result:

 

Canon 60D 1000fps using Apple Motion instead of Twixtor from CrumplePop on Vimeo.

“That’s Jed at CrumplePop on the bike, and also playing the music that’s in the video. Jed engineers most of our effects, so if you have ever had technical problems with one of our products, you should especially enjoy the sight of him hitting the ground.”

“The bike is a Surly 1×1 with Nokian tires.”

I will have to try this with my 60D.