Video recording for university lectures

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I'm a soon-to-be university graduate in maths, and I'll be moving soon to take up a faculty position at an American university. One of the things I always envisioned is to link up the classes I teach, with online video shorts, roughly 10 minutes in length each, which will cover standard problems. This would be similar to how some universities offer online lectures. However, these shorts would be shot and directed by myself. Calling it a 'short' would be too much, however.

Here are some things I'm looking for.

  1. Looks professional (well lit and including color correction and the standard post-processing)
  2. Fixed shooting (no zoom needed) at at least two angles (one head-on, while talking, and the other in front of some sort of whiteboard for the maths)
  3. Budget is approximately $5000-7000 USD to start with

Because I'm an amateur photographer (40D), I am thinking about going with a 5D Mk2. I won't be using the video outside of this work, so I don't see the point in getting a dedicated camcorder. I think if I couple this with the 85 mm f1.2 L lens, this should be fine. This would take me to about $5000, and then I could spend about $1000 on lighting, fabric, a whiteboard, and whatever. I'm unsure of what I'll need and the costs for lighting.

I've heard some people saying that $5000 (or even $10,000) is way too optimistic, but I've seen some really well shot video blogs on Youtube, and I can't imagine those people spending much more.

Down the line, I might need a smaller prime, like a 50 f1.2, but perhaps once I have something that looks great and is well received, I'll be able to recruit some departmental funding.

What do you guys think?
 
Theo Moore said:
I'm a soon-to-be university graduate in maths, and I'll be moving soon to take up a faculty position at an American university. One of the things I always envisioned is to link up the classes I teach, with online video shorts, roughly 10 minutes in length each, which will cover standard problems. This would be similar to how some universities offer online lectures. However, these shorts would be shot and directed by myself. Calling it a 'short' would be too much, however.

Here are some things I'm looking for.

  1. Looks professional (well lit and including color correction and the standard post-processing)
  2. Fixed shooting (no zoom needed) at at least two angles (one head-on, while talking, and the other in front of some sort of whiteboard for the maths)
  3. Budget is approximately $5000-7000 USD to start with

Because I'm an amateur photographer (40D), I am thinking about going with a 5D Mk2. I won't be using the video outside of this work, so I don't see the point in getting a dedicated camcorder. I think if I couple this with the 85 mm f1.2 L lens, this should be fine. This would take me to about $5000, and then I could spend about $1000 on lighting, fabric, a whiteboard, and whatever. I'm unsure of what I'll need and the costs for lighting.

I've heard some people saying that $5000 (or even $10,000) is way too optimistic, but I've seen some really well shot video blogs on Youtube, and I can't imagine those people spending much more.

Down the line, I might need a smaller prime, like a 50 f1.2, but perhaps once I have something that looks great and is well received, I'll be able to recruit some departmental funding.

What do you guys think?
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7D is cheaper and just as capable for the video that you want to produce. If the T2i or whatever they call it in the US has a mic input, that will be more than adequate too, or even without, will be plenty for second camera.
You don't need the 50 1.2 just for talking heads, 50 1.8 or 85 1.8 will do you fine. One longer and one wider angle would be good - a 28mm 2.8 (or say a tamron 1-50 2.8 to give you more versatility) and 85 1.8 would be a good combo.

People always underestimate the importance of good sound. You want to get a half decent lapel mic, and enough cable, or a wireless kit, that can connect it to your camera's audio input jack.

Think about your editing: do you use macs? if so, final cut pro is very easy to multiclip the dual angle video in, you just mark in at your clapperboard point (doesn't have to be an actual clapperboard, just clap your hands in shot on both cameras), and can then 'vision mix' the two video feeds together. Premiere pro can do it too apparently, if you use windows, though FCP is nicer ;)

For lighting, red head style kits are 'the standard', however they do get very very hot. For your use, a couple of comer 1800 LED video lights, one popped off the ceiling and another for background / rim would likely work - get them and a couple of manfrotto nano 001b stands to put them on.

If you want to have operated cameras, you need fluid head tripods. Manfrotto do packages of these designed for DV use, works well and is slightly overkill for dslrs, for only a couple hundred quid.



edit: one issue that you might have with SLRs is there is a max clip length on the canon slrs (afaik) of 12 minutes.
 
Thanks for the info, Dave.

itsdavedotnet said:
7D is cheaper and just as capable for the video that you want to produce.
Click to expand...

I didn't know about the 7D (I've been out of the loop since getting my 40D). Looking at things quickly on Google, it seems that you're right and a 70D would probably be a cheaper, and just as effective alternative.

One of the silly questions I have is whether, for video recording purposes, my 17-55 f2.8 and 10-22 f3.5-4.5 will be obsolete? I never hear about zoom lenses mentioned in video recording discussions---is this simply because they are considered too slow?

Perhaps using a 70D instead of a 5D will allow me to get some use of my EF-S lenses. However, I hate treading the middle-ground (between full and crop sensor cameras). Some days I wish I'd started with the full and stuck with it.

You don't need the 50 1.2 just for talking heads, 50 1.8 or 85 1.8 will do you fine. One longer and one wider angle would be good - a 28mm 2.
8 and 85 1.8 would be a good combo.
Click to expand...

I would assume 85mm on a 1.6mm crop would be too close. I know that the 85 f1.2L is considered the best lens for portraitures on a 5D, so would that mean that a 50 f1.2L would be the best lens for the same application on a 7D?

My experience with lenses is that I've always been slightly unhappy with buying a 'lower' model, which is why I thought it'd be best to jump in straight with the L lenses. However, I guess I'll have to do a little bit more research into the the f1.2 vs. f1.4 vs. f1.8 issue.

Generally, what is the required f-stop for video recording in studio lighting? Is 2.8 too slow? Perhaps the best thing for me to do would be to purchase a 70D first, and experiment with my 17-55 f2.8...

People always underestimate the importance of good sound. You want to get a half decent lapel mic, and enough cable, or a wireless kit, that can connect it to your camera's audio input jack.

Think about your editing: do you use macs? if so, final cut pro is very easy to multiclip the dual angle video in, you just mark in at your clapperboard point (doesn't have to be an actual clapperboard, just clap your hands in shot on both cameras), and can then 'vision mix' the two video feeds together. Premiere pro can do it too apparently, if you use windows, though FCP is nicer ;)
Click to expand...

Noted. Thanks. I do work with Macs.

For lighting, red head style kits are 'the standard', however they do get very very hot. For your use, a couple of comer 1800 LED video lights, one popped off the ceiling and another for background / rim would likely work - get them and a couple of manfrotto nano 001b stands to put them on.
Click to expand...

What kind of costs am I looking at for the lighting? I guess with three LED video lights, that would come out to be around $1500?
 
your 17-55 2.8 will be great for video on the 7D, 2.8 will be fine and you'll need to be around there to get sufficient depth of field for your face anyway. Nice and flexible. video SLRs have got good low light performance, and most definitely adequate for shooting indoors lit with a few LED lights at f4 or f5.6, for web delivery.

yes, 85 may be a bit too long - depends what kind of shot you want, and how much space you've got to work in really. A 50 1.8 or 1.4 may be a better bet, and the 50 1.8 is dead cheap (think $100) and very sharp.

as for the lighting, I'm no video lighting expert really, can do the basics but not much more.

I'd suggest that you go and ask the same questions over at dvxuser and cinema5d forums, both are geared up towards video by some very good guys, they will be able to help you much better than I am about the lighting setup. However, bear in mind that both they in normal use are after a wide range of interview setups, or cinematography in short or even feature films, so their opinions may not be suitable for what you presumably want in your setup, being a relatively simple to put together setup that looks good.
 
I own the 7D and am pretty happy with how it deals with video. If you plan to use the camera outside this project, I can only recommend it. Otherwise, I would go for the Rebel 550D (T2i) which will provide similar video results but is less rugged.

Concerning the lenses, you don’t need such fast primes for what you plan on filming. If you were to film details at a wedding it would be a different question.

The 17-55 f/2.8 would be great for the whiteboard angle and you would probably even stop it down a little to increase sharpness.
For the head shot, it really depends on how much space you will have to work with and whether you will be move around or not. If you are not sitting down you will find that even changing your balance or slightly leaning forward or backwards will get you out of focus on a 50mm 1.2. I encourage you to play with the 17-55 and see how this will look.

When I shoot videos with my 7D, I mostly use a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 on a steadycam because I like to get a lot of objects out of focus and the lens is small enough for the steadycam (see http://www.vimeo.com/11287754). I don't think that this setup is most appropriate for you though.

I also experimented with a head-shot with the 7D and the 100mm f/2.8 (see http://www.vimeo.com/8652979) but I am not particularly fond of the result.

The mic is critical to the overall quality of the video. There are some examples on the web on how different microphones perform (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc03RYIRkl8)
The sound recording of camera is not the greatest. I would recommend you go with a lav mic and a stand-alone portable sound recorder. It should be pretty straight-forward to sync this with the sound recorded by the camera in post-processing.

A good tripod is something to consider as well. The 7D is a bit heavy and depending on the lens, this can put quite a lot of stress on the tripod. The Manfrotto 190XB legs with a standard head sould be fine for fixed shooting.

Good luck with your project and don’t forget to show us how it turns out.
 
For an education video like you have mentioned I think you will have a hard time with getting enough depth of field using DSLRs to record video. I cant help thinking you would be better off with a couple of high end consumer camcorders like the Canon Legria HFS21 HD Camcorder.
 
I am sure a 300-400 pound HD video camera with a mic attached to it would do the job. Why overcomplicate the problem?
 
7D looks like a good bet. there's more DoF with crop cameras too which can help you.
7D & the 17-55 looks a great combo and add a couple of lights, a good video tripod and external mic system and you would be good to go (for a lot less than your budget probably)!
 
hsuffyan said:
I am sure a 300-400 pound HD video camera with a mic attached to it would do the job. Why overcomplicate the problem?
Click to expand...

That is a good point right enough! Bought a Canon HF10 a while back and is very nice.
 
itsdavedotnet said:
People always underestimate the importance of good sound. You want to get a half decent lapel mic, and enough cable, or a wireless kit, that can connect it to your camera's audio input jack.
Click to expand...

just an alert here, using the input mic on the 7d doesn't get you great sound. The gain on the mic input is a real issue and you'll need to run it through a background filter to remove the hiss.

I'd recommend recording the sound separately if you want real quality sound without the extra work involved in removing the gain
 
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