Canon Rebel T2i as Backup Video Camera
During the quiet hours of my morning while drinking coffee, I check my Google Alerts, read my email, check the RSS feeds, drop by my favorite sites and start thinking about my first article of the day. Today, I started wondering if a Canon Rebel T2i is a good investment as a second or backup camera for video and/or stills. It makes total sense to me to have an inexpensive backup camera that accepts all of the same lenses and accessories as the main camera so I started digging to see what I could find out. The first site I came to is personal site written by Adobe evangelist Karl Soule’ called Rebel Shooters. The article that caught my eye is “Does the Rebel T2i shoot “Professional-Quality” video?”. Karl makes the following point which is along the same lines that I was thinking:
Right now, my Rebel rig is in the sub-$2000 realm, and it’s the best camera I’ve had in that price point. The cost and the capabilities will go up as I buy more glass for it, but the great part about that is the glass will come with me if a better camera comes out. I can use $2000 glass on my little $799 camera today, and as I’m making money, I have the option to upgrade.
He links to a very in depth article on XDCAM-User.com that does some side by side comparisons of the T2i and the Sony EX1. The authors conclusions aren’t very flattering for DSLR video:
I was hoping to be able to use the 550D as a B camera for those situations where I need a small, discreet camera, but having seen the pictures, so far, for me it will be reserved for holidays and shooting where you not supposed to video and for shoots where supper shallow DoF is essential. I have to say I’m really disappointed, I wanted this camera to be so much better, I knew it would suffer from aliasing, but I wasn’t expecting the soft pictures, I guess some will say that the softness adds to the filmic look, but I’d much rather do that with some nice pro-mists or filtration in post production rather than starting out with soft pictures.
and
f you want my opinion, then it has to be that the Canon’s are close, but still a mile away. The aliasing issue is a biggie. Sort it out and the skew, jello and overheating can be worked around, but if you have to worry about simply having a piece of wood in focus and whether it’s going to exhibit rainbows of colour or whether cobble stones will twitter and change colour (At 00.35 and this is from Canon) then it will limit what you can do.
It seems the article on XDCAM started a lively discussion among videographers who make their living shooting motion. These kinds of discussions are great but should be taken in context. High end video professionals, producing televised HD content with expensive gear, may not be the audience for HDSLR cameras. The trade-offs might be to many to justify incorporating these small inexpensive cameras into their workflow just because it is fashionable. That being said, I think HDSLR really proved itself the other night on the season finale of House MD on Fox. I watched this episode on my 50″ LCD television and was really blown away. The camera/cinematography was seamless with the story and never got in the way or felt like it was an extra player on the screen (like 3D).
The technology isn’t perfect but the ability to shoot high quality video with a motion picture film look at sub $2000 price-points, has opened the floodgates of creativity for the masses – professionals as well as consumers. To create, one has to be creative, and these small cameras have really inspired a lot of people to create video.
I don’t know about you, but I have shot some great images with toy cameras, cell phones and using development processes that degrade the analog film. There have been whole art movements built around shooting video with kids toys that shoot video onto standard audio cassette tapes. What it comes down to is that it’s the person, not the equipment that creates great imagery.
Back to my original premise, I would have no problem using a Canon T2i as a backup video camera or second camera to shoot behind-the-scenes footage whether my main camera is an HDSLR, or a pro video cam. I would also add that I wouldn’t hesitate shooting trade show floor footage or interviews for the web with the Rebel as a primary camera since it produces content that is on par with cameras that cost 10 times as much. Yes there are better tools for pro video work but this camera is no slouch and the price lowers the barrier to entry for shooting professional looking video.
Keep in mind that the internet itself has lowered people’s expectations for video by feeding the masses a steady diet of crappy, low rez, pixelated video that stutters and takes forever to load. Even HD video on Vimeo and Youtube is compressed, trading efficiency of delivery for quality. Choose the right tool for the job and take into consideration where and how your video content will be seen. My recent experiment shooting iPhone video coverage at NAB 2010 is a good example of content over quality. I put together a Redrock Micro support rig, Litepanels LED light and a microphone in order to get quick coverage up on the web without any post work on site. The videos are only OK, and the sound is sub par (I didn’t have the right adapters for my shotgun mic) but content is king and over 20,000 people have watched those videos in the month since NAB.
I guess what I am saying is to be careful about getting hung up on the having the “best” gear for the job. Choose whatever piece of kit that will get you off the couch and out shooting. The more you shoot the better you get, and oh yeah, don’t forget a backup camera like the Canon T2i Rebel.
