DSLR 1080P video usage

[Yoyo]

I saw Curious(?) asking about 1080P video capable DSLRs in another thread, and I thought I would answer that question here.

I’ve got the Canon Eos Rebel T2i. It shoots 1080P at 30 frames per second. It also does 720P at 60 FPS. It is not a video camera. It does video very well, but not for long at 1080. The write buffer fills up after about 15 to 30 seconds since the memory card doesn’t seem like it can keep up. I haven’t had that problem with 720.

As a general rule, I like stills over video. I prefer magazines to TV regarding visual subjects like cars, travel, etc. Still there are times when I feel that photography, even with 3.7 photos per second in sports mode, does not adiquately capture the escense of a moving scene, like machinery or kinetic sculpture. This is when I switch to video. I don’t make 6 minute long “shorts”. I just shoot a few seconds to get the feel of the way the jets in a fountain cause the sprays of water to oscillate back and forth or to see the figures of the Glockenschpiel dance one full revolution.

Other times, I’m in a more analytical mode, and I want to capture the motion of objects in rapid time, like catching the potato fly out of a spud gun. For science, of course. It’s the mechanical engineer in me. I can imagine a great deal of kinematic motion by just looking at the links, but some times, I just have to go cinematic for really awesome and amazing machinery.

Bottom line: get a video camera if you want to make movies.

[ennuipoet]

Bottom line: get a video camera if you want to make movies.

Seconded! I decided against buying a 60D because I didn’t want video on my DSLR. Personally, I feel the trend toward multifunction devices results in at least one of the functions being sacrificed. It’s fine if my phone has a universal remote, magic fingers massage, bottle opener and wireless Nucleus accumbens stimulator, I would like my DSLR to just take stills.

Not that I wouldn’t take a 5D if someone walked up and said “Here, take this”.

[Curious]

i was asking about DSLR video Yoyo. seem that those who have it use it like you do and those that want to shoot video use a dedicated camera for that.

ennuipoet has a good point in that multi function stuff tends to not do any of the functions real well. see printer/scanner/fax for a good example.

[LeicaLens]

I recently bought a Panasonic G3, to use as a lightweight travel camera* and also video shooting. In its price range it is supposed to be zbout the best camera for video, though strictly speaking it is not a DSLR as it is a mirrorless.
I took a few videos while I was on holiday recently, and they came out very well, though focussing was a problem when the subjects moved a lot (young nieces). However, I bought it for shooting videos where the subject won’t be moving around much (classroom environment), so this didn’t bother me too much; also, the lens I got for it wasn’t the best choice for dedicated video shooting.
As for stills, it did everything I wanted it to do, and more. I was so pleased with the image quality that I will be investing more in lenses for this camera.

*I was planning to go around Barcelona, and I did not want to take a big heavy camera with big heavy lenses to lug around for all the thieving gits in that city.

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