Been a long year...

or a short one...

Gone by so fast... yet sometimes it couldn't go by fast enough. Ever had that feeling? Ya, well thats me right now.

Just got a Canon 7D as well as a full Pro Aim Cine DSLR rig for it. REALLY amazing rig that unleashes the full potential of this amazing little camera. I've been working dead on my feet the last 6 months with pre production on my new film, Angel of the skies. Ensuring all the CGI is looking as real as can be and teaching myself the workflow to make sure it all cuts together seemlessly together with the live action footage.

Cannot wait to start shooting, and thanks to this amazing camera, I feel so free. As an independant filmmaker, I have always had to wait on other people or that of the gear houses. To be a filmmaker, you need to have a camera right... and not just some camcorder, no.. if you are serious about making films for cinema, you need the big guns... RED, F35, Arriflex, Panavision / Sony F900, Genesis... you get my drift... well, not anymore it seems.

This little Canon 7D is making waves in the independant sector, very much like RED did 2 years back. This little bugger has a CMOS sensor in it that is the same size as 35mm Film stock. It Shoots FULL HD 1920 X 1080 @ 24P... as well as being able to use 35mm lenses, thus giving the operator full Cine Style DEPTH OF FIELD... the best bit... its only $1900. Thats R18 000 roughly here in SA. Why so cheap? Because it is a DSLR. Originally a professional Stills Camera with a 18mp sensor... but it shoots true HD. Now to put this camera into perspective... sure it doesn't have all the bells and whistles like XLR input/output and sturdy body design... but lets be serious here, you really don't need all these things. Look at Slumdog Millionaire, 2009 OSCAR winner for best film. That was shot on the Silicon Imaging's SI 2k... a camera that has nothing but a Lens and CMOS sensor... NOTHING ELSE. They did pretty fine with that and it doesn't even have a viewfinder for the operator to see what he's shooting. The 7d is roughly the same size.

Here is some interesting facts... The TV show SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE has used the 7D to shoot its new Intro sequence as well as many of its skits. Source - [link]

Also, two independent features have already been completed using the 7d, not to mention the amount of features and commericals that have been shot on the older 5d, the brother of the 7d.

Now, many young indi filmmakers have been drawn towards Sony's new EX3... a robust, great camera that shoots Full HD and has overcrank of up to 60 FPS, very awseome camera, I myself was so close to buying one, but at the time could not afford it with all the extras it required for my shooting style... mainly because the EX3 is essentially only a 2/3" sensor, which means it has a 2/3" mounting on it, so it can't use 35mm lenses which ultimately amounts to no cine style depth of field... hmmm... but there is a solution. If one such as myself needs to get that depth of field, one then needs to invest in a Letus Adaptor or something similar, which allows the operator to then use 35mm lenses on the camera, thus enabling him/her to achieve the desired cine depth of field needed for Feature film narratives... So you ask whats the big deal about 2/3" sensors? Well, look at RED's new Scarlet... the entry level aimed at people who cannot afford the mainstream RED camera. It has a 2/3" sensor. BUT WHY??? That is so stupid. True it's going to do A LOT more than a Canon 5D/7D or SONY EX3 due to its 3k resolution (some believe there to be quiet a bit of noise with the downscaling), but what are you going to put on it? Any regular 35mm format lens is going to crop x2.5 so even a very wide 18mm will become moderately telephoto, a 50mm suddenly becomes a 125mm. I'm super enthused about this big sensor revolution we're living in and if someone can give me a reason to get excited by a 2/3" RED camera, I'd love to hear it. But for the moment, Cinema only requires 1.9K resolution and The 7d delivers that with 35mm lenses...

But lets get back to the 7d's main rival, the EX 3. Putting a price to this EX 3 with Letus Adaptor and 35mm lenses aswell as the rig needed to place the adaptor on the Camera --- $12 000 plus.

The 7d does all of what the Ex3 does (with Cine Depth of Field) and better, right out the box for $1900. WOW.

Now let the naysayers have their say, but the DSLR revolution has begun, and man, its kicking ass for the small guy.

To find out more about this amazing little DSLR camera, check out cinema5d.com and [link]