New to DSLR for video: questions inside

[draven4]

The 50mm lens as pointed out seems good, but I'm not sure if when you do the math, that the 50mm lens will get me as wide of a shot to capture more space than a stock HF100 (it seems it's worse?). If not, I may just in fact get it, even though it's a Prime lens.

50mm Will not be wide enough. Trust me. That's one reason why I don't like when people recommend that lens to a new user. That's why I always say go for something wider like the 30mm or 28mm. If you want even wider then you might want to start with the kit lens although you won't have a very goood DOF like a prime lens at f1.4.

To answer your question yes you can control the blurriness but the more the fstop opens the better the blurriness. DOF.

 

[NickG]

And speaking of which, I've got a retarded question: if I do get a prime lens, can I control the DOF? Let me explain. I'll just call the DOF thing 'blurriness'. I'm not sure if you can actually control that or not. Is there a 'control the blurriness of the background' knob/switch? Like, say I'm shooting some footage and I want the background to be blurry - focusing in on the subject. Can I somehow adjust something where I can go from the blurry background to a sharper one, where everything in the shot is crisp and clear - subject included? Or can I only do that with a zoom lens, or something?

In a year or two I'm going to read this thread and laugh at myself :grin:

You can control the blurriness using the camera's aperture control. The aperture is the hole in the lens that lets light through. It's measured in f/numbers, which is focal length of the lens divided by the *area* of the hole. The bigger the hole, the more light gets through. OK so far? Good.

A smaller hole gives you more blurriness, a bigger hole gives you less (Depth of field (DOF) is the amount of the picture that's in focus - wide DOF = lots in focus, narrow DOF = less in focus).

So, by adjusting the aperture on your shiny new lens, you can make more or less of the image blurry. But, if you close down the aperture, to make it less blurry, less light gets through the lens (because the hole is smaller). So, to get the image exposure right, you have to keep the hole open longer (= reduce the shutter speed), or make the senor more sensitive (= increase the ISO). Changing shutter sped will affect how motion in your video looks. If you're mainly shooting talking heads, that's not such a big deal. If you want to shoot active stuff (kids, races, birds etc), it's more of an issue, but worry about that later - much later )

So - you can control blurriness, but you need to get some understanding of lenses, exposure etc. If you go to a (decent) camera store, they should be able to show you how aperture changes depth of filed so you can see for yourself. Handsome Pete is right - you should get hands on. We all mean well, but we're not you.

 

[NickG]

Thanks a lot for all of the replies, this has definitely helped me narrow lenses down. Well here's where I currently stand: I'm definitely getting a 60D. And here's where I stand with a lens:

95% of the time I left my HF100 zoomed all the way out. Set it and go! I won't need to zoom in pretty much at all. And actually, even though I always knew nothing about lenses, I remember telling myself one time, "maybe they make lenses where I can get a wider shot without having to move the camera back?" when I was using the HF100. So right now I'd want something that has either an equally wide shot or something that can capture an even wider space (compared to the HF100).

I think I understand the F/aperture/light thing. I don't know exactly what the numbers mean, but I'm guessing the lower the F/aperture number, the better the lens performs in low light, no? Shooting in low light is definitely something that I'll be doing. Not at night, but in my little recording studio where I film documentary footage - I like to keep it dim in there. I'll have some really good lighting though, but if for some reason it helps with the 'blacks' in some way, then all the better.

So right now I'm leaning toward a lens that can get me a wider shot and do well in low light. The 50mm lens as pointed out seems good, but I'm not sure if when you do the math, that the 50mm lens will get me as wide of a shot to capture more space than a stock HF100 (it seems it's worse?). If not, I may just in fact get it, even though it's a Prime lens. I admit, it would be nice to have a zoom lens, but if I can save a few hundred bucks by getting that cheap lens at first, I can always upgrade later.

The 50mm *won't* be wide enough. On a 60D it's a short telephoto - good for medium close-ups/head shots. You need 18mm or wider. There are good f/2.8 zooms from Tamron and Canon (Canon much pricier) that go from 17mm (a little wider than the HF100) to about 50-55mm). The 18-135 kit lens you mentioned earlier goes similarly wide, but is "slower" (= aperture not as wide). Canon and Sigma do zooms that go from about 10mm to about 20mm, so a lot wider.

Do this: 1. Go to shop. 2. Play with 60D and various lenses. 3. Find lens that has the width etc you like. 4. Check shop's return policy. 5. Buy camera and lens you like 6. Do test shoots. Annoy friends and family by having them pretend to be interviewees or whatever 7. If lens suits for starters, keep lens, have fun, make loads of money. 8. If lens doesn't suit, you have better idea of what would be better, so go back to shop, exchange. repeat until happy or broke or both.

Oh, and by the way - you have the "wider aperture = better in low light" thing right. See - not so hard, is it?

 

[M. Gilden]

Some great information in this thread, but also a few minor things I would disagree with (mostly audio related).
Either way, there is a sticky on the forum for this very topic:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?249559-Video-DSLR-FAQ-(Canon-APS-C-Edition)

I would really recommend going through the stickies first, that's why they are there!