Event DV by Sara Frances

Attention Fusion still/video shooters: The honeymoon with so-called "bokeh art" is over. The harsh facts have been revealed. Working with the new generation of HD video-capable still cameras is just plain hard—many times it's frustrating beyond belief for the videographer wanting to take advantage of the buzz and technological edge. These "first born" supertechie cameras are just a year old and haven't grown up enough to let you in on their secrets.

This is the first column in a series aimed squarely at alleviating user panic and at getting the Fusion equipment babies trained and ready to work for you. Please note that I'll be writing only about shooting; transcoding the H.264 delivery format and the concerns of postproduction are other subjects entirely and will not be discussed here.

Trouble in Paradise
Starting off, we must stipulate that Canon introduced HD video capability for spot news reporters and war correspondents who need to make short clips completely ready for broadcast upload. But interest was obviously not limited to the news-gathering crowd. Not only did indie filmmakers instantly ask the 5D Mark II out for a first artistic date, but they fell in love with the beautiful capture. So have studios that film commercial business identity shorts, web clips, product demos, client testimonials, weddings, and events. That's when the problems started jumping out to bite the hands that so quickly embraced the admittedly gorgeous images and low-light capability read more...