Does your SLR do Video?

[ricstew]

Mine does and I have no idea.......I have looked over the net and think I am just confusing myself....the old boy want me to shoot ( ) his bowling style......insert the rolling eyes HERE!
I cant even work out if I am supposed to use a prime or zoom....yes I have read the manual but its all in chinglish
.....and then what do I do with it? I have downloaded fotomagico which seems the recommended thingo for a mac. I can put together a slideshow on it ( with stills ) but haven't tried a video yet. I played with the video a bit but it was so jumpy and wobbly you couldn't have used it! I will put it on the tripod next time .

So I was wondering what program people are using to make their videos with on a Mac?? What sizes are you using if you upload it to smugmug or whatever is your choice? My first attempts were atrocious....
cheers
Jan

[James T]

You're not 'supposed' to use anything, use whatever lens is needed for the shot, exactly the same as shooting stills.

No idea what fotomagico is.. I use Premier Pro, Soundbooth and have just started looking at After Effects. That's all expensive stuff though, and possibly more advanced than you want to justify paying for. I got CS5 Master Collection as a student, so it made sense.

I'm sure there are plenty of freeware / cheap software options out there though. Sorry I don't know anything about them though.

There a some decent forums out there like dvinfo and cinema5d where you can read up on tips for starting out (and much more).

For home movie stuff it isn't hard at all. Point - shoot. All the basics of photography apply to the moving image in much the same way as still, so it's not like you're starting from zero.

[mrDooba]

I just use iMovie. They're not fancy videos or anything, I don't do any editing(too many photos to edit to have to worry about movie making) just taken off the camera and made a bit smaller.

[James T]

I just use iMovie. They're not fancy videos or anything, I don't do any editing(too many photos to edit to have to worry about movie making) just taken off the camera and made a bit smaller.

Forgot about iMovie. Possibly comes included with your Mac, and it's super simple to use for basic stuff. Not the best quality of course, but for sticking stuff together you can't go far wrong.

[I @ M]

Mine does and I have no idea.......I have looked over the net and think I am just confusing myself....the old boy want me to shoot ( ) his bowling style......insert the rolling eyes HERE!

Sorry, can't help with the video Q as ours don't do it but seriously, get yourself into a mindset of "bowls is good", I rather enjoy photographing young and old engaging ibowls, some of the facial expressions captured can be priceless.

[para]

Mine does did a underwater dvd promo on it once, came out ok

[ricstew]

Bowls is good? You must bowl at a different club than the old boy......I always get peoples backs and harsh sun... I do have to admit I go there and practice technique .....they pretty much ignore me now. Its also a good verandah to sit and have a cold one
So I dont need a special lens? Any old zoom will do? Can I use the zoom while recording? I gave up using imovie when I started doing slideshows from stills. It doesn't support the Ken Burns styles very well.....but will load some of this video in and see what happens.

cheers
Jan

[Bennymiata]

Any lens will do, but you'll find that you'll need to focus manually to get the best results.
The focussing speed on auto is very slow on most SLR's.

Best to pre-focus then take the video, and if you have plenty of light, use a smaller lens opening to get the best DOF.
If your lens has IS on it, it will also work in video, and I suggest you do use an IS lens if the camera is not on a tripod.

While I'm a PC user, I have used i-Movie for a few things, and it works very well and is simple to use.
You'll first have to download the video files onto your hard drive. Trying to do it from the camera itself is fraught with problems.

Once you've downloaded your content, you can import them into i-Movies, put the scenes in the order you want, then you can edit out the bad bits in each clip, and voila! You have a movie.

i-Tunes will allow you to burn it to DVD, or just another computer file and give you alternative file sizes to choose from.


WARNING!!!!!
Doing video on your SLR can become very, very addictive, and the quality of the video is fantastic - especially when compared to normal, consumer grade video cameras, but you have to work a little harder.

[ricstew]

well I worked out that my old manual 50mm 1.2 lens is the best of my lens' to use I can change the DOF as it goes along and it looks pretty cool with the changing focus. So far I have only fiddled around but hopefully this weekend I will get a chance to play properly!
cheers
Jan