It’s six am and as the sun begins to rise over the Mongolian steppes I’m standing – 5DMkII poised – wondering if this time I’ve bitten off a little more than I can chew.  We’ve pitched a short film of the horse racing at the annual country wide Naadam festival to my bosses at The Guardian.  As ever with the newspaper I’m on a limited budget, with the crew consisting of reporter Tania Branigan and myself; there is no second camera, sound man, assistant or producer.   I usually prefer shooting solo as it allows for more intimate footage, but for this assignment I wish I had more help – I can only be in one place at one time and for a live race event like this there will be no second chances.

Getting to this point was hard enough. We arrived in Mongolia less than a day earlier so had little time to prepare.  I had briefed a local fixer ahead of our arrival that I wanted to follow a young jockey through his day.  But while he found a suitable child in the capital he could not find a local race where we could get sufficient access to the subjects.  Luckily I’d researched online and found a possible alternative, so taking a bit of a gamble we drove half a day out of Ulan Bator to the town of Kharkhorin (a bumpy ride despite the 4×4).
Luckily the local race organisers agreed to all our requests. Our next task was to find our subject. It didn’t seem that hard given the tens of competitors, but I should have known better. With weeks to befriend one it might have been different, but every child we spoke to was incredibly shy.  Tania decided it would be far to follow one of the horse trainers instead and managed to find Tsedendamba – an amazingly eloquent 61-year-old who has been in the saddle since he was four. He had a young jockey called Purevsuren who was racing the next day and we agreed to meet them just before sunrise.

I had anticipated just how hard it would be to get all the shots I wanted so I packed accordingly, bringing five HD cameras – a Canon 1DmkIV, 5DmkII, 550D and two GoPro HD cams.  As I was travelling light I also chose three slower, ligher weight, f4 aperture Canon L lenses – a 17-40mm, 24-105mm and a 70-200mm.   I also had a 50mm f1.2L and a Sigma 12-24mm lens which I intended to use on the 550D in cases where it ran the risk of getting damaged.  Even though I only had a 20kg checked baggage allowance I also managed to bring with me a Manfrotto 561BHDV monopod, Redrockmicro shoulder rig, Zacuto Z-finder, Steadicam Merlin, Juicedlink DT454, Sanken CS-1 shotgun mic, Sennheiser G2 radio mics and a Gitzo 2941LVL tripod with Manfrotto 701HDV head…with a bit of help from Tania.

After a few hours sleep in our ger – the traditional Mongolian round, felted tents that herders live in – we headed out to the location in the dark.  Tsedendamba had been up the whole night, preparing for the race, but greeted us enthusiastically.  We started to interview him as the sun began to rise, as this is when herders look to the skies to predict what kind of horse will win that day.

For the extreme close up of his eyes I used a Canon EF12 extension tube on the 50mm f1.2L. Normally I would use a 100mm macro lens but I had no room for it this time.  For audio I used radio mics into the Juicedlink DT454 on one channel and then a camera-mounted Sanken CS-1 shotgun mic into the other as a fallback.  Thanks to the Juicedlink’s headphone monitor I was able to hear what was being fed to the camera.  
For the long shots of the sunrise I fitted a Canon 2x convertor to the 70-200 f4L.   The resulting f8 maximum aperture wasn’t an issue because most of these shots were quite bright and shot as a silhoutte.  

Sunrise shot with Canon 70-200f4L IS and 2x convertor

Next I fitted a 550D with the Sigma 12-24 to a Steadicam Merlin and filmed some walking shots of the boy and trainer.  Even though I’ve had a little hands-on instruction with the Merlin from its inventor Garrett Brown, I still find it hard to set up and use in a hurry; hopefully my Steadicam skills will improve in time.  Setting the lens aperture at f8 allowed me to set the focus at around 2 metres and get pretty much everything in focus so I wasn’t constantly trying to adjust it.

One shot I was keen to get was of the boy and trainer walking off, from a high angle.  Sadly I didn’t have a Kessler Crane to hand so I had to make do.  I held up in the air my 5DmkII with the 12-24mm on top of a Manfrotto video monopod, wedging the monopod’s little feet against my body.  I started with it at head height next to the trainer and, as they walked off, slowly raised the camera to fake a jib effect.  It’s far from perfect but I think it was worth a try.  When I came to edit it I applied Final Cut Pro’s Smoothcam filter to iron out any minor bumps.

Next I had to quickly shoot a montage of shots to illustrate the festival itself.  The bulk of shots were on the 70-200 f4L IS, with the new Genus Fader ND and Zacuto Z-finder fitted, using the monopod and with the lens image stabilizer to help steady the image.  The focus pulls I did were all done by hand with no follow focus (again I had no room in my luggage); most were bad, but a couple came off okay.  For the slow motion shots of the wrestlers I switched the camera to 720p/50 and conformed the footage to 25p afterwards in Apple’s Cinematools.  I was allowed to go into the wrestling ring for only a few minutes to get the wide shots, so I had to go handheld using the 17-40mm lens on my Redrockmicro custom rig. Steadicam would have been better but was too hard to get right in the time I had.  Most of the time I was just trying to avoid the wrestlers so I couldn’t really get as close as I wanted either.

For the horse race I wanted to make sure I had enough shots to allow me to cut a fast-paced sequence that showed just how intense it was.  I also needed to make sure there was no additional danger to the jockeys from what I was doing – especially as there are ethical questions about whether such young children should be racing like this.  I had brought a pair of GoPro HD cameras with me for this very purpose.  The boy jockeys were very happy to wear them so we attached one on Purevsuren’s chest, and another on the helmet of another rider.  The GoPro’s record in 1080p but have no viewfinder so setting up can be a little tricky.  I guestimated the framing by looking at the reflection of the image in the lens head-on.  GoPros have an amazing battery life and can record uninterrupted for long periods.  This was important as I had to set the cameras running a long time before the race actually started.  Unfortunately it was very dusty and one of the cameras somehow got a smudge in the lens between setting up and the race – in the end I had to use the footage as I couldn’t shoot it again.

One other downside to the GoPros is that there is no easy way to fit Neutral Density filters (apart from a small custom one, which I didn’t have, which goes inside the case).   This meant that the GoPro was going to be using fast shutter speeds in the bright light of the race.  Luckily this wasn’t a complete disaster as I had made the creative decision to shoot all the race footage at high shutter speed anyway for an action movie feel.  I set the DSLRs at shutter speed around 1/2000th/sec when shooting the race.

Ready to shoot from the sunroof using Redrockmicro rig and Z-finder

We had arranged with officials for our 4×4 to follow the race along with the other escort vehicles.  For the race start I had Tania shoot a wide shot on my second camera.  This worked out well as I needed both wide and long shots.  I stood out of the car sunroof ready to roll.  We had to maintain a safe distance so as not to frighten the horses; as a result most of the shooting was on the Canon 70-200mm with the Redrockmicro shoulder rig for support.  The terrain was very rough and it was going to be impossible to get smooth shots for more than a few seconds at a time.  Focussing was going to be tough too, as much as I love faster apertures I decided to shoot at around f5.6 or f8 instead so that focus was not so critical.  I had also tested the Steadicam Merlin but there was no way to make it work in the high wind and with a long enough lens – I reckon the best way to do this properly would be a r/c helicopter mounted camera. I also equipped the 550D with a tripod for wide angle shots; the aim was to get ahead of the riders during parts of the race and put the camera down on its own near the track so the horses would come past it.  Occasions like this are perfect for the 550D as if it were to get destroyed by a stray rider or car it would not be as bad as a dead 5DMkII.

Our 4x4 needing a clean

When it came down to it, the whole race took less than half an hour.  I got almost enough usable footage to string together in the edit.  There were a couple of shots missing however and though we were only able to follow one race all the way though I was able to pick up some b-roll from static positions on a second race later in the day.

If I were to do it again I would certainly bring a bigger crew and more equipment. That said, I hope the end result is watchable and more cinematic that one of our regular news reports.  Let me know what you think.

As far as I was aware Canon hadn’t actually acknowledged the erratic aperture behaviour issue on the 550D and 1DmkIV up till today. I’ve found with my Canon 100mm macro and 200mm f2L the aperture has been jumping quite a bit as you focus in and out. Hopefully this latest firmware will fix this permanently. This from the Canon site –

The following fixes have been incorporated.

Fixes a phenomenon in which the set aperture moves unexpectedly when shooting movies in manual exposure mode using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
Supplemental Information: This phenomenon involves the aperture of the lens moving unexpectedly when the focusing ring moves (during focusing). Please note that aperture values also change when operating the zoom ring of a zoom lens that has variable maximum aperture values; however, this is a normal operation because the camera controls aperture values properly depending on the focal length (zoom position).

Corrects misspellings in the French and Spanish menus for applicable products.
How do I check the camera’s current firmware version number?

Turn the Power Switch , and press the

button to display the menu. Turn the Main Dial and the Quick Control Dial, and you will see the “Firmware Ver.X.X.X” at the end of the settings shown in “Set-up 3 (Yellow)”, which is the currently installed firmware version number.

How do I update the firmware?

These are two ways to update the camera’s firmware.

Download the firmware file from this web site and install the update as shown in the updating procedure.
Bring the camera to a Canon Customer Support Center and have the firmware updated by the center.
If you choose this method, contact a Canon Customer Support Center in your region

You can download the Eos 1DmkIV firmware here
and the Eos 550D/T2i firmware here

Guardian reporter Tania Branigan and I have been wanting to make a report about the children of migrant workers for a while now. Although many of them were born in Beijing, their access to education and other services is limited because of China’s household registration system, the hukou. It basically divides citizens into urban and rural dwellers and assigns them various rights. It made more sense in the 1950s, when China was a planned economy, but has created huge problems now that tens of millions of Chinese farmers have moved to cities to find work. Because the hukou is inherited, their kids struggle to access basic services too.

I knew that the best way to tell this story would be through the life of a child. We were fortunate to find a great subject in eight-year-old Yuhui, whose parents will do anything to ensure she gets a good education. Like many migrant kids, she has not been able to get a place in a state school and instead goes to a privately-run place in the city.

We had been trying to set up a visit to the school for a while and as luck would have it managed to arrange it just as my 550D cameras arrived. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try them out on an assignment. I wanted the video to mix conventional news reporting with documentary style.

The schoolchildren check out the 550D

For the shoot I used both my 550D cameras shooting at 1080/25p, one rigged for slider action and the other in a regular configuration. I had a good range of lenses with me. the Zeiss ZE 28mm f2, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.4, the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, a Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens and a 135mm f2 Canon lens. To aid focus I fitted my Zacuto Z-finder – the same one I use with my other Canon cameras.

I chose to shoot using just natural light and work around it – the interiors were all between 200 and 800 asa at between f2.8 and f5.6 , avoiding the ultra shallow depth of field look. This was an aesthetic choice as I felt it just made the end result a bit more ‘real’.

The two sliders – my small Singapore-made one and a larger Glidetrack – were also critical to the look of the piece. For the uninitiated, these are metal rails with small carriages that move along them, simulating the look of a traditional tripod dolly over short distances. The longer Glidetrack was mounted on my Miller DS-20 at one end and a light stand at the other – this setup was used for most of the slides. My mini Singapore slider was used in tight spots or for putting straight onto a table for close up-sliding.

Unlike on many news assignments, I had the time to stay and shoot over a longer period. Once the children got used to me and my camera being in the classroom they settled down and this allowed me to get far more natural shots.

The Glidetrack and 550D ready for action

For the outside shots I used 4×4 glass ND filters in a Genus mattebox (with Sunshade removed to try and keep a low profile). I would normally use a Fader ND filter for speed but in this instance, with a little more time on my hands, I thought I would go for the best quality possible.

As with the 7D and 1DmkIV the mic input only has automatic gain control and is pretty useless for high quality audio. Instead I used my new Tascam DR-100 field recorder with a Sanken CS-1 mic attached via XLR. I then synced the sound with the in-camera audio using Bruce Sharpe’s amazing Pluraleyes software for Final Cut Pro.

Editing was quite straightforward. I converted the clips to Prores 422 LT using MpegStreamclip before dropping them into Final Cut Pro. While I don’t usually put much of a grade on my news videos I felt that this feature deserved to be slightly more stylised – nothing too drastic; just a bit of a film look with a slight vignette on most shots, all done in Magic Bullet looks.

In terms of subject and technique this is one of the most satisfying short news features I have done. The performance of the 550D was nothing short of stunning for such a small, inexpensive camera. To my mind the equipment is not the barrier to creating great-looking news videos any more; it’s all about investing time in learning the skills and coupling it with some good old fashioned journalism.

To read Tania Branigan’s story on Migrant workers on the Guardian click here

Canon 550D / T2i production video – Zhongguancun gadget city from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Today I bought some two Canon 550D HDDSLR’s which I intend to use as a general carry around cameras and for situations where I don’t want to risk damaging a 5DmkII or 7D. It retails for around £700 in the UK and so I wasn’t expecting too much on the video front. As it turns out this little camera is a really competent performer and the footage I’ve shot so far looks pretty much the same as my 7D to my eye. As with previous cameras I thought the best way to test it would be to shoot a short film. This time I shot in Zhongguancun, Beijing’s electronics district where you can find pretty much every gadget know to man. The results speak for themselves. The footage you see here is shot at 1080p/25 frames a second and not graded with only minor adjustments of gamma, sharpening and a little smoothcam in Final Cut Pro. The sharpness, contrast and saturation were reduced in the camera by using Picture Style as I do with my other Canons. The H.264 files from the camera were converted to Apple Prores LT before editing in Final Cut Pro. I shot mainly on a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens, a Canon 35mm f1.4L lens and the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lens. To get the gliding effect I used a small slider similar to a Glidetrack but sadly it was a little damaged meaning I couldn’t get it as smooth as I wanted, this may account for a slight stuttering in the image and is not a fault of the camera. The opening shots are at 1600asa and the interiors are mainly 400 and 800asa.

The Canon 550D/T2i with Zacuto Z-finder fitted

I’ve had the Canon 550D/T2i for precisely twelve hours at time of writing so these are my initial findings. It features almost identical video specification to it’s more expensive sibling, the 7D. It has 1080p at 24/25/30 fps as well as 720p 50 and 60 fps. It has a connection for an external mic via minijack but has no manual control over the input volume, same as the 7D. Instead of using compact flash cards it uses the smaller SDHC or the newer SDXC cards, I used a 16gb class 6 SDHC card with no problems for an hour today.

The camera is small but feels robust considering its size but I do find the controls a little fiddly compared to a 5DmkII or 7D. The camera does away with many of the more advanced controls of the 5DmkII and 7D for stills which mean the top plate and rear are relatively uncluttered. As with the 7D there is a dedicated video trigger button but unlike the 7D there is no rear control dial for aperture, instead you have to press a button on the back plate and then rotate the same dial you use to set shutter speed. Most of the other controls are accessed by using the menus on the rear LCD and there is a simple mode dial on the top plate that is used to select the video mode. Sadly I’ve found this dial can easily be knocked out of your chosen mode, in a similar way to the dial on the 5DmkII – I do wish Canon would fix this.

The 550D top plate

The large rear LCD is very nice indeed and has 1.04 million pixels compared to 920K on the 7D. When mated with the Zacuto Z-finder the image was easy to see and very clear, I’d go as far as to say its up there with the best I’ve seen. There is a new battery the LP-E8, sadly not compatible with the earlier cameras, which gave me at least an hour actual shooting today – pretty good going. Another key difference is the lack of the ability to dial in a precise Kelvin value for white balance, instead you have to choose one of the presets like daylight, shady, tungsten etc… or alternatively balance off a white card. The camera has a smaller range of ISO choices compared to the more expensive siblings, it has 100, 200, 400, 800 ASA etc… and misses the inbetween third stop values like 160 and 320 ASA. On the plus side it has Picture styles the same as the 7D, the ability to set Highlight tone priority in video to combat clipped highlights, and an IR trigger the same as the 7D and 5DmkII.

Rear view of the 550D showing the excellent new LCD screen

In terms of video image quality I think it is too early to make definitive judgements about quality, moire, aliasing and rolling shutter issues but I will do more testing later.

The Canon DSLR family compared - 550D, 7D, 5Dmk II and 1Dmk IV

In conclusion I think this camera is cheap enough that there is now little reason for pros who have not yet bought a HD-DSLR to not put their toes in the water and see if they like shooting video. This camera is excellent value and puts great video in the reach of many.