Best camera setup for interviews? DSLR's or something else?

R

rossagrant

Member
Hi guys!

So sorry if this is a real basic type of question, but I really need some advice.

I want to start a high-end video podcast this year - using a multi-cam setup of 3 cameras and would love to hear from those who have done similar?

My setup will comprise of:

- My 60D to cover the wide of the interviewer and guest.
- 2x brand new cameras which I have yet to
buy, to cover the singles on each person.

- I'll probably use 2 Rode Smarlavs to record audio of each guest separately to the iPhone app.

Now, I have NO IDEA of which 2 cameras to buy for the singles. I would use DSLR's, but don't want to be limited by the 4gb/ 12 minute limit or even the 29:59 limit of later Canon models etc.

What are the usual setups for interviews with no limitations?

im in the UK, so I think most DSLR's - even the GH4 - have this limit?

I really love the depth of field you get with DSLR's - can this be achieved on other cameras at a similar price, that don't have such limitations?

All advice would be greatly received!

Ross :)
 
Go pro's, or grab some used Panasonic g6 kits. They completely destroy the Canon 60d in every way. They also have facial recognition to lock focus on the interviewee, unlimited record time, just did an hour shoot the other day with no issue. They can be controlled through your iPhone or android device remotely with the Panasonic app. My advice would be to sell the canon 60d and get three Panasonic g6 kits. Not trying to promote my work, but below is a link of the g6 in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRiKjjZ3yGk
 
maranfilms said:
Go pro's, or grab some used Panasonic g6 kits. They completely destroy the Canon 60d in every way. They also have facial recognition to lock focus on the interviewee, unlimited record time, just did an hour shoot the other day with no issue. They can be controlled through your iPhone or android device remotely with the Panasonic app. My advice would be to sell the canon 60d and get three Panasonic g6 kits. Not trying to promote my work, but below is a link of the g6 in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRiKjjZ3yGk
Click to expand...

wow, impressive footage with the g6!

take a well-earned bow.

i do a fair amount of interior talking head interviews and tended to think the whole gh4/m4/3 setup would not be great in low light and not offer the depth of field options that an s35 chip camera can offer.

that said, i thought your linked footage was lovely.

thank you.

be well.

rob
smalltalk.productions
 
robfilms said:
i do a fair amount of interior talking head interviews and tended to think the whole gh4/m4/3 setup would not be great in low light and not offer the depth of field options that an s35 chip camera can offer.
Click to expand...

Considering that this is to be a "high-end" video podcast, do you have any plans for lighting? This whole fascination with low-light performance in DSLRs and digital cine cameras seems to have given folks a false sense of confidence about working with existing light pretty much all the time. Every camera loves light, and any camera can look pretty good if the scene is properly lit.

And with the availability now of decent LED panels at lower cost (e.g. Aputure Amaran), it would be worth planning for lighting your videos. This has nothing to do with the DMC-G6 or any other camera you may consider. Choose your camera based on its performance for your needs of image control and record time, but whichever camera you get... light for it!
 
What he said.

And three cameras? You might get into a matching nightmare. If I were going three cameras, I'd find some used Nikon 5300s. Beautiful image, and you can slowly build up a kit of used nikkors. The 50mm 1.8's are decent interview lenses and they're dirt cheap (look for old film bodies with lenses, often cheaper than just the lens). I'd get a Nikon over a GH any day - beautiful, organic image that grades well.

I got an aputure 672 - I think it's handy for picking out details or rim lighting, not much kick for the money - but I do like low ISOs and being able to shoot at F4 or 5.6 vs. basing DOF on lighting. Can't tell you how many interviews I've just clipped some ripstop to a quad biax barndoor for my key.

I say this a lot when LEDs come up, but get on Amazon and get a couple chinese biax quads, or a quad and a dual - you'll pay about the same as one 672 if you shop around and you'll have a lot more light at hand.
 
Syncing cameras to double system sound tracks can be a nightmare with compressed video, MP3 recorders or AAC camera audio, and no timecode. MP3 has no frame based time reference. Even with PluralEyes you can suffer sync drift on long interview takes. The chances that any 3 cameras plus audio recorder will have perfectly stable synchronized sample clock rates is virtually nil. A decent audio recorder that can record BWF format audio with imbedded timecode would at least give a frame accurate master audio track.
 
Wow, thanks so much for all of the info!

[QUOTEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRiKjjZ3yGk][/QUOTE]

looks like that footage has been taken down?

I will be using lighting, yes. I have 3 bog standard soft boxes for now, but could certainly buy in more.

My main goal is to get a very high-end look to these interviews with great audio, so will spend as much of my budget to achieve as nice a look as possible.

I have around £3k to spend on the 2 cameras - so not loads unfortunately.

Sound is a biggie for me.

Right now, I could do one of the following, but will it cause me issues:

1 - Use separate Rode SmartLav Plus mics to record each guest and host via Rode's app on separate iPhones.

2 - Same as above, but with 2 Rode lavs going into a H4N via XLR.

3 - Run the Smartlavs directly into the cameras - each mic would run into the camera recording the single of either host or guest.

4 - Buy a boom for the H4N?

what issues could I run up against with those setups? Any pitfalls?

I've ran SmartLavs directly into my 60D and the audio has been pretty sweet.

i guess it depends on what cameras I end up buying.

So many choices.

I'm after a nice depth of field too, but worry about focus, if a guest gets animated, moving forwards and backwards.

Im very new to filming, so how would I best achieve DOF without the risk of a blurry guest?

Thanks SO MUCH for your patience, I know these questions might be a bit dull for the pro's here!
 
Keep in mind color matching different types of cameras. I found personally that Canon and Panasonic didn't match very well to each other- heck, I found that Panasonic's color science from the GH2 to the GH3 and the G6 were different from even each other to be noticeable. I think they finally sort of evened out with the GH4, G7, and other current model lumix bodies- the color discrepancy looks better, but man I have a bugger of a time trying to make them look similar when shooting multiple angles of the same scene. Throwing a Canon into the mix was enough to make me give up and just buy more GH2s (they're so cheap!) so everything matched. Yes, the GH2 has a recording limit in the UK, but a custom firmware easily removes that limitation.

Another option, if you like the Canon look and already have a 60D, might be to get some external recorders like the Atomos Ninja 2. They are under $300 these days, and get around recording limits and poor codecs. I think they can even sync up with some sort of timecode, but I've never tried to work that out. They have line level mic inputs as well, so your sound can be setup to record directly in sync with the video.
I used to use G6s and GH2s for long form recording sessions, but I liked the look of larger sensor cameras better (spoiled by my A7S), so I sold them all in favor of some Atomos recorders and picked up a cheap used A5100 to go along with my A7S, and I have access to an A6000 as a third camera when necessary. The colors match pretty well, and I like the look better than my micro 43 cameras.

The lumix bodies might be less hassle to set up, just offering different options.
 
So many options! Haha!

I just searched for some GH2's and I can get them pretty cheap over here in the UK - around £200 - £250 used.

Thus I could buy 3 GH2's for less than one GH4.

I would love to see any interviews people have filmed on a GH2.

i have zero knowledge of lenses folks. Any ideas of decent lenses for the LUMIX bodies, for a LUMIX body?

Thanks so much for your continued patience.

Any links to footage of interviews shot on any recommended kit would be amazing!
 
I have some but its older now and I'd have to dig it up. Maybe after the weekend I'll find some links, most of them were annual fundraiser type videos that are no longer online because they were replaced with the next year's content.
 
M. Gilden said:
I have some but its older now and I'd have to dig it up. Maybe after the weekend I'll find some links, most of them were annual fundraiser type videos that are no longer online because they were replaced with the next year's content.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much, that would be awesome.

ultimately, it comes down to what you guys think I 'need' - there's no point in me spending more on a body with loadsa stuff on it that I won't use. I could spend the money I save on the body on lenses, tripos and lighting!

any footage, of any suitable setups would be so appreciated!
 
I concur the gh2's are a great choice. Make sure to take a look at the g6's though to. I thought the g6 was a cleaner low light image, and being able to control it from my phone app was awesome. I don't really use auto focus, but for interviews I think they both have facial recognition if I recall correctly. Makes it so much easier to maintain focus, not that talking heads will really require much more than getting focus in the beginning, just stop down a bit to achieve a deeper dof to help with that.
 
Yes, the GH2 does have facial recognition AF, but I haven't tested during video recording. Some GH2 hacks will fail during facial AF tracking, so chose one that leaves some processor overhead for the tracking, Flowmotion 2.2 would probably be fine. And buy the 64GB Sandisk Extreme cards (95MBps) for these hacks, or long clips might not span, these cards are under $50 each now.

The control from tablet is something that could be really useful, so the G6 deserves some addition consideration.
 
Thanks again guys! Looks like I can still buy brand new G6's and again they are very cheap - I could buy 3 for every one GH4.

does the G6 have a video length recording limit in the UK?

could someone explain about the tablet control on the G6 if I was using 3 of them? Would I need 3 tablets?

Also, do they have an audio input for a 3.5mm lab like the Rode SmartLav?
 
Yes, they have a mic jack, I'm not sure how many devices can be controlled at once, never tried more than one. Google Panasonic image app for more info on it. Also not sue of the UK recording limit on the g6
 
G6's don't have hack available. Only GH2s. In the US/NTSC, none have clip lengths. In the UK, they do. You need a body you can hack (GH2) or an NTSC version.
 
M. Gilden said:
G6's don't have hack available. Only GH2s. In the US/NTSC, none have clip lengths. In the UK, they do. You need a body you can hack (GH2) or an NTSC version.
Click to expand...

Yep, looks like I'm back to the GH2! :)

im going to see how much I can grab 3 for.

Any recommendations on lenses for interviews and memory card/ battery setups? The interviews will e 60-90 minutes.

thanks so much again - I really do appreciate your input!
 
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