Combining video from AC130/AC160 with Canon 7D

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djkoz

Well-known member
I will be buying the Panasonic AC130 or AC160 camera right after the first of the year. I have several projects in mind, including some possible wedding videos and a documentary that I hope might air on a local station. A friend of mine has expressed interest in joining me on some of these shoots. However, he would be shooting video with a Canon 7D DSLR.

I am wondering if there are going to be any significant issues is combining video from those two cameras (quality, color, etc.) I am not concerned about the sound. I would be doing the editing in Vegas, will it be able to handle it so that the video from both cameras look the same?

Thanks,

Dan
PS Hopefully, it is not against the forum etiquette, but I also posted this to the DSLR forum.
 
I was working with the HMC 150 last year, and shot with the 7D alongside it. Lately, as you can see from some of my posts over in the Canon forum, I've been shooting with the 7D and the GH2. What I can tell you is that if you carefully white balance and spend time in advance, you can get pretty close. But the AVCHD format, I've found, along with the Panny sensors, is going to be hard to be perfectly in match. The panny stuff seems to be somewhat more contrasty, and tends to favor blues, for example giving them a bluer tint than the 7D does out of the box, and also I've seen browns shift more red with the Panny. All this can be fixed, but at what cost in time and effort? The 7D seems to give a more softer edge to the line, but this is very subjective! Also, I've noticed at times a tendency for Canon 7Ds to have a bit of a hard time with orange, though I could be seeing a sensor issue with certain lighting conditions.

I think that you can get by with these excellent cameras, but it will take you more work than if you, say, bought a GH2 along with the AC130 or 160. As I understand it, your 160 is a different format than the 130 which uses AVCHD, as does the GH2. The 7D is using MOV. So the best match for my money is the 130 (a great camera, I would have bought one if it was out when I needed the new camera), and the GH2. But if you already have the 7D, you might want to look at the XF100 or 300. I love my xf300, and it does a great job of cutting with the 7d. I've even got a pretty close match with the GH2, by boosting the contrast on the xf300 and white balancing under studio lighting conditions.
 
This is good information. Thanks.

I'd be interested in hearing about other's experiences, as well.

Dan
 
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