Essential 7D / camera accessories

messplay

messplay

Active member
all i have for my 7D, lens wise, is the Canon EF-S 18-135mm + an adaptive Kenko 0.25x Fisheye Converter (wanted to save some $$ and just play with it before investing into an 'official' fisheye lens).

Just looking to see what any of you guys use (filters, lens, etc..) and what you use them most for.

thanks.
 
*nice glass but I would save up for a nice lens that is weather sealed if you want to use it skiing
 
There isn't a universal list of mandatory filming accessories; that's like asking what skis/bindings you should get without giving ANY information about size, weight, skill, terrain, etc.

If you want to do a lot of wide follows, then you will obviously need a steadicam and wide angle (throw away your screw on fisheye. seriously.) If you want to shoot telephoto, then you will need at least a nice head and set of legs to keep it stable. Most things you buy are pretty self-explanitory, so unless you have a specific question, none of us can help you.

Although I will say that some mandatory accessories are, in my opinion, a basic set of filters (polarizer, ND, Grad ND), quality legs/head, extra batteries, and a viewfinder or external monitor. Also it should go without saying that your lenses should be the nicest part of your kit.
 
follow focus, extra batteries, basic filter set, nice tripod, good lenses, filter set, glidecam
 
I can't vouch personally about fisheyes, but I've heard good things about the Opteka 6.5mm. Cheap too.
 
A few wide angle options:
Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 (constant aperture)Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6Sigma 12-24 f/4.5-5.6Canon 10-22 f/3.5-4.5

You can also go with some primes if you want, but the zooms help you dial in the look you want.
If you want to go with the zoom, check out the Tokina. Has a great build quality, small but usable zoom, and is constant aperture so if you zoom you do not lose stops. Also, the f/2.8 is better than the rest for low light and depth of field options.
I've shot on the Sigma 12-24. It does have more range for zoom which is sweet, but the lack of constant aperture makes you have to shoot at a higher f-stop to avoid the f-stop changing mid-zoom. F/4 is decent but if you go low light it's not as open as you may like.
Hope this helps!
 
Lenses that I have heard great things about/or use that i'd support

Zooms

tokina 11-16 2.8 (own, most baller lens ever)

tameron 17-50 2.8 IS (the newer version, everyone on dvxusers really says its a nice lens)

canon 17-40 4L (L series glass, really solid lens)

canon 70-200 4/2.8L (L series, probably one of the most legit telephoto lenses around)

canon 24-105 4L ("kit" lens for the 5DmkII, pretty good quality, good range for a single lens day)

Primes

Old nikon 35 2 (great picture, nice bokeh, great on a crop sensor)

Old nikon 50 1.4 (again, pretty decent lens)

canon 50 1.4

Helios 50 1.8 (amazing cheap old lens with unbelievable bokeh, modeled after a zeiss lens)

canon 100 2.8

any zeiss lens
 
This is my favorite prime I own. The bokeh gets all distorted like impressionistic brush strokes. trippy!

and it was only $20.

Foliage from Mikko Kämäräinen on Vimeo.
 
<object width="700" height="394"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7240098&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7240098&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="700" height="394"></embed></object>
 
Yes you can get that kind of DOF with that lens, you just need to understand how things like aperture (also called f/stop), ISO, and shutter speed all work together.
Since it's daylight he's likely shooting with a Neutral Density filter on his lens. This is basically sunglasses for your lens. ND filters save you f/stops by allowing less light through the lens, so that you can shoot with a lower f/stop #.
Think of it this way: Lower f/stop, more light into the camera, shallow DOF (more bokeh around the subject). Higher f/stop, less light into the camera, deeper DOF.
General rule of thumb as well (at least for me): Shoot a little underexposed. If you overexpose your image, you loose the detail, and cannot bring it back in post. If you underexpose by just a little (a stop or less), you still have the detail in the image, giving you more flexibility in post.
What it really comes down to is two things: First, read up as much as you can. The manual is great for learning how to operate the camera, but not how everything works together. Look at some blogs by DSLR filmmakers - Philip Bloom, Vincent LaForet, Chase Jarvis, Cinema5D - and read up. Second, and most importantly, GO OUT AND SHOOT. Doesn't matter what it is, the more time you spend with your camera, the better filmmaker you will become.
/diatribe
 
I was just gonna say, he should be shooting to the right if he's using a DSLR because they are prone to having noise in blacks. It's better to have too much light to work with than not enough. In my experiences, brightening a dark image surfaces the nasty side of the codec, whereas darkening a bright image has better results, provided the image is bright as possible without clipping.
 
no worries landis, thanks for the find and help. i'll do my research. Goal is to have a decent 3-4min edit of whatever before September ends...

but lastly, editing post....i dont have ANYTHING on my mac besides default programs (i just torrented Lightroom 3 which i'm stoked on) but what do you guys prefer that is a good/amatuer editing program i wont get confused with?

 
You shouldn't be over exposing or under exposing, you should be hitting it right on the head. Blown out highlights look like crap, on any video camera, avoid them. Make sure you have highlight alert on, snap a pic of your scene, make sure nothing is showing up as over exposed, adjust accordingly. Exposing with DSLRS is tough. The cameras exposure system blows, so you just gotta rely on what highlight alert is telling you and your eye. Exposing with dslrs is mostly an educated guessing game. Plus, you want to try to avoid having to brighten or darken the image when you go to edit. The h.264 codec is barely acceptable for any kind of color work, so the less you gotta do, the better.
 
thanks horn, i'll take that into consideration.

post-production/editing now....what do you guys recommend i get (how can i get it by SPENDING money)

Final Cut and other editing programs for footage i've seen people on here use are expensive! I was wondering if anyone knows a way I can get it so I can BUY it as well. ;)
 
but I DONT want to do it the illegal way becuase i know that will save me money which is what i DONT want to do...
 
My two cents on post:
When you get your clips onto your hard drive, you're going to want to convert them to a different format besides h.264. Editing in h.264 is a royal pain in the ass in FCP, because you will find yourself constantly rendering and re-rendering. Final Cut Pro (I'm not sure on Express?) does transcoding through the Log and Transfer with a plug-in, and there is also a free program, Mpeg Streamclip, which allows you to transcode the clips to a multitude of formats (ProRes, XDCAM, DVCPRO, etc).
 
MPEGstreamclip actually transcodes in higher quality. There is some new beta program out that does it better than MPEGstreamclip, but I forgot what it's called.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top