Recording Cost and Sound on DSLR-Video

ziggerzag

ziggerzag

Member
Firstly an apology, until tonight I didn't know that some DSLR's had entered the HD 24fps arena - frankly the LUMIX footage is just fantastic and when they reach the UK there may be one with my name on it.
But I have a question, and the tech sheets aren't giving me the answer that I want to see, but what's the Mb per Minute recording cost of these cameras at their various frame rates?
The sample shots on http://panasonic.jp/dc/gh1/movie_photographing2.html take a little time to load, and run for about 30 seconds, so am I going to have to feed this camera a fresh 4Gb card every 10 minutes?
Another question relates to sound quality - has anyone any experience of syncing one of these cameras to an external recorder? The sound quality of the samples on the Nikon D90 site were exceptionally bad and I haven't heard any sound from the LUMIX yet.
Anyway - thanks for bringing an old guy up to date with what's going on!

Lotsaluv
Ziggerzag
 
Mate.....where have you been?.....Oh I see, you're a pom

most of us are using audio recorders like the zoom h4/h2 with no major sync issues. use a clapper or just line up the waveform with that from the onboard sound.

The GH1 and D90 record at about 17Mbps so that's about half an hours recording on a 4Gb card
 
Squig - many thanks for that. I know, I should have been paying more attention!

I'm trying to find a low-cost high-quality system for a movie opportunity I have coming up. Something like the D90 looks a good option because it can fly in my hand baggage and be used fairly discretely.

Cheers
 
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At this point the GH1 is looking like a better option on paper. The D90 has some overheating problems and I wouldn't recommend using it for a film without a 2nd D90 on hand. The GH1 should be available may/june. Nikon looks to be announcing a new DSLR on April 14th too.
 
I was looking at some of the GH1 samples last night and they looked very very good.

I need to address the battery power situation as well, unfortunately this isn't something many of the reviews look at, but I'm going to country where the mains electricity can be a little "eccentric" at times. Need to be confident that I have 4-6 hours standby/shooting time available and I can get 30-40 minutes on card each day.
 
It's kind of a 'home-movie' with a storyline of a little boy who wants a bicycle for Christmas but his family can't afford it. Zero budget, but if you've ever seen the landscapes in the Andes region they really deserve the best quality photography to do them justice.

There's also a bit of mid-life crisis involved as well. I teach a movie class it's been too many years since I actually made a movie. I got fed up working with crews, having to explain everything when I could have done it for myself three times faster. So spending three weeks in a location as spectacular as the Andes and not shoot something seems a real waste. Just me and a camera, and come back with some footage that will blow everyones socks off.

But I don't really see a big box-office for a Latin American movie produced in the UK!!!!
 
the story already sounds more interesting than 99% of the crap that's screening so don't sell yourself short. If you do it right it could do really well.

Yeah this mid-life thing is great motivation for filmmaking along with the creative possibilities of the DFSLRs

I'm doing my feature with a DFSLR and a sound guy, that's about it for crew.
 
Thanks for the kind words.

I have to say beware of getting involved in teaching movie making, it's a real block on actually creating anything because you feel you have to present something that looks/sounds/plays great. If you don't you feel it will undermine your credibility as a teacher. But at the same time you feel a fraud for not making movies. Still, it's really nice when someone comes up to you at a screening and says "thanks" for helping them get their first movie made - and especially when it's a screening of their third or fourth movie!

These DSLR's are really appealing to me because I think they appear much less imtimidating than a high-end camcorder, but can make a similar picture. But I'm sure there has to be a downside somewhere - there's always a trade-off!
 
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