Rudy Pohl
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 Re: Canon video thread for hybrid shooters... | |
I hope this was OK to do, but I took the liberty of providing some relevant info about what I do when it comes to wildlife video and how and why I do it.
Why I do wildlife videos.
Ever since I was 5 years old I have always loved being in nature and have always been fascinated by wildlife. Nature programs on TV were my favourite shows and David Attenborough's programs were at the top of my list. My passion for nature led me to do an undergraduate degree in Science (Biology) and various other pursuits along the way.
Photo-video background.
I bought my first SLR camera in 1970 and have been an avid photographer ever since. I began doing wildlife photography about 15 years ago and have loved every minute of it. I would place myself solidly in the "fanatic" camp.
Three-and-a-half years ago I felt I needed a new challenge and decided to give wildlife video a try with my Nikon D500 and the AF200-500/5.6 lens. Most things were good, but the lack of AF tracking eventually became a frustration. Seeing the dismal state of Nikon's AF tracking in their Z camera's for the previous 3-4 years I began to research other brands and in October 2022 I bought the Canon R5 and the RF100-500 lens. Since buying the R5 I have done 80% video and 20% still images.
Main Objectives
1 - When doing wildlife videos my main objectives are to shoot, edit and narrate my videos in such a way that they tell an interesting, engaging story about the subject(s)' life/lives and their behaviours. I'm essentially a story-teller, and I love David Attenborouh's presentations and in my own small, amateurish way I like to try to emulate his approach.
2 - To get the best possible image and audio quality that I can achieve with my current equipment and level of experience.
Main Priorities.
1 - Keeping things simple.
This is a guiding principle for me. For example, I did quite a bit of reading and personal hands-on research into the costs and benefits of shooting in Log verses in regular 8-bit. There's a lot to consider, but given my use cases I concluded that shooting in Log was not needed and not worth it for me, at least not while I was just learning the craft. If I were shooting people, where getting correct skin tones is essential, there's no question that I would shoot in Log. Also, if I were a pro and had to deliver video products to clients on high-quality media, as opposed to simply displaying my videos on youTube (which crunches the h*ll out of everything) and most people watch on smart phones anyway, I would shoot in Log. I used the same reasoning for why I shoot in 4K, but edit and export on a 1080p timeline.
(Update re Log: I've experimented somewhat with C-Log3 and I like the richer colours it seems to give rather than the straight 8-bit files and I think when I have some time this coming year I'll try to do more of it. One reason I haven't been using Log is because the free version of Resolve won't open Canon's Log files directly so I need to transcode all of them to Rec709 before editing. I just bought a 2TB SSD which makes this transcoding much faster, so I'm actually looking forward to doing more Log stuff.
Recent Update: I recently bought Davinci Resolve Studio at a great sale price and no shoot Canon C-log3 exclusively.)
2 - Keeping within my limited budget.
A modest, limited budget is without a doubt my most limiting factor. If I had more funds available I would, without hesitation, buy more and better stuff.
My Gear
Camera: Canon R5
Lenses: Canon RF100-500 L, RF200-800, RF50/1.8, RF1.4x (RF50/1.8 is great for B-roll and hand-held sloMo wide pans for establishing shots)
Camera mounted Mic: Rode VideoMicro (Advantages - cheap and doesn't need a separate battery - keepin' it simple)
T- mounting bracket for the mic. Puts the mic on the left side so it doesn't pick up lens noise.
Tripod - a super heavy and very tall Benro (I don't use the center post because of too much vibration)
Head - Manfrotto 502 AH (wish list - Sachtler high quality system)
Mic for recording narrations: I use a Samson Q2U Dynamic USB Microphone. It's inexpensive and picks up only your voice and not all the other ambient sounds in your room so you don't have to hang sound-dampening stuff all over your walls and ceiling.
Editing
I've been using Davinci Resolve (free version) for 2 1/2 years. I spend about 20 hours a week working in it and I love it. (Before retiring a few years ago, my wife and I owned a small digital design company for almost 30 years. For 3 of those years we did corporate videos for clients and I used Adobe Premier Pro).
My computer:
Is a Dell XPS 8950 PC, Intel i7-12700 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB graphics card, 32 GB Ram (to be updated to 62GB RAM), 3TB SSDs, 2TB Sata HD.
My machine can edit 4K video on a 4k timeline but it labours a bit doing so. I have a much more pleasant editing experience if I edit and export my 4K footage on a 1080p timeline and it still looks half-decent when youTube is done with it. If I had the funds I would buy a honkin'- big/fast Mac system and a gorgeous 4K monitor, but I have to keep reminding myself that wildlife video for me is just a hobby.
(Update: February 10, 2025 - I did some upgrades to my computer and am now editing and exporting in 4K. Also recently bought a good quality 4K monitor.) 
Video Formats
Like some of you have written above I fell in love with the 4K120 format the minute I saw it and it was one of the reasons I chose the R5.
I have my 3 video custom settings set this way:
C1 - 4K30 Fine (used when I'm close enough to the subject and it's not too windy - yields stunning image quality).
C2 - 4K60 crop (gives x1.6 extra effective reach, is down-sampled from 5.1K so it yields good quality, is used when subject is distant).
C3 - 4K120 (In addition to awesome slow-motion it smooths out wind shakes and jiggles so I use it on very windy days, it's also great for hand held shooting. Also 4K120 can be slowed down even further in post to emulate 240fps super-sloMo).
I edit on a 30fps timeline because that works well with all 3 formats listed above.
Audio Recording:
As everybody knows, I'm sure, getting decent audio recording conditions for outdoor wildlife videos is darn near impossible. Between wind noises, nearby people talking, dogs barking, kids crying, planes, trains and automobiles there's always something screwing up your audio. It becomes essential to learn how to edit, rehabilitate and enhance your audio track in post. I use a free audio editor called Audacity that does a great job, plus I use the powerful suite of audio-editing tools in Davinci Resolve, which are terrific. I've also built up a collection of bird and wildlife sounds relevant to my area around Ottawa that I use as Foley sounds when needed. When recording in 4K120, which doesn't record audio in the R5 (bummer), I try to remember to do some recording of the scene in a different video format in order to get the audio, and later I strip it out in Resolve and use that audio track under my 4K120 footage on the timeline.
Music:
Music for me is an important part of the overall audio-visual experience I am hoping to create. I use a variety of free music websites and keep a collection of good music on my hard drive for repeated use.
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Again, please excuse all the extra verbiage, it's just that I'm guessing people are going to want to ask me why I don't shoot in Log and why I don't edit and export in 4K and I thought I'd provide the answers up front.
Thanks again artsupreme for starting this thread.
Cheers, 
Rudy
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