Shooting and cutting with the Canon 7D? DSLR vs. camcorder? HELP?!

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dallasbagley

Member
I hear that editing 7D footage can be very demanding, in terms of what it requires from ones computer. I currently have a duo core Mac Pro 2.66 with 5 gigs of DDR2 ram, running Final Cut Pro 6. Something tells me this might not be sufficient enough? The reason I wonder all this, is because I'm on the verge of purchasing my first prosumer set up. Whether it be a 3CCD camcorder, or a DSLR. Both have their pros and cons, for the most part, I understand this. Realistically, it'll be easier and CHEAPER to set myself up with something like the ag-HVX200a. However, it's hard to ignore the quality of footage that the 7D puts out. In my opinion, it makes the HVX and most of the other 3CCD's in that price range look primitive. Especially in a low light situation! Not only that, but it seems that DSLR's might be the way of the future, and as a result, people are hiring DSLR videographers! I understand, 12 minute record time, sensor heats up, costly rig set ups and probably NOT ideal for day to day, run and gun documentary type shooting. But for $1,800, not a camera in the world shoots more beautiful video, am I right? And as an artist, it almost seems like that's most important. In a nutshell, my questions are.. To cut MOV footage, how much power will I want? And from somebody who has personal experience, what are the pros and cons of DSLR vs. camcorder? I would sincerely appreciate any advice. Any extra tips are welcomed as well. Thank you.
 
i hate to be unfriendly. but the search tool at the upper right corner here is your friend. this has all been covered over and over
 
well, it has to be said that the search function in dvxuser doesn't work as well as I'd like it to, but in this case a simple search for DSLR camcorder will lead to tons of useful threads
 
You should do the search. I'll just say that I do OK on my MacBookBro dual Core 2.66GHz with 4GB memory. If I were a pro I'd want much more, but it's OK.
 
Nick, what would you say would be ideal for our particular situation? In terms of the computers horsepower and cutting with 7D (.MOV) footage?
 
This will be a helpful read for the camcorder vs dslr question:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?249559-Video-DSLR-FAQ-(Canon-APS-C-Edition)

(Always check out stickies first)

As far as the computing power- here's the thing, Final Cut and DSLR don't play so nicely together natively. You're going to need to transcode the footage most likely into something else- either prores or cineform, DNxHD, etc. Once converted, the files are much bigger but due to the lower compression allow slower computers to edit just fine. So, I think your setup will likely be ok as long as you plan to transcode everything.
But I say get the cameras you want and try editing material on what you got before you start blowing money on a new workstation.
 
dallasbagley said:
Nick, what would you say would be ideal for our particular situation? In terms of the computers horsepower and cutting with 7D (.MOV) footage?
Click to expand...

"Ideal" is a strong word. You can never have too much horsepower or too much memory. I'd have thought your setup would be adequate, although if you can increase the RAM, do so, to maybe 8GB.

As others have said, editing DSLR footage natively in Final Cut can be irritating. mainly because the in-camera codec is designed to provide the highest compression possible, consistent with a good quality image. This means the NLE has to do a lot of work to interpret the video so you can cut it.

My personal recommendation is to transcode to ProRes422. You should be able to edit pretty well on your setup. The downsides are:

- ProRes creates very large files. For me, that's not a problem - I'm happy to buy disk space - but you should be aware. It creates big files because, essentially, it's uncompressing the camera files to make editing easier.
- Once you've finished cutting, your final export (the "render") can take a long time: Final Cut (or Compressor) has to do another transcode to whatever format you want, depending how you're going to show the film.

A more powerful computer will reduce the transcoding/rendering times.
 
Hey guys, I really appreciate all the info, thank you so much! Last question... Do I need to have a special video card to edit .mov footage? Will whatever on board video card be sufficient enough? It seems that I have my heart on the 7D, and I'm excited by it's capabilities! Also, has anybody had any issues with over heating in regards to the 7D?
 
You shouldn't need a special video card. A powerful card with lots of video RAM will make things go faster.

A lot depends on what you're trying to do. If you're shooting for pleasure and a hobby, and you don't have high volumes or tight deadlines, you'll probably be fine with whatever is already on board. If you do high volumes at high speed, you'll want to consider an upgrade. Try on your current setup and see how it goes before spending money.
 
Depends on the NLE you are using and platform. On the Windows side of things, I remember being able to purchase special Matrox real time editing cards compatible with Premiere. If using Mac and FCP, I don't think you have that option however.

Meanwhile, 7D is a great camera, but not necessarily my recommendation for video these days (for various reasons). I recommend you take a quick read here before you make your decision:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...APS-C-Camera-models-(7D-vs-T2i-vs-60D-vs-T3i)
 
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