“Is today your birthday? No? Then happy birthday!”
The Nikon D7000s just arrived at the school’s equipment cage. They look promising, and I want to get them in the hands of students as soon as possible. But I also want to set some expectations. First, why students should (not) use one:
DSLR vs. ENG (Electronic News Gathering)
DSLR (Canon 7D, Nikon D7000)
Shallow depth of field
The #1 reason to choose these cameras. Also the #1 reason to fear these cameras.
Shooting an actor’s close-up on a 50mm at ƒ/1.4 looks great. Then students realize if the actor moves literally 1 inch, he’ll be out of focus. By the way, DOF calculators are quite handy. Check out the ugly but insanely useful pCam for iPhone.
Starting out, everyone blows focus. Repeatedly. But when that tricky shot is pulled and stays tack sharp, the princess is saved.
Great for planned narrative or pure experimental
Designing shots, checking exposure and pulling focus all take time, practice and patience. If I cannot call “Cut! Back to One!” I would be better off with an ENG-style camera.
The D7000’s maximum length of a single take is 20 minutes, at which point the camera automatically stops recording. That’s not an issue for most narrative work. That could be a deal-breaker for any live event.
After extended use, the camera’s sensor can overheat and will need several minutes to cool down. When will this happen? How long will it take to cool down? Who knows? The crew needs to take five or rig up the B-camera.
Excellent color fidelity, even in low light
Cinematographers can sculpt lighting with more finesse and less power than an ENG camera permits.
Just because the camera can shoot in incredibly low light does not mean lighting should be ignored or that existing/location light can always be used. Shooting with a wide open aperture lets in the maximum amount of light, but it also makes the depth of field incredibly shallow. Which is great. Until the focus puller repeatedly blow focus on a shot that should have been designed with a smaller aperture (i.e., greater DOF) and thus more light.
Increasing the ISO to make the camera more sensitive to light also increases the image sensor’s noise.
Lightweight and (somewhat) inconspicuous…
…until the camera is rigged on a shoulder mount with a follow focus unit and an external LCD monitor or viewfinder.
Also please ignore the sound recordist holding a boom pole.
“No officer, we didn’t realize we needed permits…”
ENG (Panasonic DVX100 / HVX200 / HMC40 / HMC150, Sony HVR-Z1U)
Best for documentary and run ’n gun
Most of the frequently used controls have dedicated buttons on the camera body, which means the camera operator is not digging around in menus when he should be recording. Takes can run as long as needed, provided sufficient space exists on the camera’s media (tape, P2/SD card).
Dynamic lighting conditions? Good thing these cameras have zebra stripes or an on-screen waveform monitor (HMC150) to judge exposure.
Greater DOF means less chances to blow focus.
Good mic support
The onboard mic is decent for certain applications. When better audio is necessary, use any XLR mic.
On-screen audio levels. Gasp.
Because the audio is recorded on the same device & file as the video, no syncing in post is necessary.
Canon 7D vs. Nikon D7000
Our school has both. Which one should students choose?
Simple answer. My students should choose the Canon 7D only when they want to…
- shoot over-cranked footage (60fps @ 720p) for playback in slow motion.
- use one of the Nikon lenses bundled with our 7D kit (24mm ƒ/2.8, 35mm ƒ/2 [1], 180mm ƒ/2.8).
- use their own Canon lens(es). The school’s equipment cage has none.
- follow the Steadicam recipe and tutorial that my Fall 2010 Short Media Production class created. [2]
In my (limited) experience so far, the Nikon D7000 is superior to the Canon 7D in nearly every other way, given our equipment and our needs. [3]
The rolling shutter (aka Jell-O cam) skewing looks less severe on the D7000, although it is still noticeable.
Our cage has one (1) Canon 7D kit and five (5) Nikon D7000 kits. ‘Nuff said. The Canon 7D is limited to Nikon lenses with manual aperture rings (non G-series). The D7000 is compatible with any Nikon lens in our equipment cage.
Our DSLR Lenses
Lenses for general checkout (G-series lenses are grayed out):
Lenses for advanced photo checkout (aka 10 reasons to befriend an advanced Photo major):
Okay, okay. So what did we get?
The Nikon D7000 kits will include the following:
- Nikon D7000 body
- 50mm ƒ/1.4
- 35mm ƒ/1.8
- 16GB SD card (x2)
- 77mm Genus ND Fader Filter
- 52mm—>77mm, 62mm—>77mm, 72mm—>77mm step up rings
- LCDVF LCD screen viewfinder
- Nikon battery (x2)
- Lens Pen
- Video cables
- Nikon battery charger
Other bits of kit that will be available soon:
- Ikan V5600 5.6 LCD Monitor Deluxe Kit
- Ikan Recoil Camera Stabilization shoulder mount
- Ikan F3 Friction Follow Focus
- Ikan Elements Super Fly Kit
- Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 80–200mm f/2.8D ED Lens
- Indie-Dolly Systems Dolly & Track (12ft straight + 10ft curved)
How should students get started?
Read:
- Ken Rockwell’s D7000 review and user’s guide
- [Nikon D7000 User’s Manual] (Nikon D7000 User’s Manual)
Training should begin within a couple weeks. Yes, there will be a test.
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The 35mm ƒ/1.8 DX lens that will be bundled with our D7000 kits is faster than this lens. ↩
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I will post this to the school’s network drive. ↩
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In Ken Rockwell’s JPEG comparison, the D7000’s high-ISO noise levels are much less than the Canon 5DmkII (somewhat comparable to the 7D). I hope this translates directly to movie mode as well. Ultimately, although camera shootouts are fun and all, but unless the D7000’s H.264 compression is significantly worse than the 7D (which I suspect is not the case), then I can safely say the D7000 is better for me and my students.
I’m prepared to be wrong. This says I might be. Worst case scenario: the 7D kit gets labeled as the premium narrative kit, while the D7000 kits remain simply awesome. ↩
Canon 7D, DSLR, Nikon D7000, digital cinematography ;)
