In the recent years, Digital SLR video function has garnered good popularity among many Professional Wedding, Event and Short Films video makers. Many of these avid video professionals are turning their attention to this device as the main workhorse moving forward. So what are the benefits of using the Digital SLR camera to shoot video? What are also some of the drawbacks of using this camera in video shooting?
Let me qualify myself to make these analysis and comments. I have been shooting Wedding and Events for a couple of years. I have started out as a Photographer and over time, have decided to transfer some of my photography skills into video. I own both a Digital SLR Camera and the famous Canon XHA1 Pro-consumer Video Camera. Let's look at some of these salient points on this topic.
1) Price Point
One of the key propositions of Digital SLR is the Price point. The pricing of such camera has been ranging from $500 to $2000, lower than most professional video cameras in the market. As the market demand for this range of cameras is much higher than Professional Camcorder and the competition is much stiffer, the pricing will certainly be significantly lower. I believe the price of Digital SLR will continue to decline over the next few years as the market adoption continues to grow.
2) Versatility
Digital SLR is certainly more versatile than the traditional camcorder. Asides from the costly Studio Professional camcorders, this camera enables video makers to shoot with a wide range of Lens and also enable the achievement of Depth of Field effect with ease. You can mount on the zoom lens to capture scenes a few hundreds of meters away and you can run a close-up shoot of a bee working on a flower with a switch to the close-up lens. You can also achieve a good shot in a small room using a wide-angle lens or even achieve fanciful effect with a fish-eye. All these switching and changing of lens are not usually possible with conventional Pro-consumer camcorders, except those in the highest range. Hence, with Digital SLR, you can plan a variety of shoot or storyboard for the film and achieve it with relatively easily and at lower cost.
3) Weight and Size
Digital SLR weigh much lesser than the conventional equivalent Pro-consumer camcorder. As the camera is designed to be hand-held, it is also relatively small especially compare with the huge shoulder mount camcorders. Well, being a video makers, I have to admit that being small may not necessary be a good idea as it affect the stability of the shoot. Unlike the Photography which is essentially a snap and go handling, video requires firm and stable handling for a prolong period of time. video makers are also required to "move" the camera in a smooth and stable technique to achieve the beautiful moving shots. The shoulder mount camera enables the shooter to hold the camcorder firm on the shoulder for most shoot, so it may more challenging to handle the small size and light Digital SLR. Well the good news is that many rig and gadget manufacturers are now creating good rigs for such camera to enable it to be mounted easily on the shoulder. Its light weight has also enables it to be easily secured to a stabilizer that is infamous for smooth moving shots. Hence, being light and small is definitely a big plus.
4) Format
Perhaps, the one feature that I dislike most about shooting Video with such camera is its current primary recording format. The camera process and store the footage mainly in "AVCHD" format which, though require very small footprint, is very unfriendly to most conventional editing software. Due to its high compression, one will require a very powerful processor as well as software to be able to process and edit the footage with ease. Besides, the compression has also introduced more noise into the video as a result. Nevertheless I believe this issue will be eventually overcome with the rolling out of more powerful Processors, efficient Codec, better memory storage device and more powerful editing software into the market.
In summary, I believe that Digital SLR video is here to stay and will dominate the Wedding, Event and Short Film video jobs. I am also glad that it is now becoming more affordable for many to create great films and bring out the best beauty of life.
Vince, a Wedding, Event as well as Short film Video maker and also a Website developer, has been actively recommending video and Digital SLR cameras.
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