Tech Blog: The limitations of the Canon 7d

The Canon 7d is an amazing piece of camera equipment. The most important thing to remember about it is that it is a still camera that happens to shoot video. The image quality is amazing and the glass you can use with it is unmatched in many regards.

When approached to shoot No Lands Too Foreign on the Canon 7d, I was absolutely content with it. It's small size and my collection of canon 35mm glass would allow me to shoot some amazing stuff. What was unexpected though was the run and gun style documentary filmmaking that I did not take into account and the fact that we are not using the standard documentary filmmaking approach, we are only two people. I am the entire production side of things. I am my own first AC, Production Sound, and Operator. There is no production team other than 1 producer in San Francisco helping us. There is no advance team to scout ahead of us nor is there any secondary unit to pick up B roll for us behind us. Similar documentary's have done small teams however with significantly higher value equipment.

Here is a list of pro's and con's with the equipment thus far:

Pro
-Amazing image quality
-Use of Canon Glass
- Use in Low light situations
-can be very discrete with no steadicam/shotgun mic (most think i'm taking pictures)
-color correction ability when shooting flatter images
-Price
- extremely light to most other video cameras

Cons

-Battery Life
-Price of cards (though comparable to sxs or p2)
-Lack of Xlr inputs (ACG within 7d is awful) and the necessity of separate recorder
-h.264 conversion to prores (6 times the original size)
- No zebras or exposure aids (you have to eyeball everything) - the light meter settings can be adjusted but you should research how each takes its readings

Note: I know there are firmware hacks for the 7d (magic lantern) for zebras and audio level monitors however unless released by canon, I do not consider these stable platforms to rely on for a full production documentary or unless tested by myself first.

The FD EF mount converter for my FD lenses will be shipped from the states within the next week or so and I will have an extensive review of that.