Last week on my video podcast site I reviewed the Canon Rebel T2i, a DSLR camera for under $1,000 that shoots remarkable video. In that review I mentioned that DSLR cameras are being used more and more in the film and television world. Case in point, the “new” Tonight Show opening for Jay Leno.
If you happen to watch the Tonight Show, as with all talk shows, they have a little opening video sequence which plays while the announcer states who will be on the show that evening. And it the case of the Tonight Show, their opening sequence was shot entirely with the Canon 7D…a big brother to the Rebel T2i (it runs just under $2,000).
To see what this opening and the footage looks like (without actually having to tune in on your TV), you can go to the Tonight Show web site. Any show within the past 30 days will start with the opening shot with the Canon 7D.
I was just about to buy a camcorder but now I’m confused! yes this camera shoots great video but are you saying that this is better than using Canon camcorders like HF10,20,HFS10,HFS21…etc.
Are Canon’s camcorders which are mainly for shooting videos not better than Canon’s Image cameras which are mainly for taking pictures?
Did you or will you be comparing side by side footage?
I always like to hear your opinion but this time you only confused me because it’s not enough to say here’s another great camera, we need to know which are best for web videos or at least the pros and cons when it comes to web videos only.
thanks,
omar
You can find side-by-side footages on Vimeo. Canon t2i and 7d have almost the same specification in video mode. They are great – both of them.
oliveR
isn’t the downside of shooting video with dslr’s that you can only shoot 5 minutes of video at a time?
My understanding is 12 minutes max, something to do with tax implications in Europe. Video cameras and still cameras have different tax.
a better looking example is the SNL opening, also shot on 7d. These cams only shoot 12mins of 1080p footage, but the size of that sensor is visually quite comparable to the “red” one footage. They also have no audio in jack I don’t think. Huge debate about the size being “unimpresive” to clients tho…
@Davide – The T2i, 7D and up all have external audio jacks. You can fit 12 minutes of footage on a 4GB card…if you want more, you use a larger memory card. There is a single file size limit on SDHC memory cards though because of the formatting they use (this has nothing to do with the camera)…you use an SDXC card if you want to get around that.