Yep, you heard right -- the
DSLR is totally the new camcorder. With the reality being that most mid- and high-end DSLRs from here on out will tout at least 720p movie modes, Redrock Micro is looking to make the most of a most opportune situation. The DSLR 2.0 line of its Hybrid Cinema Rigs enables the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Nikon D90, and Panasonic Lumix HG1 to become filmmaking machines (at least on some level), and as we've seen, DSLR filmmaking is
no laughing matter. The company sells all sorts of racks, rails and shoulder mounts, with solutions starting for as little as $195. Look, you've been putting off making that dust-collecting screenplay into a masterpiece of cinema for ages -- what legitimate excuse do you really have now?
posted Apr 24th 2009 5:02AM
DSLR video finally brings film quality production to the mainstream. Now anyone can make a film, pilot, home movie, or whatever with their own reasonably priced rig. This changes everything, and is pretty sweet and exciting!
I think its worth nothing that at $195, all you get is the baseplate, which is more or less just a brick on the bottom of your DSLR until your add handles, a follow focus, or whatever else you want. At $195, you don't get what one would call a "solution."
What?? Is everyone forgetting the horrible CMOS rolling shutter with these? The picture looks terrible unless the cam is motionless on a tripod! Why is this major issue being glossed over so much?
If you want a package, the start price is more than 1500 $ !!!
For $1500 you could buy a decent prosumer high-def camcorder with 1080i. Sure, not gonna be anything super useful, but decent for the amateur filmmaker
I would imagine that some of these solutions might be useful for still photography as well.
BTW, it's "GH1", not "HG1"...
Too bad most noob films are absolute crap. It's like they didn't think about it more than once.
"Too bad most films are absolute crap. It's like they didn't think about it more than once." Fixed that for ya....
Thank you Mr. President. I hope that's not the last useful thing you do.
I have gone the very opposite way: since my RED Scarlet arrived home I have been using it to make still pictures too, but before that I had used my Casio EX-F1 still cam to shoot some film too and I'm hardly the only one: the distinction between still and videocam has become blurry (forgive me the childish pun ).
What I think is really surprisig is the quality of both stills and videos that I have seen people managed to produce with a so called "bridge camera", (and don't tell me that my Casio is a bridge cam too) particularly with machines under 500$ such as the Fuji finePix S100 or even S1000, s1500, s2000 and S8000; I almost wish I would need a new machine to justify buying one.
Fuji is the first producer that seems to have understood that with the quality reached by cameras in the latest years the competition in consumer cameras has moved to the price and at the moment their quality/price ratio is unbeatable.
This is why in my opinion these kits to tun an expensive DSLR into an outrageously expensive (compared to the quality it delivers) videocam are gonna be very difficult to sell.
Ummmm, RED Scarlet is far from out yet. RED claims September in the earliest timelines.
Kilgore!!!! Dude! I haven't heard from you in years. Still writing filler stories for nudie magazines??
OMG !!! Majortom, where have we met?
@ViaTorci
Even if I'm not a photographer, to earn my meager living I'm forced to spend far too many hours with cranky and egocentric pros and I got this Scarlet from one of them who had it from RED in exchange of a faulty model ONE.
Anyway I have seen quite a few around lately also TV , used by news crews cameramen; I have also read somewhere that some famous movie director I have never heard of, has just finished to shoot his latest masterpiece with a Scarlet, giving to it the pro creed it surely deserves.
This is weird. Nobody ever thinks about the fact that these DSLRs were NOT made for video. The amount of skew and the crappy footage of moving subjects or from a moving camera renders the stuff these shoot useless. Sure, it's a cool thing to have an additional feature but if you want to shoot films/videos and you want something that's good in that area, buy one of the smaller RED Scarlet cameras when they come out this summer.
I know you can't compare an actual product to a to-be-released one, but I think anyone thinking of high-end video/film should check these out first.
red.com
I was wondering about all that...... Arent DSLR's not able to get even 3ccd quality as far as the moving pictures colors. 720p is nice and all but the crappy picture I think would be a low point....
Exactly! I've been wondering the same thing! It's like everyone intentionally "forgets" about the rolling shutter issue and all the jello footage is produces.. That has NOT been fixed with ANY modern DSLR.. It is inherent to CMOS sensors and is going to take some new technology to fix...
New technology? All you need is to have a sensor fast enough to capture the entire area quick enough and to then sync it, can't modern CMOS chips do 24FPS yet? Actually I know there are ones that can, not sure why the ones used in these cams can't, perhaps because of the quality requirements and high pixelcount combination.
Maybe it's even a simple flaw in the capture chips that shuffle the data, those flip-style HD minicamcorders don't all have the flowing effect, and they use CMOS too.
@Wwhat
Video cameras use much smaller sensors. Even most of the professional ones. A smaller sensor can be read faster.
@wwhat
"New technology? ... All you need is to have a sensor fast enough to capture the entire area quick enough and to then sync it, can't modern CMOS chips do 24FPS yet?"
Yes, an APS-C or larger sized 15+ megapixel CMOS sensor that can dump it's data fast enough to avoid the rolling shutter syndrome.. AKA TECHNOLOGY THAT DOESN'T EXIST YET.
Guys, this technology DOES exist, people are making feature films with it...
The company is called RED Digital Cinema. They, in fact, make larger than APS-C sensors with larger, than 15 mpixels res.
I don't have actual information on this but don't they just skip rows and columns( or only read the central part) in these cases? Since those chips are read in such a way anyway it would seem simple to not actually read all 15MP if you don't need to.
I mean that 1000fps feature on those erm pentax(?) works by having super-low res and low res for slightly less extreme FPS, seems to me they do that by not reading the entire sensor array.
EU Import Duty regulations kinda hinder the use of cameras as vidyacams, what with the restricted recording time.
Only if you plan on shooting very long, uninterrupted scenes (eg. 12 minutes of HD, 30 of SD on the 5D mark II).
*over those
And only if the manufacturers don't just pay the tax and make it $50 more expensive, and seeing this silly thing sells for 200 I don't see an issue in that, seems people are willing to pay.
Now if only it was suitable as camcorder in the first place to justify it all.
P.S. that $50 was a wild guess, no idea what the difference is in tax between a DSLR and a videocamera, I just can't imagine it's that much.
Why are they all wearing scrubs? and what's up with the black chick's rig it looks like shes going on a night assault mission...
The black chick with the 'fro and the mustache? Umm, I think that's a guy.
Anyway, I see your point, Night assault mission all the way. Certainly not candid camera.
T.
after closly zooming I have found that it IS a guy....wow......just wow.....he needs a hair cut..
That is clearly a guy, no need to zoom. Yes the mic on top of the head looks really funny.
550px × 223px on 1920x1200 on 15.1'' @90 dpi @ 2 feet away is really hard to see the stash
Excuses excuses.
.......Looking forward to getting into some amateur film production with that chick in green... that guy can go fetch some bone in China town.....
LMAO
That looks like a surgical gown that green thing, weird stuff, guy with a mike on his head and a surgeon.
At least you have an unmoving subject that way I guess.
I honestly thought the headline said "Redneck Micro Hybrid Cinema Rigs," I was expecting some nailed together planks of wood and a gun rack.
4chan : wln!
:-P (just a joke)
Redrock Micro: Raising the douche factor of DSLR film making since 2009!
I for one am excited about the potential of DSLRs shooting video, and these rigs should make it more practical, though at a price, of course.
But what I'd want to see down the line is not only a full-frame DSLR still camera that can shoot video, but the flip side of that; a CAMCORDER with the 5D Mark II's full-size sensor - something designed for video from the ground up (video-oriented physical design, continuous autofocus, etc.) that *happens* to also take stills in a pinch. *That's* something I'd like to see.
You videographers here, can you venture a guess as to how much the mythical "5D Mark II camcorder" might cost if designed today? Just wondering. (The real Mark II is about $2,700 U.S.)
You just described RED.
Yepp, that's just what RED Digital Cinema does. Although they don't stop where the 5D2 does. Their new models (which they didn't release yet) start from 5K resolution (5000 vertical lines, about 14 MPixels) and go as high as 9K on the $50,000 model. Oh, they also have one with 28-freakin-Ks. Thats somewhere arond 250 MPixels. I think.
red.com
Having seen what's possible from Stu Maschwitz, Vincent Laforet, and now Rodney Charters with his CBS pilot, i'd say the DSLR for video is alive and well. Of course it isn't everything that Red is, but under the right conditions it's a great tool.
As for Redrock rigs, yes the baseplate system is $195 and a rig like Stu used is closer to $420 plus the follow focus for a total of $900. Same as a Red camera being $17k and you add from there
AHH! Does it turn you into a squinty-eyed woman too?
I shot this music video using the Nikon D90. Redrock was also nice enough to lend me the DLSR setup to shoot. check it out:
http://vimeo.com/2499643
johntiberiouscollins,
That pretty well settles it. That is some of the best video I have seen from a D90. Check out this short by Vincent Laforet using a Canon EOS 5D MKII. http://www.vincentlaforet.com/
I like my camera to take still photos. i'd think an autofocus video mode would be cool. If you're a filmmaker, you should buy a professional video camera. A DSLR shouldn't be your main cinematography camera
A DSLR will give superior video quality (if the image doesn't move too fast/isn't too shaky) and the look that only 35mm film or the Red One can give you... and those options are by far more expensive. Autofocus? I thought most films use manual focus and a focus puller who does the job of getting the focus right.