PF Bentley's blog
Real-World Shooting With the Canon 7D: Making the Switch to HD-DSLR
Recently I shot two projects with the Canon 7D and was thinking about the differences between using the 7D and a "regular" video camera. (We'll be using the 7D as the camera of choice in our upcoming Platypus Workshops for 2010.)
Whether you shoot with the Canon 7D, 5D, Nikon or anything else, HD-DSLRs are now taking over a large segment of the videojournalism and motion picture markets. All are not really made to shoot video, but with various adapters and add-ons you can make it work and get results not obtainable in the past.
The most obvious difference is the wonderful limited depth of field (DOF) that is made possible by the large sensors and 35mm still lenses. A welcome change from the everything-in-focus, 3-chip smaller sensor video cameras.
At minimum, you'll need some sort of viewfinder to use the LCD screen in the back of the camera. I use the Zacuto Z-Finder, which magnifies the image 3x with Zeiss optics. There's really no way to use the camera without a viewfinder for professional results. This is a must.
