Done a bit of shooting with my 7D so far and thought I'd let everyone know what I've purchased so far and reflect a bit on my experiences with the gear. Ended up skimping a bit on glass for now and bought some other gear to fill out my rig (slider, viewfinder, lighting, etc.). I'm still having a bit of trouble getting this rig stable / mobile without dumping $600+ on the zacuto or redrock gear I've been trying to avoid buying. The original gear list I was considering was:
Canon 7D w/ previously purchased spiderbrace & 501hdv head, 750w tota w/softbox (key) & 2x pro lights (fill & back) for light, and:
I went with:
As far as lenses go the 50 f/1.4 is definitely worth the extra money over the canon 50 f/1.4 if you're going to be shooting AT 1.4 - wide open it just looks better - after f/2 the differences aren't really noticeable though. The kit lens is cheap, stabilized, and looks fine wide open making it a not-half-bad way to save $900 over the 17-55 f/2.8 IS. The tokina hasn't gotten enough hours for me to be sure how I feel about it yet, but it looks good, and the wider lens makes stable handholding easier. Being able to shoot video at the wide end of the tokina really is something I'm still working on getting used to. Going that wide on a camcorder while still retaining decent image quality / distortion is next to impossible - only way I could think would be to take a camcorder that goes unusually wide on the wide end like the hvx200a or hpx170 (28mm) and strap a $1000+ .6/.7x adapter on. Coming from video the depth of field control is nice, but the XXXTREME f/1.2 stuff seems totally unnecessary for most of us. Honestly anything shallower than f/2.8 is hard enough to reliably gauge focus on -even in interview situations- that shooting at f/1.4 & f/2 is very rarely worth the risk of ending up with misfocused material. That said f/2.8-4 on the 7D still gives me the DoF control I was looking for.
Like I said at the beginning of this post though I'm still trying to figure out how to stabilize / tripod mount this rig properly. Anyone have any ideas on how to get everything (1) loaded onto the spiderbrace stably so the sock loupe ends up at my eye level while (2) still being able to get my hand in to adjust the focus manually? Should i get a standoff or something for the 501HDV head to give me better access to the camera lens when the 7D is tripod mounted?
Canon 7D w/ previously purchased spiderbrace & 501hdv head, 750w tota w/softbox (key) & 2x pro lights (fill & back) for light, and:
- $600 11-16mm f/2.8 Tokina
- $500 17-50mm f/2.8 Tamron OR 30mm f/1.4 Sigma
- $500 50mm f/1.4 Sigma
- $500 85mm f/1.8 Canon
I went with:
- $600 11-16mm f/2.8 Tokina
- $500 50mm f/1.4 Sigma
- $100 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS canon kit lens
- $425 litepanels micropro led light (smaller, quicker, less heat, etc.)
- $200 diy slider
- $ 80 sock loupe viewfinder w/diopter
As far as lenses go the 50 f/1.4 is definitely worth the extra money over the canon 50 f/1.4 if you're going to be shooting AT 1.4 - wide open it just looks better - after f/2 the differences aren't really noticeable though. The kit lens is cheap, stabilized, and looks fine wide open making it a not-half-bad way to save $900 over the 17-55 f/2.8 IS. The tokina hasn't gotten enough hours for me to be sure how I feel about it yet, but it looks good, and the wider lens makes stable handholding easier. Being able to shoot video at the wide end of the tokina really is something I'm still working on getting used to. Going that wide on a camcorder while still retaining decent image quality / distortion is next to impossible - only way I could think would be to take a camcorder that goes unusually wide on the wide end like the hvx200a or hpx170 (28mm) and strap a $1000+ .6/.7x adapter on. Coming from video the depth of field control is nice, but the XXXTREME f/1.2 stuff seems totally unnecessary for most of us. Honestly anything shallower than f/2.8 is hard enough to reliably gauge focus on -even in interview situations- that shooting at f/1.4 & f/2 is very rarely worth the risk of ending up with misfocused material. That said f/2.8-4 on the 7D still gives me the DoF control I was looking for.
Like I said at the beginning of this post though I'm still trying to figure out how to stabilize / tripod mount this rig properly. Anyone have any ideas on how to get everything (1) loaded onto the spiderbrace stably so the sock loupe ends up at my eye level while (2) still being able to get my hand in to adjust the focus manually? Should i get a standoff or something for the 501HDV head to give me better access to the camera lens when the 7D is tripod mounted?
