Panasonic merges all the advantages of 35mm with video…
I started my career as a still photographer.
I liked working as a photojournalist. The gear was light weight and working by yourself gave you a chance to be both intimate and unobtrusive at the same time. As a still photographer, you could capture great images.
When I moved over to TV, I suddenly found that you had to drag an army along with you. And at the center of the army was the camerman, who dragged around a video camera the size of an engine block for a Chevy V8. (and it weighed about as much).
This was hardly unobtrusive. Lights, move the furniture, cables, sound… a mess.
The whole process was destructive to the quality of the final product. All the immediacy and intimacy was lost. It was a circus production.
As video cameras got smaller, they were designed to look like shrunken down versions of those giant shoulder-mounted cameras. Even the palm cameras were like the betcams, just liliputian versions of them – little boxes with a lens at the front and a viewfinder at the back.
But photography, which greatly predates video, was always from another place.
35mm cameras were designed to be held in the palm of y0ur hand, and the lenses were designed to maximize quality of image. Today, I shoot stills with a Leica M8, and y0u just can’t touch the quality of the lenses.
The price you always paid for small video cameras was in the lenses, as well as in the ergonomics.
Recently, both Canon and Nikon have come out with 35mm still cameras that can shoot video, but the amout of video y0u could shoot was limited – like your phone, only with better lenses.
Now Panasonic, (which has a partnership with Leica for a less expensive 35mm) has created a video camera that has all the advantages of 35mm and whose capacity to shoot video is limited only by the size of the card you buy.
In other words, infinite.
David Pogue has written a very good review of this piece of equipment.
It’s a good trend for our business.
Now, let’s see if we can capture the power of 35mm photojournalist images and marry them to video. The technology is already here.
5 Comments
Emiel Elgersma May 09, 2009
Michael, check out this great reportage from India, it was shot with Canon 5D Mark II, stills and video. http://www.bombayfc.com/wasteland/
Guess they understand… from their blog: We are very excited about this project and one of the reasons is that everything has been shot with the amazing Canon 5D Mark II. The story will be an experimental visual treat and a combination of video and stills.
Terry Heaton May 01, 2009
This is pretty humorous to me, Michael.
A few years ago, I sat in on a presentation by a renowned press photographer who had shifted to video for his paper. You’d have to have been there, because he was on fire for the whole concept, but he said things like…
“Man, it’s pictures — WITH SOUND! And they MOVE!”
“I’m not talking about that TV crap. It’s pictures with sound that move!”
Dude, give me a break.
So now press photographers have a “real” camera that shoots pictures, with sound, that move! Who knew?
(In the corner LMAO)
D. Walt Cameron April 30, 2009
This is the answer to the mini jack dilemma. This is the unit I use, it plugs into your mini, but allows you to use SLR’s. And it has an extra mini as well, so you can use 2 SLR’s and a mini. Pretty cool. This would work with this camera.
Beachtek DXA-2S
(416)690-9457
http://www.beachtek.com/dxa2s.html
Tom Poederbach April 30, 2009
Michael,
Basically right what you write here, but the ergonomics of a DSL camera are not realy handy for a video shooter. Canon can record a lot of material on one card now. But the lack of an lcd screen that you can tilt for a diffOn top of that no manual control over exposure.Only the focus. However picture quality great. When you use a rig like RedRocks is making the wholset up is getting bulky again, also Manfrotto’s rig is more for stillsuse then video use. In the case of the RedRock set up you can add an extra viewfinder. In my opinion the DSL video shoot is for people that do no videojournalist shoots, but commercials, musicvideo and teeh like where there is time and more control. Having said that have a look at this all done with a Canon D5 Mkll http://vimeo.com/3916618
Greetz from Amsterdam
Tom
Cliff Etzel April 30, 2009
The very fact that Panasonic incorporated a mic jack (even though it’s a mini jack) is a big improvement over the current offerings from Canon and Nikon. For an impressive mini jack mic – check out the Ambient Recordings TinyMike
Companies like RedRock Micro have created special kits for what is being termed “Web Cinematography” that utilizes matte boxes, shoulder mounts and rails to allow these small cameras to shoot content that rivals much more expensive equipment.
Interesting times indeed…
Cliff Etzel Videographer : Producer : Web Designer bluprojekt