"yella belly" my 7D journey begins

[leepback]

Recently purchased a Canon 7D in the hope that one day I might learn how to utilise it's potential. Sadly I'm far from that at the moment but took it out for a spin on the weekend anyway.

The short below was shot at Lake Macquarie in NSW, Australia. Edited in iMovie 08 which I find tedious but it's all I have at the moment. Does it have a rotate function I can use to level off the horizon?

I have no photography background and have not read the manual so lots of things aren't technically that good, just tried to frame it as best I could and then in edit get an even pacing with the limited reasonable footage I had.

Even at my beginners level (or maybe because of it) I have run into some of the well documented challenges of using this camera for video.

It's difficult to be steady with hand-held, hard to focus and even frame via the non-articulating screen and I've already struck overheating even with little continuous usage (this does seriously concern me). Hopefully all these will fade away with further practice and maybe some purchases (loupe or monitor and maybe some hand-held apparatus ).

Anyway I'm still enthused about the cameras potential as I have seen some great stuff from people around here that actually know what they are doing.

Lenses used:
Canon EF 50mm f1.8
Canon EF 70-210mm f3.5-4.5 (borrowed)

 

[jonE5]

Nice little video, but honestly with the music you had i expected something to happen. Had some nice nature and out doors shots. Your framing was mostly good. Some of your long distance shots in the water or at the boats were slightly out of focus which was bothersome. The close DOF shots of some of the birds were well done.

Write someting, and show us what you can do with a narrative piece.

 

[leepback]

Nice little video, but honestly with the music you had i expected something to happen.

Funny, my wife said exactly the same thing. Interesting what music can do to ones expectations. With this it was a matter of grabbing something quickly that was about the right pace and was not copyrighted. Yes, I generally try to stick to the rules with soundtracks.

Had some nice nature and out doors shots. Your framing was mostly good. Some of your long distance shots in the water or at the boats were slightly out of focus which was bothersome. The close DOF shots of some of the birds were well done.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I had a lot of trouble focusing using only the bare LCD. I had to take my glasses on and off and didn't know about that focus assist function. Worked it out the next day. I'm gonna read that manual any day now and do a lot more practicing.

Write someting, and show us what you can do with a narrative piece.

Well you asked for it....at least it's short. Shot on HV20 with half an idea and only a couple of hours. It's possibly a bit preachy but what the heck I might as well make some sort of statement!

 

[StenR]

You can do a lot of with music and the expectations it creates. Here's a short clip from a short that explores just that:

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I AGREE

Read more about the film at http://www.nicolasprovost.com/work/plot-point
I have no relation to the director other than receiving a price for this film on his behalf at a film festival in India a while ago (long story...)