Eugenia Loli-Queru
Well-known member
Yes, it's just a P&S digicam this Canon A1200, but don't be too quick to write it off. The quality on the Canon digicams is actually pretty high, for three distinct reasons:
1. Bitrate: over 21 mbps, which is actually great at 720/24p.
2. Exposure compensation, and exposure locking. Most HD digicams don't have even exposure compensation in video mode, let alone locking. Canons have both, and can help getting a more professional look.
3. Color control. Canon P&S cams support color settings in video mode too, so you can lower contrast, saturation and sharpness a lot, to shoot "flat" (like most of us do on the dSLRs). Color grading is a piece of cake out of that footage! I've shot with several Canon HD digicams and since all use the same Digic processor and encoder, I can say with certainty that the footage out of this model will be as flexible too.
4. Support for exact 23.976 fps, most other digicams only do 24.00.
I blogged about the whole thing, explaining more about this new model and its sister models (that do 29.97 fps instead). You can view a video I shot with a similarly low-end Canon digicam.http://vimeo.com/15451359 This is part of a music video I shot for a local chillwave artist. He almost laughed at my small camera when he first saw it, but he couldn't believe the actual quality coming out of it later!
The A1200 can also be a great first camera for someone who just starts with filmmaking and just needs to learn the basics first. Add a tripod, a tele-mode mic (e.g. AudioTechnica's ATR-6550 for $50) and a cheap audio recorder with a 3.5mm input ($35), and one can have a great short movie rig for $250 overall. And if daddy has enough money to spend on his son's hobbies, there are some $100 continuous lights on Adorama, and a filter-tube to add ND filters in order to (somewhat) control the shutter speed outdoors.
I'm personally very excited about this whole thing (hence this thread) about what this could mean to young filmmakers. I personally mostly use my 5D MkII, but the A1200 makes for a great 24p pocket cam. I mean, it wasn't long ago when people were flocking to get the Panasonic LX3 for its 24p support alone, at $550, even if it didn't have as many controls as the Canon digicams have (exposure locking was always a thorn for me with it).
1. Bitrate: over 21 mbps, which is actually great at 720/24p.
2. Exposure compensation, and exposure locking. Most HD digicams don't have even exposure compensation in video mode, let alone locking. Canons have both, and can help getting a more professional look.
3. Color control. Canon P&S cams support color settings in video mode too, so you can lower contrast, saturation and sharpness a lot, to shoot "flat" (like most of us do on the dSLRs). Color grading is a piece of cake out of that footage! I've shot with several Canon HD digicams and since all use the same Digic processor and encoder, I can say with certainty that the footage out of this model will be as flexible too.
4. Support for exact 23.976 fps, most other digicams only do 24.00.
I blogged about the whole thing, explaining more about this new model and its sister models (that do 29.97 fps instead). You can view a video I shot with a similarly low-end Canon digicam.http://vimeo.com/15451359 This is part of a music video I shot for a local chillwave artist. He almost laughed at my small camera when he first saw it, but he couldn't believe the actual quality coming out of it later!
The A1200 can also be a great first camera for someone who just starts with filmmaking and just needs to learn the basics first. Add a tripod, a tele-mode mic (e.g. AudioTechnica's ATR-6550 for $50) and a cheap audio recorder with a 3.5mm input ($35), and one can have a great short movie rig for $250 overall. And if daddy has enough money to spend on his son's hobbies, there are some $100 continuous lights on Adorama, and a filter-tube to add ND filters in order to (somewhat) control the shutter speed outdoors.
I'm personally very excited about this whole thing (hence this thread) about what this could mean to young filmmakers. I personally mostly use my 5D MkII, but the A1200 makes for a great 24p pocket cam. I mean, it wasn't long ago when people were flocking to get the Panasonic LX3 for its 24p support alone, at $550, even if it didn't have as many controls as the Canon digicams have (exposure locking was always a thorn for me with it).
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