Video and the Nikon D7000
Last fall my Nikon D80 stopped working. After trying (unsuccessfully) to repair it, I finally decided on the Nikon D7000 to replace it. One of the new features that I am exploring is the video mode, which will capture video at 1080 resolution.
My first impression is that shooting video on an SLR is much more difficult than on a point-and-shoot or smartphone. My difficulties come from two main areas: focus & sound
Focus
SLR lenses make beautiful pictures, they can also make beautiful videos. Focusing on an SLR lens is not as smooth or fast as on a point and shoot lens.
It seems like the lens has trouble focusing on subjects that are moving, or if the camera is moving. My approach now is to set up the shot, focus, and then begin shooting. If a change of focus is required, a new shot is required.
The alternative would be to keep shooting, but then it would require some post-editing. I think smaller clips would be easier to edit into a DVD or longer video. It seems that most of the time, I am just e-mailing my shorter clips anyway.
Sound
The first part of this issue relates to the previous point. The SLR lenses make lots of noise when they are focusing. Enough noise to be picked up by a microphone. The result is extra noise in the video, distracting the viewers from the video, or making it difficult to hear the desired audio from the video.
The issue of the lens sound is partly addressed by the approach of focusing before the shot. But sometimes it will be necessary to re-focus during a shot. I am not sure yet how I can get around this.
The second sound-related issue is the quality of the built-in microphone on the camera. When shooting with the point-and-shoot or the smartphone cameras, using the built-in microphone is normal and expected. The quality of the video being shot is not that great, so it is not necessary for the sound to be great.
When shooting with the SLR and a $1,500 lens, the quality of the video is great. The audio quality should also be great.
I have been able to address this by purchasing an external directional microphone. I picked up a Rode VideoMic from Vistek. Immediately it was clear that the external microphone’s sound quality is far superior to the built-in microphone.
Since the microphone is directional it does not pick up so much noise from behind the camera. Due to the position above and in front of the lens (as opposed to on the camera body behind the lens), it actually helps to mask some of the noise from the lens if a re-focus is required.
The disadvantage of this particular microphone is the size. As an accessory, it is larger and more fragile than my flash and lenses. I am going to have to look into either a case for the microphone or think about investing in a larger camera bag. Sennheiser has a microphone that is smaller, but is quite a bit more expensive. Nikon has also announced that they will be selling a microphone soon.
Conclusions
After reviewing my first few videos, there are a few things I feel I need to do to be able to shoot better video using my SLR:
- Buy a decent microphone if you are going to shoot video on an SLR.
- Experience and practice shooting video on an SLR is a must. Just like taking pictures, video is something that will get better the more I use it. Practice is invaluable to see what works (and what does not).
- Spend some time reading the manual. I have found that I am referring to the manual a lot more on the D7000. I think the main reason is there are more features in the camera than the D80, and I want to learn how to use them properly. Also I have had some trouble mapping the way things were done on the D80 to the equivalent on the D7000.
- Some online reading is needed. Blogs are a great source of other people’s experience (I hope I will get there some day).