I’ve been using Mike Tapa’s adapters for 35mm lenses for several years now. I first came across them when trying to mount Nikon long lenses onto my Sony EX3 – a long time before the advent of HDSLRs. Since then his company MTF Services has expanded its range of products to include lens adapters for many popular large sensor cameras such as the Panasonic AF100, Sony F3 and FS100. I took the opportunity of meeting Mike and visiting his London workshop over Christmas.

A Canon B4 mount broadcast lens fitted on the Canon EOS60D using a MTF adapter

His latest two adapters are a B4 broadcast lens to EOS / Sony F3 / FS100 adapter and an electronic EOS to Sony F3 / FS100 / Micro 4/3 lens adapter which offers full aperture control and image stabilising with appropriately equipped lenses.

The B4 lens adapter has been the dream of many DSLR and large sensor camcorder users who might occasionally want the flexibility of a long all-in-one zoom and ENG style lens operation – without the expense or bulk of a proper 2/3 ENG camera. Developed by Mike with cameraman Alistair Chapman (of XDCAM user fame) it physically adapts a 2/3 inch broadcast lens to a Canon EOS mount. At the same time it optically expands the image so that it is large enough to cover a Super35mm sensor size. To do this requires the user to engage the 2x range extender built into many broadcast lenses, which is then combined with extra magnification from the MTF adapter.

This does result in approximately 2.5 stops of light loss, but given the high sensitivity of new cameras this is less of a problem. The depth of field characteristics will remain the same as if you were using the lens on a regular 2/3 inch camcorder – don’t expect super shallow depth of field when using it. The adapter does not power the electric functions of an ENG lens so there is no servo zoom or VTR trigger sadly. If you do want to enable the zoom servo motor there is a possible solution to power it using an adapter cable from Ebay.

Please note that it does not cover the full frame sensor of the Canon 5D mkII or 1D X, but does work with the 7D, 60D, 600D/T3i, 550D/T2i (and should work with the C300 too). The adapter can also be used in combination with a EOS to Sony F3 or Sony NEX adapter to allow the B4 lenses to be used on these cameras. Price is not yet confirmed but should be in the £800 – £900 + tax range.

As you can see from the video above I’ve been testing the B4 adapter on a Sony F3 and also a Canon 60D and so far the results are pretty good, even though I only have access to older standard definition 2/3 lenses at the moment. My old Fujinon A15x8 broadcast lens does show some chromatic aberration and softness at the edges of the image but this is to be expected on a lens that can be bought for less than £500 these days. I would expect much better performance from a newer HD lens. Hopefully I’ll get to try one of those with the adapter soon. The only competing adapter I have seen so far is the HDx35 B4/PL Optical Adapter from Abelcine and costs $5800 US. I have not been able to compare the two.

The MTF EOS electronic lens adapter is the first to actually be available to order for the Sony F3 and NEX. It also works with Micro 4/3 cameras like the Panasonic AF100 where it joins the already available Redrockmicro livelens adapter in offering aperture control, but adds the benefit of image stabilisation. American company Birger Engineering have also been working on a similar adapter for some time now and have even shown it working at the NAB show, but it is still not available to buy.

The MTF adapter consists of two parts – a control box and an interchangeable lens mount in either Sony F3, Sony NEX or Micro 4/3 fit. If you change or add cameras you can simply add another mount part and use the same controller box.

A Canon 17-55 f2.8 IS lens with the MTF EOS adapter on a Sony F3

The control box is metal and powered by 4 AA batteries. It has an illuminated LCD that shows aperture value, focal length and whether stabilisation is on or off. Aperture can be adjusted in 1/8th stop increments using the control dial.

I’ve been testing a pre-production unit and found the aperture control to be quite reliable. A word of warning though – don’t spin the aperture dial too fast or the lens will have trouble keeping up, although the lens will eventually correct itself.

Mike tells me that pretty much all EF lenses work, apart from those few that use fly-by-wire manual focussing. The main lens of this type that doesn’t currently work is the 85mm f1.2L USM lens. Mike says he’s trying to fix this.

In use the adapter does pretty much what it is supposed to and I’m rather happy with it. The only downside is that the control box is a bit on the large side and adds bulk to the camera. The production version of the box has 1/4 20 mounting holes to allow positioning of the adapter on a rig or camera. That said I would rather have a smaller control box without AA batteries inside, running instead from a power tap cable. Maybe we’ll get this in a future version?

The image stabilisation seems to work well on a Sony F3, although I need to do more testing.

The control box is priced at £645 + tax and the matching lens adapters are £350 + tax each. More details soon on the MTF website.

I’m generally not into hacking cameras myself but the new Christmas release of the Magic Lantern hack for Canon 550D (t2i), 60D, 600D (t3i), 50D and 500D is certainly very enticing.

Magic Lantern offers a greatly improved feature set which makes Canon DSLRs into much more fully feature video cameras. You simply download the files to each memory card you use, pop it into the camera and load the new firmware. Then each time you start the camera it can automatically find the firmware on your memory card and reload it.

However, in my past experience I have found it to be less than 100% reliable in critical conditions, with the occasional lock up that require me to reboot the camera by reinserting the battery. For this reason I have stayed away from using it for news or documentary shoots where missing a key moment is not an option.

It is also technically going to void any warranty you have on the camera and there is always that slight chance that you could irreversibly turn it into a paperweight.

All that said it is amazing that a global team of hackers working together have added video features to existing Canon cameras that are not even to be found on the as yet unreleased C300 or 1D X.

The Magic Lantern Christmas edition running on a 60D

If you are willing to take the risk (and many users have without issue) then there are many benefits including the an expanded focus box during recording, audio monitoring, on-screen audio level meters, increased bitrate recording, false colour for setting correct exposure, peaking, custom aspect markers and much more.

This Christmas the newest features are the ability for these cameras to have enhanced frame rate control and the addition of a HDR video mode.

Instead of 25 frames per second (fps) you can now undercrank to as low as 4fps with a 1/4 of a second shutter speed – giving an motion blurred effect that is most useful in very low light. On the 60D you can also overcrank to 35fps in 1080p – not a major increase but useful for a slight slo motion effect when played back at 24 or 24 fps. The team has also hacked the older 50D to shoot HD video – it doesn’t even have a video function by default! Although there is still the drawback that it has no sound recording in camera.

The high dynamic range (HDR) mode seeks to allow the camera to capture greater shadow and highlight detail in scenes of high contrast. It is slightly complex to use but basically the camera takes consecutive frames at different exposures which you need to combine/interpolate afterwards in post-processing. Because of the way this is done it is only really suitable for slower moving subjects. It seems very experimental right now – there is more discussion of this here.

Magic Lantern HDR video workflow test from DavidJFulde on Vimeo.

The firmware is free to download from the Magic lantern site but for a small donation you can get a ready to run version of their HDR workflow as well as a preview version of their upcoming 5D mkII firmware improved hack. Full details here. Install hacked firmware at your own risk – don’t blame me if it kills your camera!

Below is a video from Andrew Reid at EOSHD.com showing the features of the upcoming 5D mkII Magic Lantern hack:

Meet the new 5D Mark II Magic Lantern Unified from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

We’ve seen a torrent of images from the riots in London and elsewhere over the last few days, but these are four of the most striking and powerful videos I’ve seen, all shot on DSLRs by journalists or people making other kind of films.

Three of the film makers – Leon Neal of AFP, Ben Lankester of Progress Film and Sam Hunt – have been kind enough to spare the time to talk about these videos. I am still very keen to speak to Kris Thompson and have been trying to reach him. If he is reading this – or if you know how I can get hold of him – please get in touch.

Kris Thompson – Ealing Broadway riots 08/08/11

This video shows police and rioters on the worst day of violence in the capital. Please be aware before watching that it has some very upsetting images, including footage of the 60-year-old man who is critically ill after rioters attacked him when he tried to stop them setting fire to a bin.

It uses slow motion and music to create a very moody piece that feels very different to almost all the other news footage from the day. It is clearly an editorialised version of events and I would love to speak to Kris about why he made it this way. I assume he is seeking to recreate how it felt to be there as an observer and if that’s the case I think it’s a laudable attempt though I know some people will disagree. Ealing-based film maker and author Chris Jones wrote on his blog “The use of slow motion, music and sound effects serves to enhance that ‘movie’ feel. Whether that is appropriate or not, I don’t know, but it certainly captures the feel of what it was like on the streets in a way that does not feel like news footage.”

Sam Hunt & Murat Gökmen – Riots in Mare Street, Hackney, 08/08/11.

This is what Sam Hunt had to say about their film:

“I produced this and Murat shot it. I work mainly for AlJazeera English as an interview producer and Murat works as a freelance video producer and as a documentary researcher for Channel 4.

This was shot on Monday – it’s of the key flashpoints – but we’re thinking of editing it with some interviews with youths we did earlier in the afternoon. We live about a mile down the road. I heard on Twitter something was happening down the road and got a call from a colleague at ITV asking if anything had happened, so we cycled down, locked up our bikes and started speaking to police and some of the young guys milling around.

The police said they expected something to happen at 4 at the town hall in Hackney. The police presence built up over next two hours and as we were walking around we saw really young groups of people. Things began to escalate. Two young men were stopped and searched, which is at the beginning of the film – the two young men up against the wall – and which the BBC say is the incident that started everything off on Mare Street.

We decided Murat would film what he saw and I’d follow him and keepalerting him to things he might have missed or that I thought he should film. But as things got more violent I was keeping an eye out for missiles or young rioters – who were very hostile to us filming and smacked the camera a couple of times. I’d often see people giving us looks or shouting and we’d move away – I didn’t want the camera to get broken. We were very conspicuous because Murat had a shoulder brace and viewfinder on with his Canon 550D – which made it look like more than just a stills camera – and wasn’t one of the snappers running in and out. He was trying to be steady to get good footage. I also had an big handheld external broadcast mic.

The police would form up in a line and move forward clearing the line of rioters. There were police cars in front of the police lines with no police in them and that’s when you got the police car being kicked in and smashed with large blocks of concrete, bins, whatever people could get their hands on. That was particularly dangerous because concrete blocks were coming over heads and was worried about Murat, who was concentrating on filming – quite often I would pull him back, which probably affected how clear the shots are.

We didn’t see anyone get hurt but we saw a lot of people – including us – running away from rioters who were after our cameras. I worked in Ghana in 2008 and there were disturbances during the election, but I’d never seen that level of violence before. There was footage we thought we had but was too jerky because things were too violent. At one point rioters opened the back of a lorry, took out wooden pallets and started smashing up a bus with the bus driver in it. We tried to film it but a rioter shouted and moved towards us aggressively – that was really hairy: a particularly nasty moment.

Murat and I met on a broadcast journalism MA and a lot of friends on the course all bought and used DSLRs because the quality for money is fantastic. Murat has done a lot of second camera work and I’ve shot for Reuters on a 550D. The benefit was that we were more mobile than someone shooting on one of the big news Betacams. The problem was obviously keeping focus – you lose it quite easily – but I quite like the feel that gives: more immediate than news but not as unpolished as, say, mobile footage. You have the immediacy of being there and it looks quite rugged, moving around a lot, but still clear; the image quality is really good.

The Guardian used the footage on its liveblog.”

Leon Neal – Tottenham riots 08/08/11

Leon is a photojournalist with Agence France Presse, shot the first 35 seconds or so of this report, which is much more conventional. Here is his account:

“Shooting video or stills in the riot-affected areas of London has proved to be an incredibly tough challenge.  From the very first night, photographers and camera crews were actively targeted with their equipment being smashed and, more often than not, physical injury inflicted.  I filmed the footage featured here on a Nikon D3s; the need to be covert resulted in me having to ditch the shotgun mic and Zacuto Z-Finder that I would usually use.  Shooting video was also trickier than stills due to the need to remain in a static position for longer – unlike photography where you can shoot and run. The incoming rocks and bottles from the rioters became more of a hazard if you remained stationary for too long.  By the second night, many photographers had ditched their DSLRs and were using pocket cameras for their HD video and stills.  While the sensitivity was of a much lower quality, situations like this are more about the footage than the quality so they were good enough to record the events witnessed.  My other big problem with shooting video was battery power.  I found myself in a police cordon in a very volatile area, and capturing video drained one of my batteries in 20 minutes. Thankfully, I had some juice left in a spare so could swap over, but ditched video for the rest of the night to rely on stills.”

Ben Lankester – Reactions and debate in Clapham 09/08/11

Ben is a filmmaker with Progress film based down in Brighton – predominantly shootimg DSLR, for commercial, music video and corporate work. He made this film of people reacting to the events.

This is what Ben had to say:

“As we watched the news online we decided we needed to get up to London to start documenting the reactions of those involved in the rioting. We wanted to listen to the discussions on the street, rather than present a story or show the chaos that the news was broadcasting. A 5D mkII allowed us to get close to those involved without intimidating them and once we’d started shooting, a crowd gathered to join in the debate.

This is certainly the start of a greater project as we have more DSLR shooters on the ground now. We also have editors piecing through the footage we’ve captured over the last few days. On Monday night we were confronted by a lot of hooded and masked men who threatened us when they saw our cameras. We absolutely could not have done this with a regular camcorder, no way. We considered taking our Sony EX-1 but knew we wouldn’t get close to what was happening, let alone be able to talk to anyone.

We made the video first thing Tuesday morning. It was amazing how emotional people were. We saw the first woman shouting at the side of the road and asked her for an interview. Once we started shooting, everyone started cutting in with their opinions. The crowd were equal parts in agreement and angry with what this woman – and then the man – were saying. The atmosphere was incredibly tense and emotional. Everyone is coming from a different place with a different story to tell. This situation is far from clear cut, racially, politically or otherwise. The discussion went on for around twenty minutes before police came in to break up the crowds, which had got so big that they were blocking the entrance to Clapham Junction station. It was spontaneous. There are evidently a lot of angry people in London with a lot to say.”

Lenses should be the most important part of your kit. Camera bodies come and go, but good glass can be used for a lifetime. Testament to this is that 20- to 30-year-old lenses can still look fantastic on your camera. Over time they have been refined – auto focus and stabilization may have been added – but the basic design remains the same.

You should always try to buy the best lens you can afford. You are better off spending more money on your lens than getting an expensive camera body and a cheap kit lens. In most cases you get what you pay for, but there are always exceptions. If you only have enough money for a Canon 5DmkII body and a cheap lens, you are better off getting for example a Canon 60D and spending more money on a better piece of glass. You can keep quality lenses forever but your camera body can become outdated in a matter of years. Another very important thing to remember is try to buy a lens you can use on multiple cameras as this will save you a fortune down the track.

The first thing you need to consider is whether you are going to use the lenses for stills as well or just video. For photo and video you are going to want a lens that has autofocus. Manual focus for photography can be a major hassle, depending on what you’re shooting. Go and try to shoot some fast-moving action with a manual focus only lens and you will be tearing your hair out. You just can’t focus as fast as a good auto focus system. 

But for video, manual focus is crucial. You can’t be in the middle of shooting something and have your lens whirling around trying to grab focus during a shot. Lenses by Canon/Nikon/Tamron/Sigma etc that have both manual and auto focus are your best option if you plan to shoot stills and video. A lot of modern day lenses also offer image stablizers (often referred to as IS or VR) which can make a big difference to your photos or video.

If you want lenses just for video then you need to consider other things. For example, if you buy a Canon EF lens for, say, your 7D you have no ability to change exposure smoothly during a shot as the aperture is controlled by a clicked dial on the rear of the camera. The other problem is that Canon EF lenses don’t work fully on anything other than a Canon body. There are adaptors from Birger and other companies that are coming out that will allow you to use EF glass with full aperture control for cameras like the Panasonic AF100, Sony FS100 and the Sony F3,  but they will not be cheap. So for video your choices are a bit harder. You ideally want a lens that allows you to manually control the aperture and has manual focus. Even manual aperture lenses do have hard aperture stops but you can get them declicked to offer smooth iris control.

The second thing you have to decide is whether to get a prime lens or a zoom lens. There is no right or wrong choice here: it comes down to the individual operator and what he or she needs the lens for. Zooms can save you a lot of time as you don’t have to keep changing lenses, you don’t have to move around as much and you don’t need to buy as many lenses. When looking at a zoom lens you want to make sure you get something that has a constant aperture eg f2.8. If you have a zoom lens with variable aperture, the aperture will change when you change the focal length – this is a major pain for video. Additionally some zoom lenses (known as varifocal) do not maintain the focus throughout the zoom range meaning that you have to refocus every time you zoom – another major pain. In the ideal world your zoom lens would be fixed aperture and maintain focus (parfocal).

Combinations
A good example combination for a Canon APS-C sized sensor camera like the 7D or 60D would be a Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, a Canon 17-55mm f2.8 and a Canon 70-200mm f2.8L (or f4). This would give you 3 lenses that would cover a large range at fast aperture. Add a 1.4 or 2x teleconvertor and you would extend this range even further. If you were using a Canon 5DmkII you would just get a Canon 16-35mm f2.8 instead of the Tokina and a Canon 24-70mm or Canon 24-105mm instead of the 17-55mm. These are just examples as there are other brands out there that you could use. 

The Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 - A good wide option for crop sensor cameras

Your other option, if you’re just using your lenses for video, is to get older Contax/Zeiss or Nikon manual focus only lenses (either zooms or primes). You can now also get old manual focus Canon FD primes adapted to fit EOS cameras or other cameras like the NEX. Optically a lot of these lenses are older designs but many are still very good and it would save you a lot of money.

Shooting the Tsunami aftermath with the F3 and Tamron 18-270mm

Some of the super zooms on the market will allow you to cover a huge range. For example I used the Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-f6.3 on a Sony F3 during the Japan tsunami/earthquake. It gave me a super range without me having to change lenses. I did this as a compromise for time over quality. Is it a good lens? Not really. It looked ok on the F3 although this lens is supposed to be used with the inbuilt stabilization on, so when using it on the F3, every time there was wind or lots of movement the whole picture turned to jello. I have also heard that this lens looks terrible on say a 7D. 

My advice would be to stay away from this sort of lens for video work. I think these super zooms are much more suited to travel photography rather than video. For me, when I do use zoom lenses, I never tend to use them as zoom lenses anyway. When I use the Canon 70-200mm I’m normally either at 70mm or 200mm. I rarely use anything in between. So you need to ask yourself whether you will be using the zoom as a zoom or just using the two extremes of the range.

Personally, I much prefer using prime lenses over zooms. Zooms can make you very lazy. You stay in the one spot and just zoom. Using primes makes you think more about your shot and forces you to move your feet. If your feet aren’t glued to the floor you will discover new angles that maybe you would never have seen if you were using a zoom. Primes also have the added benefit of being much faster lenses. The look of, say, a f2.8 zoom lens and a f1.2 prime is completely different. Don’t get me wrong; there are some fantastic zoom lenses out there, but they just don’t have the same look as a good prime lens. Fast zoom lenses are good but fast primes are great. 

Also, most lenses are optically not at their best when their apertures are wide open and tend to perform better when they are stopped down. This may be vital with stills, but I don’t think it’s as important when shooting video. Your stills lenses are designed, in the case of a full frame, to cover a huge sensor at high resolution; when you’re shooting video the image is getting reduced to a much lower 1920×1080 pixels. At this frame size the lens isn’t really getting pushed very hard. Personally I am comfortable with the quality of the results when shooting most of my lenses wide open.

People using DSLRs for video these days have in my opinion an over-fascination with shallow depth of field. You don’t need it on every shot you do. Of course, if you want super shallow depth of field then you need fast primes. Primes also, of course, offer the benefit of being in most cases very fast and therefore very good in low light conditions. I can tell the quality difference between a really good prime lens and a stills zoom quite easily. One of my favorite lenses is the Canon 50mm f1.2. It is way more expensive than the Canon 50mm f1.4 and you could buy about 20 Canon 50mm f1.8 lenses for the same money – but in my opinion it is worth every cent. For me 50mm is the lens I use the most. If you are planning on buying a really good quality lens, buy it in the focal length you use the most.

Build quality is very important to me. In most cases, the more expensive the lens, the better the build quality. The Canon L series for example are built pretty toughly. A prime example the Canon 50mm f1.2L as opposed to the Canon 50mm f1.8. Yes the Canon 50mm f1.8 only costs around $80 but if you drop it from just a few feet it will probably never work again. Good build quality also means there is less chance of moisture or dust getting into your lens.

The Canon 50mm f1.2L and 50mm f1.8 lenses

Depending on the type of work you’re doing, build quality may not be a major factor for you; for example, if you’re very careful with your equipment and don’t travel much. If you’re constantly in challenging environments and travelling a lot then you need something built to withstand the conditions. Next time you’re shopping for a lens, pick it up and feel the weight, see what it is made out of and ask yourself: “If I drop this, will it be ok?”   Of course, even if you have something as solid as a Canon 50mm f1.2L, if you drop it straight down onto the front element it may not survive. One common alternative option are the Zeiss ZF and Zeiss ZE series – built like tanks with solid metal and not plastic.

Then there’s flexibility: can I use my lenses on multiple cameras and across multiple manufacturers? If you want the greatest flexibility you want to buy lenses that you can use on lots of different cameras. The problem up to this point (although people are working on it) is that if you owned say a Canon 5D and you wanted to buy a Sony FS100, but all you owned were Canon EF lenses, you couldn’t use them. If you have invested thousands of dollars in lenses you want to be able to use them on whatever the next camera is that you decide to buy. 

I have a wide variety of lenses from Nikon, Canon, Tokina, Sony and Zeiss and my favorite lenses are my Zeiss ones. There is just something about the look of them. They are also extremely flexible. In a Nikon mount they offer manual focus (albeit in the opposite direction to Canon) and manual aperture control. Using inexpensive lens adaptors I can use these lenses on Nikon DSLR, a Canon DSLR, my Sony F3 and even my Sony NEX-5. Although I love my Canon L series glass I can’t currently use it on anything else (with the exception of the Sony NEX-5 without aperture control).

A Nikon 80-200mm easily adapted to fit a Sony NEX

What matters is the lens that is right for you: think about what you normally shoot and how you shoot it. Factor in price, speed, f-stop, build quality and flexibility and determine what your requirements are. There is no substitute for really good glass; it can ultimately determine the quality of your finished product. Remember too that you are the artist – your camera and lens are just the palette and brush.

There are way too many lenses to cover in this post so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask here below and I’ll be happy to help you out.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for more 20 years, previously working for both Channel 9 and Channel 10 in Australia. Twice Network Ten Australia’s cameraman of the year as well as being a Walkley Finalist for outstanding camerawork in 2006 (for coverage of the Cronulla Race Riots) and a Logie Finalist for outstanding news coverage 2006 (Bali 9). He is a multiple ACS (Australian Cinematographers Society) award winner. His Sword Maker story that was shot on a 7D won the prestigious Neil Davis International News Golden Tripod at the 2011 ACS Awards. He has covered news events in more than 35 countries, from major sporting events to terrorist bombings. Based out of the Kuala Lumpur broadcast centre in Malaysia he is an avid user and follower of new technology, shooting stories on HD broadcast cameras, the Sony F3 as well as new Canon DSLRs.

On May 18th, students from Columbia University’s School of Journalism graduated from a year-long intensive program in reporting, writing, and, for some, HDSLR news production. While readers of this site have long been accustomed to the joys and heartaches of using DSLRs to capture video, this was the J-School’s first year of trying to use these cameras as a news-gathering tool. The process of teaching and learning the HDSLR workflow was intense and often frustrating. But, by graduation day, it was obvious that the results were well worth the effort.

Digital Media students at Columbia focus on many things: reporting, writing and online skills as well as photography and videography. As the head of the Digital Media department at Columbia, the idea of teaching my students one device for both stills and video was extremely attractive. And as a videographer who has been shooting HDSLRs for a while now, it was exciting for me to be able to share my real-world experience with these journalists-in-training.

The basic kit that students use at Columbia includes a Canon T2i, a Canon 17-40 F/4L lens, an Olympus LS-10 audio recorder, and a Rode NTG-2 shotgun. Besides the T2i’s, most of this gear was salvaged from previous cameras that had been retired. Students did not have Zoom H4n recorders, Small HD monitors, or any fancy Zacuto gear. Being an academic institution, we were working on the cheap. But, in retrospect, the fact that we had fewer accessories to confuse ourselves was a big bonus.

Digital students learn photography prior to learning video, so the transition from stills to video was not a big leap. Concepts such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISOs carried over smoothly from photo. But beyond that, everything else was a challenge.

“It felt like there was a lot to learn for someone who had been a pen and paper journalist for so long,” said Dewi Cooke, 31, a former print reporter who came to Columbia to gain digital skills.

The T2i does not have a manual audio feature so we were forced to record dual audio. Students often forgot to hit record on the audio recorder, and even if they did, Pluraleyes often failed. File management was another trap in the training processes. Properly setting up any FCP project takes some getting used to, but dealing with video files, audio files, sync’d files, and transcoded files tested even our most organized students. Data was lost or misplaced incessantly. It was an exercise in patience, but, like most HDSLR filmmakers, the students eventually figured out the work flow.

“It took us five months to learn how to use HDSLRs,” said Cooke. “But it was worth it. The shallow depth-of-field was visually appealing. And the small size of the cameras made it possible for us to shoot in places we would not normally be able to.”

Next year, we’ll continue to use HDSLRs at the Journalism school. With large sensor video cameras coming out, we may eventually go back to shooting on a more traditional camera. But, with the ability to shoot beautiful images in low light and in tight situations, it’s doubtful that we’ll completely give up on DSLRs any time soon.

Here are two examples of some of the fine work that students were able to do this year.

VIDEO 1: Produced by Lea Khayata and Beth Morrissey for our Multimedia Storytelling workshop tells the story of Al Niente – New York’s last sheet music store.

Al Niente: New York’s last sheet music store from lea khayata on Vimeo.

VIDEO 2: Produced by Dewi Cooke and Chitrangada Choudhury is about two best friends who are building their table tennis dream in Pleasantville, NY. One of them is Will Shortz, crossword editor for the New York Times and the other is Robert Roberts, a Caribbean table tennis champion.

Double Happiness from Dewi Cooke on Vimeo.

Duy Linh Tu is Assistant Professor and Director of Digital Media at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University.