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Camera Differences: Side by Side Comparison

Lesson 9 from: The Lone Wolf Filmmaker

Bill Megalos

Camera Differences: Side by Side Comparison

Lesson 9 from: The Lone Wolf Filmmaker

Bill Megalos

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Lesson Info

9. Camera Differences: Side by Side Comparison

Lesson Info

Camera Differences: Side by Side Comparison

All right let's look at these cameras against each other and see why you would use one camera versus another I'm going to change the lens here because I really want to show you guys what I want to show you guys what what the big deal about dslr is is I'm going to switch to a lens that's an eighty five millimeter lens okay which is considered a telephoto a short telephoto but it's also a very it's a very fast lens it's one point two so in order to get the absolute minimal depth of field I'm going to use a long lens and open it wide okay and to show you what's going to happen but before we do that we have this moment with the lens in my hand it's a perfect opportunity for teaching you guys had a clean lens okay first of all you're supposed to clean it as little as possible you don't every time you clean the lens there's a chance of getting dust in it or you know, grinding dust into it but there are three things you have to do it'll clean the lens and they might they'll make sense once we...

talk about it one is never do it dry so you're going to use your you're going to use your moisture all right you're going to do it upside down why we going to do it upside down what we ended up side down uh so the dust falls off and doesn't stay on the lens if we do it right side up is going to stand the length and the other thing we're gonna do is we're gonna spiral from inside to outside I'm going to start in the middle and spiral out why if any dust stays on it it's going to be on the outer part of the lens not the middle part of the lens all right so moisture upside down and spiraling up now generally I tried to clean them asl it'll it's possible I'll use I'll use a air like a like a kind of animal syringe it looks you know pushes air out I don't like to use the spray can because there's free on in there but you'll do that blow the dust off is much as possible but that's anyway that's how you do that all right so I'm going to change this lens on here to the right lens for this can you hold this for a second and hold this for a second too just just we want to keep this open as little as possible we don't want air again and if you want to put that back cap on there feel free okay all right so here's what we're going to do now I've got enough distance in here so that that's good let's see what the eighty five looks like oh boy this is the eighty five huh? All right you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna move you closer how does that sound okay, come on down come on a lot closer keep coming keep coming keep coming keep coming I forget that with this lens eighty five millimeter keep coming ok keep coming okay let's try that. All right on this one the same rough image size okay. All right. Wow. Okay, so let's switch to the x three for a moment, all right? So the x three has a small sensor right to get this same roughly these of the same image sizes. Okay, on the small sensor of the x three I am at what is called when I'm looking at the lens here I'm looking at what looks to be about a twenty one millimeter lens. Okay, can you guys remember that twenty one millimeter lens to get this size frame on him? Now look at what happens here, it's also just so you know, we are at well let's let's do the apples and oranges. Okay? Let's let's let's put them together with simon list two apples and apples. So, um all right. So right now I'm going to I'm going to change my iris here listen, because what I want to do is I want to make sure that these three I want to make sure that we're looking at the same not exposure so much as there we go okay so that we're looking at iris at the same level all right right now this says one point nine on it so this is this open is this lens khun b is a one point nine so looking at what we see we see that what did I say? It was a twenty one millimeter land so twenty one millimeter lens open wide open around one point nine gives us a fair amount of depth of field my hand is in folk my hand is starting to get so close and focus from here too what's behind here okay that's pretty much in focus that's what our depth of field is all right now this camera is the same distance away from him let's uh but also look at look at how the background looks the background is thrown out of focus but that's because I have gone as apa's openness I can't there right so the background is out of focus now can we switch to the to the cannon now look at the cannon cannon now he's in focus there so where's our depth of field here it's here to about there this's it right here to his ear ok now why is that? Well two things it's a longer lens that's the main thing is it's a longer lens that's what in eighty five does ok? The other thing about it though is that I'm also a little bit wider. So let me close this down to a two to make it to make it a fair fight. Okay, so this is a fair fight now, just so you say so, it's not it's, not really for so so this is the reason that people use the d s l ours people love this look, I think it's very overused I think it's really wrong for a lot of reality type program, you know or things like but it's nice for interviews like this but what have we done here? Switch back to the x three, please with this one we see him in his location. We know something about where he is. Go back to the other one and here it sze almost like you don't know what it is, right? It's it's weaken its a very sensual look. It's a very commercial style look weaken. But so this is really this is the reason people go with these cameras, aside from the fact that you go ahead with our, uh that the color is much warmer, as opposed to with the video camera where it seems cooler well, that's, you know, that's something that we haven't really set up here that's yeah, there is, we haven't really set this one up as to what let's. See what we can? We can go in here and we can mess with the, um we can rest with the white balance, which we haven't done well with warmer, like you were saying, it gives a better commercial appearance because it's more ah, yeah, we could. I mean, you know, there are we can do that on the other one as well. But I mean, this is the main reason this is really the main reason, you know, this is the main reason that people do this. There we go, there's the white balance. All right, so I can take this white balance, and I can make this. Oh, there we go. So I've made it cooler there. I mean, you can adjust all these sort of things you can adjust. I mean, that's, just the way that one was set up right there. Let's look at the iphone real quick, and you can see the, um, would you use an iphone for something like this? So about this guys, I do want to kind of show that, you know, it's nice to have it here, but we really need two what's the difference between the iphone right now? We'll put it over here in this is it's obviously a much wider shot, isn't it wants you even if you zoom, you can't really zoom in on the iphone because what's happening is it's just blowing up the image it's not actually making a zoom lens, you gotta significantly lower quality of you see what's happening it's still the same it's still very much in focus back there and you're not really zooming in on it. You're zooming in on the image, but not the physical lens isn't moving, but there are there are adjustments for this, so I mean, was this really be something that if you wanted to do an interview with somebody with this, you'd really need to get kind of close, and then you kind of get kind of need to get in their face, which can also put people off, but also what's happening is we're starting to get a wide angle thing on amar away look at his like, if you move your hands around you see how big his hands were getting or just back and forth or just see how much bigger his hands are than his body, but you can get can you open that just you just pull that thing out. So with this I mean, you can get a job, you can get different lenses that change it these both both of these lenses actually go the opposite way off what we would probably want to use I'm not um so this goes on here that made it even wider didn't and all of a sudden we see alex back there that's that's with the wide on okay made it a lot wider and this one goes to a fish eye which is even more extreme so this would be probably pretty good for a skateboarder right? I mean it's good for that sort of stuff punch the camera I mean not actually hit it but I mean that's that's pretty dramatic right? So it is kind of more of an effect thing but in terms of an all around useful camera for carrying you know obviously this is going to be harder to move around with this on here but you can do you know you can do kind of moves around like this pretty easily right it's really imperative that you by um that you that you buy some sort of software like pro camp some sort of app that allows you to um ah an app that allows you to control the iris because you can't have it go automatically changing on you all the other things we're talking about we're using these cameras manually aren't we were setting the iris we're setting the focus we're not letting the camera do the work all right so this is something that someone came up with that actually works a little bit like a city camp in the sense that it balances it um it this this weight at the bottom kind of counter balances and levels this a little bit anyway, I mean, I know there's a there's an appeal so I I would think the trick with this would be to find out where it balances on your finger and let this counter balance, you know, so that you could maybe do some smoother moves like this. Obviously you wouldn't have this cable on it if you were doing it, would you? The cable is so much weight compared to what this thing is itself, but yeah, you would need something like pro cam or one of these control things. I don't think I mean, yeah, there are times when you know, there's things you can grab on this, but I wouldn't want to make a whole film with it would be very frustrating to me. Um, but, you know, all right steadicam the one that they made a hole yeah, they made a whole rig with it. Yeah, I mean, obviously you're going to go, you're going to take more trouble than we did just here. I'm just showing you the, you know, the basic the basic things, yeah, yeah, about the type different types of cameras that we can use where what is your experience? What do you think about the recent trend of the gopro I think the gopro is very gopro again. I mean, a lot of these things are amazing at what they do, but they're one trick ponies. I mean, the the gopro is amazing for mounting and getting those chest, but again it's very, very wide angle. And if you try to use it where it's not so wide angle it's, it's, very it's, just quite distracting, you know, it's, it does what it does well for an occasional shot. I use them in concerts all the time. Why should concerts? I'll hide some so that there's always I never, always have a shot I can go to of the keyboard player. I've got one in the drum kit so that you see the drummer, you know, it's great like that to throw a camera in there rather than paying another person for something like that. But you can't it's really to say, this is my only camera. It would be really tough.

Ratings and Reviews

Mulk Raj
 

This was excellent. I’ve been learning filmmaking up until now from watching YouTube videos and from my own practice which has been great. But I found these lessons to complement everything I knew and filled in much of where I was going wrong or wanted to know, and all in one convenient place. The course covering both the technical aspects as well as telling the story. There were lots of great techniques, tips and information from all aspects. Shooting mainly on the Sony Camcorders but I didn't consider this to be an issue, and the course also provided an excellent side by side comparison with the Digital SLRs. You can see from the lesson list that many topics are covered from the different types of lenses (one interesting question Bill asked was “what type of lens was that photograph taken with?” I had never thought you could discern this from the photo). Other great lessons was on sound tests, covering reflective sounds and comparisons with booms and lab mics and the ideal placement. The emphasis was always on telling the story and the reasons why you would choose one over the other. I learned a heck of a lot from the interview section. How to set-up, where to set-up an interview, looking at all the different aspects and backgrounds open to you from a location, how to conduct an interview, how to ask questions, lighting from the far side, the concept of slow disclosure, and the final hour being a fly-on-the wall on getting the shots was really interesting if you’ve never worked on a filmed set before. I personally thought this was an invaluable insight into filmmaking, well worth the investment. Great work.

jamie applegate
 

I have seen a couple other film courses on CreativeLive, but I think I have enjoyed this one the most. It was very informative, Bill's personality is great. I loved how hands on he really got with his student's including seeing them actual film. It had some good laughs. Well done!

Josh Moore
 

Great overview of capturing video from a one-man/small production team perspective. And great insight from an expert who's done it all. The Making One Location Look Like Many episode was fascinating to see how Bill spontaneously approaches creating shots in a location.

Student Work

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