I purchased my first prime lens – the Canon 50mm 1.4f in December to experiment with more portrait photography. Love it. However, I find myself currently fascinated by the new infinite possibilities of videography with the 7D and more wide angled lens. I embarrassingly spend every spare moment I have watching beautifully captured short films on Vimeo and YouTube.

It seems I’m not the only one getting slowly sucked into the world of story telling though DSLR video, both Lisa Bettany and Cameron Moll are both bulking up on Canon kit and producing some great content. Not forgetting to mention this beautiful (albeit somewhat techy) video I found on YouTube about Patrick Murphy-Racey, a seasoned photographer experimenting with DLSR video with masterful results:

See the original video discussed in the clip above here.

Geek kit I’m after

Tokina ATX 116 PRO DX AF11-16mm F/2.8 Canon

An ultra-wide angle lens with a fast 2.8 aperture for better photography in low-light situations.

Rode Microphones VideoMic

The on-board Mic of the Canon 7d is very basic, with a directional shock-mounted mic you get far better audio without the body noise and low frequency rumble.

Litepanels Micro

Good lighting is a must for more professional looking videos, bringing a character to life without the unwanted shadows.

Steadicam Merlin

Offering light, agile, seamless shooting for today’s videographers. I’d love one of these one day, but it’ll have to wait for now as a seemingly basic piece of equipment like this costs a lot of money.

See some footage taken with the Tokina lens and a Steadicam Merlin here.

Zacuto Z-Finder

The Z-Finder is an Optical Viewfinder that allows DSLR cameras to have the correct form factor for video. The larger viewfinder allows you to ensure perfect manual focusing at all times.

Inspiration

• I’ve always been inspired by the multi-talented Hillman Curtis, an early flash designer, turned digital designer, turned film maker. Do yourself a video and watch some of his short films.
• More recently I discovered Philip Bloom – an evangelist of DSLR film-making who’s short films and DLSR video tutorials/reviews have influenced many. Even George Lucas is interested in Philip Bloom’s DLSR video skills and recently flew him over to discuss techniques for a new movie.
• VBS.TV – a great source of short films covering all sort of subjects. I’m sure some are shot on DSLRs.

Feedback

I’ve done a fair amount of research and hope to make some of these purchases soon, but would really appreciate some feedback from more seasoned Canon DSLR photographers. Also if there are any 7D short films you’ve seen and enjoyed please provide some link love below in the comments to feed my addiction :)

There is loads of discussion online about the Canon 5D Mark II vs the new Canon 7d, launched late September here in the UK. The big, noticeable difference that justifies the more expensive 5d is the full frame sensor vs the 7d crop sensor. Not sure about the difference – read this article. Apart from that though it seems the Canon 7d boasts some newer features that’s got 5d owners quite jealous.

Even Hitler…

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m definitely not going to try promote the 7d as a better camera than the 5d, but seeing I’m not a professional photographer and prefer my wildlife and sports to portrait and landscape photography I don’t necessarily need a full frame sensor.

Why the 7D? It has a dual processor, one specifically dedicated to dealing with noise reduction, an 18 mega pixel CMOS sensor, 100% view finder coverage, captures images at 8 frames per second, and has improved movie capturing facilities shooting beautiful full HD movies with options for 24 fps to create the cinematic feel that I can’t wait to play with. It also has a built-in flash, that the 5D lacks, meaning you need to carry a bulky flash wherever you go, OK for the pros, mission for us more amateur photographers.

I bought the camera with the 18-135 kit lens which compliments my 70-300 IS tele-lens very nicely and beats my old 350D kit lens hands down <puke>. It’s a lens that has a range that is hugely multi-functional and means less time inter-changing lens. Although I’m definitely still planning on getting a 50 or 60mm lens for them close ups.

More photos on Flickr

I’ve already had a play with the camera and the 24p HD video functionality this weekend at a local rugby match between Richmond and Henley, watch the movie on Vimeo in HD. Excuse the newbie no-no’s. Next time I’ll use a tripod.

I’m in love.

Today is a pretty exciting day for me and the Afrigator team as we can finally announce something that we have been working passionately towards for the past 2 years now – that being an investment partner who can help take Afrigator to the next level with a reach of a much bigger African audience.

MIH Print Africa, a division of Naspers, have secured a majority stake in Afrigator. The exciting news is that Justin and Stii will be relocating to a much trendier Cape Town (or as some prefer to call it Silicon Cape) working from the swanky new Afrigator headquarters with our first official employee, Product Manager Lester Hein, whilst Mike and myself will still be working very closely with the Afrigator team. Expect to see lots happening over the coming months.

Charl Norman got the scoop this morning and wrote a great post over on Bandwidth Blog. Also see the Afrigator blog for the official press release.

More News covering the acquisition:

MyBroadband – Naspers buys into Afrigator

BizCommunity – Naspers buys into Afrigator

ReadWriteWeb – African social media tracker gets acquired

To my team – I look forward to finally toasting to our success, in person, during my visit in late October. Congrats guys!

I’ve spent the past week painstakingly moving all my documents, files and folders, iTunes music, design applications and instant messenger tools across to my new love affair. All I need to do now is move my archived mail folders. Eeeek :(

A friend kindly offered to purchase my MacBook Pro in Singapore at a very good price. With 2GB of memory, an Intel Core Duo processor and a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce graphics card it’s like driving a Ferrari after driving a VW Caravelle for 2 years.

Up until recently I wasn’t convinced that a Mac was that much better for desktop publishing work, I’ve also thought of it as a bit of a status symbol. I was wrong. Apart from the power under the bonnet that handles the Adobe design suite much better, Mac OS X Leopard boasts some great intuitive features that are already saving me lots of time and helping me get far better organised.

What I am most chuffed with is in fact the Mac Book Pro screen, which boasts a “15.4-inch (diagonal) TFT LED backlit display with support for millions of color“. I am ashamed to think of what my eye’s have been put through on my LG screen, as it is known to be rather dark.

I am a 100% convinced my new Mac Book Pro will help me produce better designs in more vibrant colours.

P.S. I have found one dashboard widget, that is an absolute must have. I’m not going to say what it is, just point you to it. Trust me on this one though, this widget will come in handy when on a Skype voice chat to a your clients.