fbpx
Learn

Quick Lessons Learned Shooting A Podcast With the Canon 5D Mk II

Chris Gampat
No Comments
05/21/2010
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 09/10/2011 by

Nerd Blerp Interview: The Professionals from Nerd Blerp on Vimeo.

Recently, while shooting a podcast for NerdBlerp.com, (again) I offered to loan the services of my Canon 5D Mk II, 24-105mm F4 L IS, and Rode VideoMic. The footage, while it looked pretty good, had some problems. In all, it was a learning experience. Here are some of the mistakes I made for you to learn from.

Clean Your Sensor

A couple weeks ago my sensor became dirty. Not very dirty, but there was a smudge. After shooting for a bit though, it seemed to have disappeared so I didn’t worry about it. Then it reared its ugly head in this shoot. You’ll see it in the footage. When we were reviewing the footage on a big screen HDTV, I screamed in horror.

The 5D Mk II is now in the shop getting cleaned. That was a stupid mistake on my part.

How did it get smudged? Sometimes my assistants switch their lenses without taking the camera off—because of this the sensor attracts dust and other things.

Keep Your F-Stop Small and Your ISO Up

Since the 5D Mk II has a big sensor, then it also has very shallow depth of field. When shooting, it is not advisable to be shooting wide open. Stop the lens down to perhaps f5.6-f8. Not only will this optimize sharpness, but it will also make focusing a lot easier for you. This isn’t as critical with the 7D or T2i though because of the smaller sensor.

If I were shooting with a smaller F-stop (I used F4) then they all would have been much sharper and much easier to focus on. Why didn’t I do this? My 5D Mk II is typically used on Nerd Blerp’s set for nice depth of field images. The ISO would not have even need to be cranked up because of the set lighting.

When Shooting Handheld, Always Use an Image Stabilized Lens

Though a Hoodman HoodLoupe would have helped with stabilization because of the way that I would’ve needed to hold the camera, shooting handheld requires that the videographer uses stabilized lenses. Because of this, the 24-105mm F4 L IS is a phenomenal workhorse lens. However, the combination with the HoodLoupe would have been better.

Bring a Good Tripod

Nerd Blerp’s HF 200 was on their good tripod, so I was stuck with one that could barely support my 5D Mk II. This footage could have been better with a better tripod or a dolly system of some sort. A better tripod would have supported smoother pans and would have had a level built in to ensure straight shots.

In a case like this, a gorillapod would not even have cut it.

Bring A Rail System

If not a rail system, my favorite item is the Glide Cam Stunt Bar. It would have further made handheld shooting much easier because of just how adaptable the rails are to almost any situation. For the price, you really can’t go wrong. Any videographer would probably want to have one of these in their bag because of just how useful they can be.

What they are are essentially two-three flat rails with lots of holes and screws meant of adapting the use of your camera to literally anything. They’re used often by skateboarders videotaping themselves.

Why didn’t I bring mine? Well, even though they break down into smaller pieces, the pieces can get very big. Big stuff in your bag can become annoying.

Please Support the Phoblographer

We love to bring you guys the latest and greatest news and gear related stuff. However, we can’t keep doing that unless we have your continued support. If you would like to purchase any of the items mentioned, please do so by clicking our link and then purchasing the items as we then get a small portion of the sale to help run the website.

24-105mm f4 L IS 5d Mk II canon lens nerdblerp.com podcast
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
You might also like
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM review product images Canon EOS R
Features

Did Canon Miss the Memo That Says Mirrorless Lenses Are Meant to Be Smaller?

3 Mins read
12/26/2018

When Canon introduced their new Mirrorless cameras earlier on this year (The EOS R) one of the stand out features was that the lens mount was so huge. While other manufacturers like Sony have made all things Mirrorless smaller, the late comer to the Mirrorless party seems to have decided that bigger is better. In a recently released interview, Canon engineers seem to be having a sly dig at Sony by saying that lenses with smaller mounts are far less capable than those with larger mounts. Read on after the break to find out more about what the Canon engineers are wafting on about.

P1000_BK_front34r_lo_t
News

The New Nikon P1000 Has a 125x Optical Zoom with a Laughable 1/2.3 inch Sensor for $999.95

9 Mins read
07/10/2018

Today, for some odd reason, the Nikon P1000 point and shoot camera is being announced. Odd, you ask? The fact that it is a point and shoot isn’t such a big issue at all; but the fact that it’s a superzoom camera being marketed as one with a 125x optical zoom is what’s insane. Kudos to Nikon for being able to do something like this; but then you read the fine print (or in this case, print that’s not even in the press release) and see the bait and switch–this Nikkor lens is having its potential wasted by being placed in front of a 1/2.3 inch sensor.