Frying a D7000 with too much light and my adventures with my camera.http://a4.sphotos

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aaronlosey

New member
Actually, the D7000 is just fine, but I have been pointing it at welding a lot lately. I am new around here, and haven't really seen much going on with the D7000, so I thought I would post. I am just learning and playing with my camera. Almost everything I have shot so far is with a cheap 50 1.8 and a 35 1.8, and a tiny bit with cheap zooms and stuff to just see how everything looks. I have been editing in FCPX. I bought a cheap little jib and tripod and a cheap view finder eyepiece thingie.

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post this stuff in, but feel free to rip apart the video with anything you see me doing wrong, criticism is fine and hopefully I can learn from it. None of my videos really have any script/story or anything like that, they are just kind of documenting something I am around at the time with a camera. The next time I shoot something I am going to try and create more of a script.

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This video is with all the gear above, all shot at basically wide open settings, lightly color graded since I am learning how to do that. This was basically my first day with a jib, and it was really neat. I wonder if I can actually break a sensor with welding light. Can you do that? Iso is 600-2000 for pretty much the whole video, and shutter is between 30-50 depending on how much I am begging for extra light.


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Here is another fun little video I made, but I was learning about shutter speeds and stuff and the camera was left on aperture priority, with auto iso on, so the video is really choppy at some really high shutter speeds. I basically had no idea what I was doing here, and edited in FCPX again.


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And on a slightly separate note, some of the things I love and hate about the camera. First, I have had it basically since it came out, and I bought it for photography when I did. I am not a great photographer, but I really like doing it. I have probably taken 50k pics with it so far, and it is a great camera. I wish it was full frame just like everyone else probably, but it is awesome.

Pros.

1. I love the camera. Ergonomics are great.

2. I read about bit rates and codecs and stuff, but I really like the video that comes off the camera.

3. Workflow. You just copy the files over and edit them in real time with FCPX. Add effects and grade it and play it back in real time without even a need to render, even though it does it in the background. No tapes!!!! LOL.

4. Fun.


Negatives.

1. When I bought the camera I didn't know you couldn't adjust aperture on the fly through the dial, that sucks and is annoying. You have to back out of live view.

2. Editing and shooting in h264 breaks the image pretty fast color grading, but I guess I just need to get better getting my image closer to what I want in camera and planning ahead.

3. Image stabilization, panning, etc. I find you can "break" your video pretty easy with the camera in a run and gun situation too easily. Pan too fast, run a bit too much focal distance on the lens, and it can be very hard to stabilize the camera by hand. This is just a problem with DSLR's and their form factor I guess, but with so many pixels on the sensor and so much wasted information, it seems like they could use 10% of the sensor for stabilization or something. That would be pretty rad.

4. Is there a technical reason why all these cameras shoot at such a low bit rate that isn't selectable if we have access to faster cards? We have these options with photos in the cameras, would be really nice to have more choice with file sizes for the video.

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Lastly, my next goal is to incorporate some of my still shooting style into my video somehow. To try and capture sharp moving images with slower shutter speeds like this picture I took, but with video. I don't know how I am going to do this when movement so clearly can break the look of the video and make it look choppy with panning, but with a 50th of a second shutter speed for video I think it can work. I don't know though, I discover this stuff as I go.

255146_219984988025788_100000428645888_793919_6083454_n.jpg
 
I have the d7000 also. You are right, there is not many posts on this camera. Have fun with it. That is the main thing.
 
If you get some older lenses, they have an aperture ring that can be adjusted at any time. If you're balancing shutter speed vs aperture vs ISO, you might want to check out an ND Fader. That way, you can set everything to your liking and use the fader to control exposure instead. Keeps the look consistent from scene to scene.



As far as stabilization, get/make a shoulder rig or a steadicam. Worth the price/effort. The steadicam in particular is good for the run part, as it'll make the video infinitely smoother than even tiptoeing handheld. CS5.5 has Warp Stabilization, which is absolutely phenominal in stabilizing video under most situations.

One thing you need to keep in mind if you use a stabilization program is that slower shutter speeds will blur the video if you move the camera too fast. The frame will be stabilized, but the actual subject will have blurry details every now and then. To counteract this, you either need to have a rig/steadicam, or shoot at a fast shutter speed that will avoid blurring the frame. Probably similar to Twixtor, 1/250 with a normal lens is what you'd be looking to use.



For bitrate, it's all marketing. You can see the D4 and D800 can output uncompressed footage via HDMI, and have many other new video features that will eventually trickle down to consumer level cameras. For now, we can only hope for a firmware hack.



I shoot cars, too, mainly photo, but will be trying action video for the first time this weekend at a drift event. D7000 + Tamron 17-50VC + Nikon 80-200 2.8 + Marumi ND Fader + Flycam Nano DSLR + Monopod + Swivi + Tascam DR-05. I know what you're talking about when it comes to translating your photo style to video. One thing I've heard is that using too slow of a shutter speed while tracking cars can give just as an awkward a view as using a higher shutter speed, making things too blurry. 1/50s is the standard for a film look at 24p (technically 1/48s is, but we don't have that). Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tEUU-xIUas&list=FLLP3muPeXvy4guVwJTiqxWw&index=1&feature=plpp_video

The choppy effect actually enhances the appearance, IMO, giving it a more action packed feel. That type of video is what I'm aiming for this weekend.
 
Blue Bomber said:
If you get some older lenses, they have an aperture ring that can be adjusted at any time. If you're balancing shutter speed vs aperture vs ISO, you might want to check out an ND Fader. That way, you can set everything to your liking and use the fader to control exposure instead. Keeps the look consistent from scene to scene.



As far as stabilization, get/make a shoulder rig or a steadicam. Worth the price/effort. The steadicam in particular is good for the run part, as it'll make the video infinitely smoother than even tiptoeing handheld. CS5.5 has Warp Stabilization, which is absolutely phenominal in stabilizing video under most situations.

One thing you need to keep in mind if you use a stabilization program is that slower shutter speeds will blur the video if you move the camera too fast. The frame will be stabilized, but the actual subject will have blurry details every now and then. To counteract this, you either need to have a rig/steadicam, or shoot at a fast shutter speed that will avoid blurring the frame. Probably similar to Twixtor, 1/250 with a normal lens is what you'd be looking to use.



For bitrate, it's all marketing. You can see the D4 and D800 can output uncompressed footage via HDMI, and have many other new video features that will eventually trickle down to consumer level cameras. For now, we can only hope for a firmware hack.



I shoot cars, too, mainly photo, but will be trying action video for the first time this weekend at a drift event. D7000 + Tamron 17-50VC + Nikon 80-200 2.8 + Marumi ND Fader + Flycam Nano DSLR + Monopod + Swivi + Tascam DR-05. I know what you're talking about when it comes to translating your photo style to video. One thing I've heard is that using too slow of a shutter speed while tracking cars can give just as an awkward a view as using a higher shutter speed, making things too blurry. 1/50s is the standard for a film look at 24p (technically 1/48s is, but we don't have that). Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tEUU-xIUas&list=FLLP3muPeXvy4guVwJTiqxWw&index=1&feature=plpp_video

The choppy effect actually enhances the appearance, IMO, giving it a more action packed feel. That type of video is what I'm aiming for this weekend.
Click to expand...


So you are shooting action stuff at 1/250 but still 24P? That doesn't start looking too stuttery? I just purchased a bunch of cool old nikkor lenses, they are so cute with their playful colored numbers and design. I haven't sent them off to get modified to fit on my D7000 yet though, so they are a bit useless so far. I bought a mix of about 10+ old inexpensive manual lenses and adapters too to try stuff out, and I find myself going straight back to my newer Nikkor 50 1.8 and 35 1.8 for some reason, I feel more comfortable with them. I have a couple lenses where something as simple as a backwards focusing ring becomes an insurmountable mountain to me if I have to switch back and forth.

For a circular ND filter, which one do you recommend, and how do I go about fitting it on the end of multiple lenses with different ring sizes? I have a polarizer I was cheating with at the moment to stop the light down a bit.

As for drift events, if anyone is ever in the Texas region, I throw quite a few events in the state and you are welcome to come shoot with us. I will get you out on track and share my footage with you so you can put together a fun video. The events can get fairly large and riding in the cars is a blast. We are gearing up for the season, and I did a quick video for one of my drivers for fun. The video starts out a little slow and gathers speed when the music starts. I had fun editing it, although it probably isn't for everyone : ) All shots are off my D7000, both hand held and on a cheap ebay 4 foot jib, and focused with an "ebay perfect view finder". Feel free to critique the video, it is a bit long and drawn out for some people, I just had lots of footage I shot and wanted to finish off the song to the end LOL. Oh, and as for the comment above, I didn't use twixtor, everything was 100 % edited in FCP X, even all the slow motion stuff. I had to color grade the crap out of it too, because some of the shots are lit with the most hilarious lighting because it was all we had. I tried to make it just a tad warmer than Nikon typically looks, and had to take a ton of yellow green light out since it was shot inside an industrial shop space.

 
I wanted a more action packed view, so I kinda like the stuttery effect as long as the subject isn't affected. Here's a quick vid shot this weekend with an 80-200 on a monopod, at 1/400, ISO 1600, and I think about F/16:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-L57JlGau0

For the next event, I'm gonna try shooting with a shoulder rig. Got a nice workout from pushing and pulling the monpod. ;) Got a ton of clips from multiple angles of all the cars, so I'll make a compilation soon.

I've got a 77mm Marumi DHG Vari ND filter with step down rings, so I can use it on all my lenses if necessary. It was cloudy that day, so I couldn't even use it. From testing, though, there's just about no color cast. It gives a slight polarizing look, as well.
 
Blue Bomber said:
I wanted a more action packed view, so I kinda like the stuttery effect as long as the subject isn't affected. Here's a quick vid shot this weekend with an 80-200 on a monopod, at 1/400, ISO 1600, and I think about F/16:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-L57JlGau0

For the next event, I'm gonna try shooting with a shoulder rig. Got a nice workout from pushing and pulling the monpod. ;) Got a ton of clips from multiple angles of all the cars, so I'll make a compilation soon.

I've got a 77mm Marumi DHG Vari ND filter with step down rings, so I can use it on all my lenses if necessary. It was cloudy that day, so I couldn't even use it. From testing, though, there's just about no color cast. It gives a slight polarizing look, as well.
Click to expand...


That shutter speed and ISO is really odd for a daytime setup lol. The video of the car looks like before uploading it was really sharp. There was so much macro compression on the video for some reason I couldn't really see much going on, but I saw some pics of the event on Facebook, and that S14 wall riding. The father of the girl owns the S14 that wrecked called me up looking for knuckles for the car the other day, and told me they leant the car out to someone and he wrecked it after the competition was over. I love how that parking lot setup is walled off and has the spectators so close to the action. Down here in Texas we are just a couple weeks away from our first FD Proam event, so people are prepping their cars. I just made another video for fun too, and there is about 5% 7D footage mixed in as I borrowed a 7D for a few weeks from a friend to shoot with. Unfortunately, I only have an eyepiece for my D7000 and not the 7D, so the Canon was useless for everything except tripod shots. I couldn't really tell the difference between the footage all that great either, except that I can adjust aperture while filming with the canon, the canon had richer colors in the profile it was set in, and it filled up memory cards faster. Both cameras seem really similar and either or kind of setups.

So anyways, I am having a lot of fun shooting with this little thing ( not so little anymore with a grip and eye piece )! I want to find more gear to play with! Anyone around DFW want to trade cameras for an afternoon of shooting and try out my D7000 for something else? Just come over to the race car shop and play around?


 
I would've had my fader on there, but didn't want to have to keep focusing, so I went with a small aperture to get everything. Worked well. :) I might drop the shutter speed next time to get lower ISO, but it wasn't too bad as far as noise since it was overcast.

As far as the car that wrecked, you'll see my friend in most of the pics after the accident. He was standing about 7ft away from me, with his friend in between, and we were about 10ft away from that accident. 0.0

http://www.drifthappens.com/Images/gallery/cfrcmardi52.jpg
http://www.drifthappens.com/Images/gallery/cfrcmardi53.jpg
http://www.drifthappens.com/Images/gallery/cfrcmardi54.jpg
http://www.drifthappens.com/Images/gallery/cfrcmardi55.jpg

Was taking a vid of it, but my friend's friend was sitting on the wall (o.o) blocking my view, so I just recomposed for a rear shot the cars coming around and missed getting the actual slide up the wall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cTeJr-AD5aE

The barriers are interlocked, so they didn't budge an inch. My friend and his friend weren't supposed to be there, but I had a media pass that let me go anywhere (at my own risk). I saw a vid posted later on of the 240 driving again, so I guess the crash wasn't as bad as it looked.

I'll eventually find time to compile a video from all the footage I got (a ton), but for now, I finished the pics I took:
http://www.chrisfiorephotography.com/blog/2012/03/10/cfrc-mardi-drift-2012-2/

Good to hear Canon and Nikon can be used easily in the same video. Thinking about getting one for 60fps and the potential uncompressed HDMI out.
 
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