D5100 or 550D for video.

akcron

akcron

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Hi all.
I am asking this for a friend who wishes to get a DSLR, he has no computer access at the moment so i said i would ask you folks for advice.
He has been to the shop and held both the Nikon D5100 and Cannon 550D and both are the correct price for him and he likes both.
He want of course to take good photos but also wants to be able to get great results from video, he likes both models as he wants to use an external mic.
He asked if he could get any users views on the good and bad points of both models for video usage please.

Thanks for any help:thumbs:
 
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550D is the better choice for video.
 
I wouldn't use any Nikon camera for video. Don't they use MJPEG compression?
 
550d is a great choice for both stills and video, if his budget can stretch the 60d with the flip out lcd screen is a good buy. Magic Lantern, a firmware update for all video users is only available for canons as well.
 
Thanks for all the ideas.
I think the Magic Lantern software has made an impression on him and is really looking into the 550D and maybe the 600 now.

Thanks again Folks.:)
 
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The latest incarnation of Magic Lantern installed in the 550D is a fun thing and even safer to install now.
 
ohara said:
I wouldn't use any Nikon camera for video. Don't they use MJPEG compression?
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Nikons use H264 compression just the same as most other manufacturers - that said, given the choice again I would have brought a Canon 550D
 
I have a D7000 for video, which image wise is one of the best if not the best video DSLRs however Canon have a lot more experience in video and so there DSLRs are supported more by manufacturers etc making accessories. If I had the choice and was starting soley for video I would go for a canon (most probably the 7D or 5d Mk2)
 
jacob12_1993 said:
I think they are fairly evenly matched straight from the box but the canons ability to use magic lantern etc gives it a few pluses, however either will produce good video if you know how to control them

Jake
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The canon is far better for video- it has full manual control and useful frame rates i.e. 60/50fps. These are fundamental to shooting video if you want to avoid limitations being placed on what you can shoot.

Nikons laughable video strategy means the D5100 has neither. At least they have ditched their MJPEG deployment though it took them long enough to work that one out.

I'd like nothing better than for Nikon to sort their video implementation out but sadly they seem more interested in building some rather pointless lenses but that's another story;)
 
Dr_O said:
The canon is far better for video- it has full manual control and useful frame rates i.e. 60/50fps. These are fundamental to shooting video if you want to avoid limitations being placed on what you can shoot.

Nikons laughable video strategy means the D5100 has neither. At least they have ditched their MJPEG deployment though it took them long enough to work that one out.

I'd like nothing better than for Nikon to sort their video implementation out but sadly they seem more interested in building some rather pointless lenses but that's another story;)
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I'm not so sure, many people have said that the D7000 video is on par with what canon offers at the moment straight out of the box. However Canon still has the magic lantern advantage :razz:
 
Canon is king here and by a long, long way. Which annoys me, I want to move to Nikon. I hate white lenses passionately.

It's not just magic latnern that gives Canon the advantage, heck Vincent Laforet does not even use the magic lantern firmware which surprised me.

Canon's superiority is down to the bit rate that Canon have, which is far superior to Nikon's offerings thus far though I do think they've improved things with the D7K it's still lagging behind. With better bit rate you get less compression and thus less artifacts when doing any post processing, you can simply push the files out of a Canon much more than that out of a Nikon.

And then there's the issue of frame rate, with a Canon you can do 24, 25 and 30fps at 1080p and then 50/60 a 720p. With even the D7K you're stuck on 24 for 1080p, which might not seem significant until you take into consideration that the broadcast standard in the EU is 25fps. And I don't think there's a Nikon yet that does 60fps?

Either way, Canon are the one here with the most experience in video and it clearly shows. A lot of my video buddies do use Nikon primes with their Canon video rigs however...
 
jacob12_1993 said:
I'm not so sure, many people have said that the D7000 video is on par with what canon offers at the moment straight out of the box. However Canon still has the magic lantern advantage :razz:
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Canon all the way! Best budget option is the 550D closely followed by the 600D. If you are feeling flush then the 5D mkII will give lovely low light footage and nice shallow depth of field. I wouldn't touch any current Nikon for video work, as has been said the frame rate is wrong for a start. Canon just gives so many more options and control over what you are shooting.
 
CSB said:
Canon all the way! Best budget option is the 550D closely followed by the 600D. If you are feeling flush then the 5D mkII will give lovely low light footage and nice shallow depth of field. I wouldn't touch any current Nikon for video work, as has been said the frame rate is wrong for a start. Canon just gives so many more options and control over what you are shooting.
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I agree that using Nikon requires quite a few work around to get the same result but I wouldn't go as far as saying I wouldn't touch one. I am going to be shooting a documentary next year on my D7000. The audio will be recorded through a zoom h4n/tascam dr100 so the audio levels thing becomes useless for me. I will also be using a Zacuto EVF which offers all the magic lantern features and more. So if you know what you are doing, you can still shoot excellent work on either. However the frame rate thing is debatable for the UK/Europe. The majority of cinema films are shot at 24p. It requires a 4% speed up to hit 25p which is undetectable to the normal person without the original for comparison. :thumbs:
 
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jacob12_1993 said:
The majority of cinema films are shot at 24p. It requires a 4% speed up to hit 25p which is undetectable to the normal person without the original for comparison. :thumbs:
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Film as in 35mm film (or 16mm) is shot at 24 fps, but videos will be shot at the frame rate required for the region it is going to be broadcast in (either PAL or NTSC neither which is 24 fps). If you already have a nikon for stills then by all means use it for video if you want to. However, if you are buying a DSLR for video then you will be limiting yourself by choosing a nikon, the Canons are far superior because of the frame rate options and higher bit rate video (double that of the D7000).
 
Thanks for all the advice.
My friend bought the 550d and also a 50mm F1.8.

I must say i am very impressed with it, both the photo and video quality are great and the price of the 50mm was amazing.

I may even give up my Nikon only thoughts when i upgrade:thinking:

He is not going to try the Magic Lantern software until he gets used to it, and when he gets his new comp up and running don't be surprised if he bugs you all to death lol.

Thanks again.
 
akcron said:
Thanks for all the advice.
My friend bought the 550d and also a 50mm F1.8.

I must say i am very impressed with it, both the photo and video quality are great and the price of the 50mm was amazing.

I may even give up my Nikon only thoughts when i upgrade:thinking:

He is not going to try the Magic Lantern software until he gets used to it, and when he gets his new comp up and running don't be surprised if he bugs you all to death lol.

Thanks again.
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Excellent result- the 50mm is very good but care needs to be taken as they can be a bit fragile due to the cost cutting around build quality but hey, you can't have it all.

Anyone who's serious about DSLR video uses Canon unless they are being paid to do otherwise- of course, there are exceptions, I'm not denying that but lets keep it simple:D. You can get perfectly good video footage from a Nikon for certain things but that's not what we were discussing- we were looking at what's best for video and that answer was/is not Nikon.
Using video on a DSLR is all about manual control so a lot of Nikon users including myself use a Canon body and novoflex adapter to attach Nikon lenses. It's a pain in some respects having two bodies from different brands but in terms of how you would capture video it's not an issue so always an option for you.

If you buy Nikon for video you're just limiting yourself with the type of things you can film- for example, straight off you can't over-crank and although you could argue you can get round it with software this just causes other issues with the quality of the footage. The list of cons for Nikon video is just too big and it's clear the board just haven't grasped video yet- they really did make a total mess of implementing it and it was disappointing the D7000 didn't change that.

Having said all that, a video camera is still where it's at- I was having a laugh with a BBC camerman last week about a guy with a fully rigged shoulder mounted DSLR who had lost all agility and had made it so awkward to use you just thought wrong tool. Maybe you had to be there:lol:
 
Dr_O said:
Having said all that, a video camera is still where it's at- I was having a laugh with a BBC camerman last week about a guy with a fully rigged shoulder mounted DSLR who had lost all agility and had made it so awkward to use you just thought wrong tool. Maybe you had to be there:lol:
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I think its a phase people go through. Yes the shallow depth of field is nice but the ergonomics are all wrong. I have both a DSLR and a HD video camera, when I have to film something serious, the video camera is always the tool I reach for.
 
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