Video vs. Stills

drd1135

Zen Snapshooter
Location
Virginia
Name
Steve
One thing that is stopping my camera body GAS is current emphasis on video. I gather the stills side of things has plateaued for while, at least in terms of advances and profits for the camera makers. I'm not a video guy and when I need video clips of the grand kids the old iPhone comes out. To be honest, I barely understand what folks are saying when they start whipping off video specs. :hmmm: So I'm curious. Aside from professional uses like weddings, what do you use video for? Maybe I'm missing the opportunities.
 
I think the majority are using it for YouTube, blog pages, and podcasts. But there is also a large segment of the market making indie films. I have friends who make movies for Sy Fy that use Sony A7Sx bodies for some of their filming.
Really? The A7Sx bodies for the SyFy channel? That's so great. It's also interesting that the 12 MP body works just fine for that purpose.
 
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Near as I can tell the hot market is - holding a camera at arms length pointed at yourself as you walk around talking about the best camera to hold at arms length as you walk around talking.

It's called "vlogging" and if you don't have your own vlogging channel, then you are dirt, and camera companies don't care about you!

A second use case is if someone else points the camera at you as you talk about cameras, but the first is the hotter market. It's also called the "content creator" market.
 
One thing that is stopping my camera body GAS is current emphasis on video. I gather the stills side of things has plateaued for while, at least in terms of advances and profits for the camera makers. I'm not a video guy and when I need video clips of the grand kids the old iPhone comes out. To be honest, I barely understand what folks are saying when they start whipping off video specs. :hmmm: So I'm curious. Aside from professional uses like weddings, what do you use video for? Maybe I'm missing the opportunities.

I do documentaries and interviews now mostly. I did a few a while back for some local parks and also news articles.

I plan on possibly putting together some personal stuff for recording the growth of our new puppy.

I will say this, some of the accessory demands for video can be more intensive than stills, especially in the realm of artificial lighting.
 
I watch a fair bit of cycling videos on YT, and cyclists holding a camera at arm's length while they ride and talk is popular, or sitting their camera in a pre-planned spot and riding toward it as fast as they can, then running back and grabbing the camera. So Steve, you could film yourself dirt-jumping in your rural back yard, and if your crashes are spectacular enough, you might pick up a sponsor or two. :whistle:
 
Near as I can tell the hot market is - holding a camera at arms length pointed at yourself as you walk around talking about the best camera to hold at arms length as you walk around talking.

It's called "vlogging" and if you don't have your own vlogging channel, then you are dirt, and camera companies don't care about you!

A second use case is if someone else points the camera at you as you talk about cameras, but the first is the hotter market. It's also called the "content creator" market.
And they’re getting younger and younger, have a look at an R6/R5 review these days and the vloggers seem about 20 years old or thereabouts. A solid review from them where they just talk about specs specs specs wouldn’t convince me to buy the camera however if it’s proved that they do affect camera sales then maybe it’s here to stay.
 
One thing that is stopping my camera body GAS is current emphasis on video. I gather the stills side of things has plateaued for while, at least in terms of advances and profits for the camera makers. I'm not a video guy and when I need video clips of the grand kids the old iPhone comes out. To be honest, I barely understand what folks are saying when they start whipping off video specs. :hmmm: So I'm curious. Aside from professional uses like weddings, what do you use video for? Maybe I'm missing the opportunities.

The current emphasis on video started with the Canon 5D Mk II. It was the first full frame digital DSLR that came with a functional video .. err.. function. This is because, for the first time, digital video or even low-budget or amateur analog filmmakers had access to a large sensor. This means, for the first time, they were able to emulate the shallow depth of field and quality of image of big budget Hollywood films that used film movie cameras that used at least APS-C equivalent or larger film sizes. This was the beginning of the end for the traditional video camera market at that time when those video sensors used to be tiny tiny things, 2/3" or smaller. The Canon 5DMk II also had the ability to film at cinematic frame rates as opposed to video-like interlaced 60 fps type rates. These interlaced frame rates produced what are commonly described as "that cheap daytime soap look".

So fast forward to the present day, you have in your (relatively) larger sensor camera, the ability to create lush cinematic footage. That's about it in a tiny nutshell. For convenience and ease of use, use your iPhone. But for shallow depth of field and manual control over the specs of your filmmaking, use your non-iPhone cameras.
 
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For eg. here's an example of what you can do with the (not so) humble Panasonic X10 that doesn't even have the biggest sensor (although bigger than pre-5DMkII dedicated video sensors).


Granted, they used handheld jigs/cranes and/or handheld gimbal. And they are skilled in the use the camera's manual functions and post-production.

Imagine if you came back from your family holiday with footage like this. Or just a day out with the family with footage like this.
 
For eg. here's an example of what you can do with the (not so) humble Panasonic X10 that doesn't even have the biggest sensor (although bigger than pre-5DMkII dedicated video sensors).


Granted, they used handheld jigs/cranes and/or handheld gimbal. And they are skilled in the use the camera's manual functions and post-production.

Imagine if you came back from your family holiday with footage like this. Or just a day out with the family with footage like this.
That's a lovely little video. You're certainly right about the look. I suspect, at least for me, this would have to be a retirement project to learn how to make little movies. I really have so sense of it now.
 
I gradually became genuinely interested in video side of things; for decades I was into stills only, but sometimes ago I started documenting my comics festivals in France not only photographically, but in video format also. These reportages are obviously amateurish, done without any idea of frame rate, bit depth, color grading or anything else, just using my little RX100 as a point-and-shoot video camera... but were enough fun in making that it gave me an itch to try and learn to do it properly:



I don't even know if If i could do better on festivals, as the pieces videos are made of are just grabs between lots of demanding drawing and mingling with public and other fellow artists; no possibility of planning or arranging the shots and lightning. And, sadly, I haven't traveled to any festival this year because of the pandemic :-( But I also have an idea for a documentary movie about comics scene here in Serbia :) That would, of course, demand much more dedication, effort and knowledge, but I'm interested in learning more about it.

So contrary to drd1135, it gets me researching and dreaming about new camera :)
 
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