Sméagol
N-E Supporter
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Everything posted by Sméagol
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It would help if you could be a little bit more specific in the tyope of shots you want. Indoor, outdoor, and and what range? I’ve said I think you’re probably looking at close range and indoor mostly for now, since you’re looking into dialogue driven shorts.
First tip is a reviewsite about camcorders specifically (http://www.camcorderinfo.com/), and the general tip that a extra/high capacity battery is probaly also one of the things you should look into.
Here’s a video of the first camera on the frontpage of that site that caught my eye:
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It would help if you could be a little bit more specific in the tyope of shots you want. Indoor, outdoor, and and what range? I’ve said I think you’re probably looking at close range and indoor mostly for now, since you’re looking into dialogue driven shorts.
First tip is a reviewsite about camcorders specifically (http://www.camcorderinfo.com/), and the general tip that a extra/high capacity battery is probaly also one of the things you should look into.
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Ah, dialogue driven shorts? That’s good, you won’t need a rig and stuff to stabilise your frantic shots on the go
.Prime vs Zoom: well, zoom says it all really. A prime doesn’t zoom. It’s optimised for a specific distance range. It requires less glass, and therefore lets more light in, but you sacrifice some versatility. But if you’re going to shoot 2 people talking mostly, I think you won’t need a zoom for now, or at least not a crazy zoom. But I’ll ask around.
Also, did you already have some sort of external mic?
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No, I’m glad to be of help when I’m able to.
Let me know what kind of shots you’re primarily into. Parkour videos? Following close behind or also zoomed out shots?
I’m not very knowledgable on lenses myself unfortunately, due to my lack of hands-on experience. As far as I can gather, 50 mm is a good allround lens, good for close-ups/wide shots or medium range. I personally would have a preference for primes since they have a better performance in low-light conditions, I don’t know if that’s important to you. So I’d personally get the bundle with the 50mm kitlens (€ 618,- on a Dutch site).
But again, if you want, I can ask around! Let me know your budget (£800,- you said), the hardware you already own or can borrow, and what kind of videos you intend to shoot mostly.
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I wanted to make some joke about the title, but I’m sure at least 10 people before me refrained from doing so.. So never mind. A lot of good advice has been given already. - I personally prefer classical courses. I think these are the most practical and best way to start a new language, apart from going to the regarding country itself (for non-holiday reasons). - Indeed, grammar is important. Can’t imagine learning a new language by repeating various typical holiday sentences. I want to know how to construct sentences. - Very important: keep up with the language apart from your course. Make sure you’re regularly exposed to it. I tried Spanish a while back, but it doesn’t really stick because I didn’t “surround” myself with Spanish. The occasional Spanish film, but that was it. Films are good, but depending on how busy you are, they can take up a lot of time. I’m not sure if one film a week is good enough.. Magazines/newspapers, and perhaps the occasional TV would be good. Arte is a good TV channel, but they also have a lot of dubbed series, and I personally hate dubbing. If you’re into anime, I hope you can receive Kaze, they have dubbed and subbed anime. For French in particular, keep in mind French rarely subtitle their DVD’s or Blu-rays in other languages (unlike Spanish films for example). Some may regard that as better, but I personally would like to have both subtitles in a language I know, and captions (for the hearing impaired) in the original language, if I want to learn a language (so you can focus on either the spoken or written language). Anyway, France has a rich cinema history, if you have an arthouse nearby, you should have a steady stream of new French films coming your way. That said, you’ll have to go to Amazon.fr or Fnac.fr to get the French blockbusters. - Some European countries / languages (perhaps most of them) have some organisation which promotes their languages, or at the very least arrange exams which will get you a widely recognised certificate if you pass. For French, this is the Alliance Française. Look for a location near you at the UK site: http://www.alliancefrancaise.org.uk/ Or go to Paris! http://www.alliancefr.org/en/ That’s the place where I’d look first, and in fact, I’ve requested a brochure myself a few days ago. Most of these organisations adhere to [CEFR], so you can compare your level of knowledge of different languages. Anyway, like I said, I was thinking of taking up a French course myself. In addition, I intend to take up German and even English as well. Like there is the Alliance Française for French, you have the Goethe Institut for German, and perhaps not familiar to you “natives”, Cambridge/The British Council for English. I’ve done Spanish in the past, but like I said, it didn’t really stick (yet), but I fully intend to take that up again in the future. And there are various other languages I’m interested in. I’m doing French and German because they’re immediately useful to me (gets asked a lot in job requirements), and unlike Spanish, I should be able to pick them up more easily since I’ve had French and German classes for years in highschool. I’m doing in English because, although I’m pretty confident in my English, I’d love to have some sort of “official” proof of my abilities.
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For fuck’s sake, again too long
Must.. Make.. Short..:
First and foremost, a good tripod, with ballhead in case of video. In the high-end market, Manfrettos are all the rage, but you may not want to spend that much. But keep in mind, since a DSLR is lighter than a camcorder, you can make do with the cheaper ones.
There is a specific Chinese brand of camera accessories, but I don’t know from the top of my head which one(s) or where to find them, I’ll ask around. I’d also get a gorillapod for the Zoom, if you’re getting that. If you’re not getting it right away, I’d use the money you’ll save on a good tripod. Also, obviously, the audio-recorder can make itself usefull outside of video production, so it’s an excellent investment.
And this is probably just going to make you drool even more, but this site is excellent for cheap accessories for video: http://www.cheasycam.com
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For that budget, you could look into buying a seperate, dedicated audio recorder, I hear the Zoom H 4 N is excellent, and you could combine it with a Canon EOS 550D with kitlens (although, you’ll need some accessories as well). You’ll have to change your workflow accordingly, i.e. you’ll have to add the sound in editing. But that’s how I’d do it.
I also know the Sony NEX cameras have mic accessories, but I don’t know how good they are, and they use the hotshoe.
Perhaps you should consider joining a tech and/or video site/forum, you can get help from real experts there. I’m on tweakers.net, a Dutch site, but I don’t know a UK equivalent unfortunately.
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Geez, need to keep this within 1000 characters.. -->
Keep in mind I’m by no means an expert, I get my info from the reviews and hands-on experiences.
Advantages:
- excellent image quality in a relatively tiny package (i.e. more portable)
- better suited to take still images as well obviously
- interchangable lenses
- generally much cheaper with kitlens (if you buy better lenses, this advantage evens out)
- better depth of field
Disadvantages:
- (pro-)Camcorders are better featured out of the box for shooting video, with handles, pro-inputs & outputs, etc.
- it seems camcorders generally have better audio quality
Universal advice:
Simply go to Vimeo or Youtube, and search for videos shot with the cameras you have in mind. Let the image quality do the convincing.
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No! I insist you make it you own trademark, and keep adding it to all your posts! Seriously, your posts were hilarious to read, pal! Jonnas, You’ve trumped you Gent’s mafia, at the very least in entertainment value, obviously I can’t comment on the balance. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading all of it, eventhough I was even more clueless than the players themselves of course.
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I was half being sarcastic, politics don’t interest me, but I’ve seen the dude on the left on television before . The dude on the right though, first time I’ve seen him was here on the forum.
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Yeah.. I dunno these people.
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Hi, no, it’s no problem, in fact, just before the forum went down, I had one very long post prepared, but I got the message it was too long.. I think I killed the forum. Anyway, I had the post saved in notepad, but I have to shorten it, and I have to leave now, so you’ll get my comments later!
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“Eventhough the locals are jaded, the airplane lifting off from the sea still manages to captivate the tourists.â€
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Yeah, well.. You’d (Or I would) expect a Scream boxset to be more internationally available, but like I said, I don’t care, if he wants / needs it from The Netherlands, I’m here to help. -
Me & Fused King (at the very least) say hi! PM sent. I’ll send him a little extra :p. But.. Why do we have something here what’s not available in the UK? No ETA on UK release? What about US import? Oh well, doesn’t really matter to me.
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Haha.. Eventhough I don’t have a job, and can’t even afford the cheapest cameras? I keep up with the tech news. I know what I want, for when I do get a job. Apart from this site, Engadget is one of the sites I visit daily. So yeah, I’m reasonably aware of the latest cameras, although I’m most interested in the MILCs (like m43, and the Sony NEX) at the moment. So yeah, eventhough a high framerate is out of the question without a professional camera, there are plenty of options when you simply want great video quality within a reasonable budget, and I figured you’d be interested in those as well.
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I don’t know for sure, but I am pretty sure, that if your looking at good video cameras, all will only do 60 fps at 1080p or even 720p. (I’m talking about relatively cheap “video DSLRs”, but even the RED Epic seems to do only 60 fps). The ones that deviate from the norm are rare. I found the camera that was known for its high framerates: The casio exilim ex-zr100. It’s a point & shoot camera where the high framerate only exists for marketing reasons. It can go up to 1000 fps, but like I said, expect to sacrifice resolution for framerate. It does 1000 fps at 224x64. You have a few other choices, but at 1080p it only does 30 fps. You can view info here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/2011/1/5/casioexzr100 The GoPros I mentioned seem to do 60 fps at 720 p, I think they’re your best bet. They’re cool little cameras anyway. Edit: Well, I’d recommend the GoPros, but they’re really specialised. If you want a good camera, you should look at anything from high-end point & shoots to entry level DSLRs. If you want good image quality, and you’re happy with 60 fps at 720p, go for something like a Canon EOS 550D or the newer Panasonic GH2. Those are excellent cameras for video. When I get a job, I’ll be saving up for the upcoming Sony NEX-7. These cameras don’t break the bank. Especially the Canon, since it’s a relative old camera now.
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Haha, no problem. Was worries I crushed your dreams after linking those professional cameras . Look forward to your experiments then!
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No, it’s just the video that’s in 1000 fps, well sort of. It was shot in 60 fps. The Canon 7D doesn’t do 1000 fps unfortunately, it would be great if it could, since its price is pretty doable. View the video on Youtube and read the description. In short: it was shot at 60 fps, pretty standard framerate, but in editing some bits were artificially stretched to 1000 fps, then slowed to the final speed of the video of course. The plug-in does so by interpolating the video between the real frames. So it just “makes up†a lot of extra frames. The film maker mentions this takes a lot of CPU power, which was to be expected I guess, but keep it in mind. He needed a few days to render the extra frames.
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I have no idea myself, but don’t those all-in-one messengers (like Trillian I believe) do the trick?
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Haha.. I’ve been that dick myself once.. Only it was the kid neighbours for me. I wasn't realising at the time I was ruining Sinterklaas for them (since Santa Claus doesn’t exist here at all, he’s a decal on shop-windows, nothing more). They were talking about getting presents from Sinterklaas.. But this was at an age that was far passed the “average†age when kids are told, well, who buys the presents (although I can’t recall how old we were at that point, but I figure late llementary? 11-12 years old?). Anyway, I took it upon myself to bring them the news, being surprised they didn’t know already. I even used the money gesture (you know, with your fingers). When their mom heard what I had told them, well.. She gave me the most disappointing look I’ve had ever seen. Felt horrible afterwards . I can absolutely not recall how I “got the newsâ€. It apparently didn’t have much effect on me, it never hampered my enjoyment of the holiday. I enjoy it to this very day, even if we aren’t celebrating it elaborately anymore. We don’t “set our shoes†(equivalent of hanging your stockings), but me and my brother give eachother small presents (if we can afford it :p). And obviously it can’t go without consuming some chocolate letters and uhh.. Peppernuts (???). The thing is, Sinterklaas here is a big national event. He “arrives†in The Netherlands late November on his boat, this is broadcasted on television. Every year he arrives in another city (big promotion for the regarding city), and in 2009 he visited my city, which was awesome. Me and my brother got up very early (well, early for us), just to catch a glimpse of the “real†Sinterklaas, standing between a lot of far younger kids and their parents . Oh well, we’ll always be children at heart . Anyway, there was a bit of a melancholic note to it for us personally.. Since we realised the actor, who has played Sinterklaas since we can remember, would retire soon (i.e. last year). Obviously this meant nothing to the little kids. We’ve seen him for years on television, to us there’s no other. Made a short video with my Flip, and some pictures, so I have some mementos. Anyway, I did watch his arrival last week, and yeah, it’s a new actor. Still fun to watch though. If / When I get kids, I’ll make sure to emphasize Sinterklaas, as apposed to celebrating Christmas. Obviously we celebrate Christmas as well, but I’ll be giving them their toys on Sinterklaas.
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Well, again, perhaps you should consider rental. I’d love to try out one of those cameras and make the typical water splashy video, even if it’s just for one day. I forgot to mention the other extreme though. You could also go the software route. Again, I dunno if that fits in what you have envisioned.. Obviously it won’t look as nice. Personally, I wouldn’t use it, I feel similar about it as I feel about post-processing 3D for example, but it could be a nice way to spruce up your Youtube videos with a much smaller budget. I was looking for a specific plug-in called “Twixtorâ€, but when Googling it I came across a video that showed a built-in plug-in for After Effects I believe? Anyway, this is the result of software slow-motion, perhaps you like it (I haven’t watched it on full-screen, it looks good at 360p.. Keep in mind the Youtube compression though).
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Red cameras are lustworthy, but not particularly known for their ridiculous framerates. You may want to take a look at [Phantom cameras from Vision Research]. Daft, yeah, unfortunately, framerate isn’t a big feature on consumer cameras. And it seems you can’t afford the cameras I linked above . Come one, do you really need a house? Get your priorities straight . Some consumer cameras can go faster than 60 fps, but remember, each of them sacrifices resolution to do so. Looking at the GoPro site for example, the new GoPro HD2 can do 120 fps, but only at 848×480. At 1980p it can only do the “regular” 30 fps. But perhaps that’s all you need for your project? I’m pretty sure there are other consumer cameras (like point & shoots) which have similar features, but I can’t name them from the top of my head. If you are “serious” about “toying” with a profesional camera, like those Phantoms, you should consider renting, this may well be within your budget. For other people, as to why you’d want to shoot with such framerates: The above video isn’t uploaded by the original filmmaker, but I can’t embed vimeo videos. Look for the original upload here: And other Phantom videos here: http://vimeo.com/search/videos/search:phantom/st/3cd588c2