By Chris Blair
I just completed our first broadcast project using the Canon 60D and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Since the 60D is primarily designed as a still camera, I was initially skeptical about both the camera’s reliability and quality in a broadcast environment. But once I got used to the controls and became comfortable with the capabilities (and limitations) of the camera, I came away impressed.
Getting up to speed with the camera is really no different than adding any new piece of gear to your arsenal. Before our first shoot with the camera, we spent several hours experimenting with various cabling setups, mounting configurations and menu settings. Despite this, the first shoot was nonetheless nerve-racking. You just can’t reliably judge quality until you use a camera on a real project under real location pressure.
If you want proof that you can do broadcast work with the Canon 60D? Here are two spots recently shot with the camera for HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital.
Although there are definitely drawbacks to using the Canon 60D in the field, most notably monitoring audio and using multiple monitors for client viewing, the image quality is much better than I expected and there are affordable workarounds that overcome these limitations.
It also took a few shoots to develop a reliable post-shoot work-flow, but even that turned out to be less of a hassle than expected. Based on these experiences, I would cautiously recommend it to other professionals as a solid tool for professional work. Why the cautious recommendation? Mainly because I’ll have to use the camera over an extended period of time to judge it’s reliability and image quality to recommend it fully.
In addition, like any camera, the quality you get from the 60D is directly tied to the experience and knowledge of the camera operator. You can’t put it in the hands of an inexperienced or mediocre shooter and expect it to instantly improve their work. You still have to understand composition, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, focal lengths and how to work with various lenses.
The most surprising thing about the camera is that the choice of lens is probably more important than the camera itself. It reminds me of wireless microphones. Wireless transmitters are nothing more than two-way radios and the quality of audio from a wireless system is often more reliant on the quality of the microphone than the quality of the electronics. Another surprising thing is the dynamic range the camera has. You can easily shoot at 800 or 1600 ISO with little or no noticeable grain in your image. Of course, the lower you can keep the ISO, the better your images look, with no discernible grain at all.
And while I was extremely nervous about the audio limitations of the camera, we’ve recorded long interviews with it with absolutely no issues in quality or work-flow. It helps that the 60D has manual audio capability built in, but the camera’s biggest drawback is still the lack of a headphone jack. We’ve overcome that by using an ART 2-channel microphone pre-amp with left/right mono out to a Zoom H2 recorder. The H2 has a headphone jack and we then feed the 60D via the 1/8″ line out of the H2. It’s not exactly an elegant solution, but it works. Another solution we’re looking into is some of the new HDMI capable LCD field monitors that have headphone jacks built in. Sony came out with one recently, and Marshall is supposed to be coming out with one as well.
Only problem is I can’t seem to get anyone to confirm with any certainty whether the HDMI output from the 60D carries the audio signal. If it meets HDMI specs it certainly should, but I’ve been on forum after forum and seen conflicting answers to this question.
Speaking of LCD monitors, Marshall recently introduced a 7″ field monitor that has built in HDMI loop-through, which solves the problem of only being able to feed one monitor in the field. Up to this point, you had to use small HDMI splitters, which require power and add yet another intermediate device to your setup.
The biggest difference in using a DSLR compared to even a high-end EFP video camera is focusing. And I’m not talking about keeping a shot focused when the camera and subject are stationary, but keeping a shot in focus where either the camera or the subject is moving (or both). It takes practice and a steady hand. Having a follow focus mechanism is also a big help. We currently don’t have one but that’s the next item on my list of accessories.
I’ll post more later about the 60D since we’ll be using it this week to shoot a series of new TV spots for a regional healthcare company. These spots all involve actors and dialogue so we’ll be putting the 60D’s audio to the test yet again. We’re also renting a Manhattan 8.9″ LCD monitor and battery powered 1×2 HDMI splitter so we can use two monitors, one for camera monitoring (our 7″ ToteVision HD monitor) and one for client monitoring (the Manhattan LCD).