I wrote this as a comment on a friend’s blog and thought I would post it here.
I jumped onto the VDSLR bandwagon a little late, and so far I have been really happy. For me the decision was based on three things
1. Image quality for the average viewer – sure the VDSLR may not have the same resolution as a variety of other options, but to the average viewer (almost anyone that isn’t looking at the piece on a large screen display looking for compression artifacts) the image is better on the DSLR. They are looking at things like color, saturation and depth of field. Most of these people will never be able to explain why they find this image more pleasing, but it is to them – and they are my primary audience, not a bunch of gear heads (who I do like by the way).
2. Delivery options – This is where I had to be honest with myself. At this point in my career, I am not delivering pieces to get transferred to film and displayed in theaters. This year only about 10% of my work was for broadcast television where it gets displayed in 1080i. Almost all of my work is either delivered through the web (the majority through vimeo’s embedded player which is at 720p) or downconverted to SD for DVD delivery (we’re still several years away from the average corporate client wanting BluRay.) There is no way I need HD uncompressed. In fact, that would only make my life more difficult.
3. Form factor – I am one of the people that actually prefers the smaller camera for a good amount of situations (as long as it’s equipped with something like the Z-finder). It’s unobtrusive, subtle and easy to pack away. My main complaint is that getting shots from the hip (which I like to do a lot with my Canon HDV camera) is really hard without a tilt screen.
But there are issues the first being cost. People look at the 5d or 7d and forget that there is probably another 1-3K that you need to spend on lenses, audio gear and media. Not quite as affordable as it appears.
And then there is work flow. Having to convert all the files to an editable format is taxing, especially when some jobs are based on my ability to do a quick turnaround.
I still use my traditional video camera for all sorts of things, especially interviews and corporate work. But the 5d is creeping up in terms of percentage of use. One or two more generations of development and I think it’s pretty close to being my primary camera.
