Tag: hddslr

Cheap DSLR Audio – The Azden WLX-PRO

Opening the box for this thing was like swirling in a Hot Tub Time Machine. I was directly taken back to Radio Shack of the 1990’s. Plastic, large sliding buttons and a FM antenna.


So why bother with this $130 wireless system? Most people know they need a Sennheiser EW100 as at least a baseline wireless system. But now in 2011, many people are buying DSLR cameras for video and spending less than $300 for excellent video cameras that have terrrible audio. Most first inclinations are to add a completely useless shotgun to the top of the camera.
Even if this system isn’t the greatest, it’s still 100x more useful than tiny shotgun 7 feet away from your talent.

So how does it fare? For the price, it is certainly usable for web work. The line output is fairly low, but most of these DSLRs have AGC so it’s probably not going to matter. It captures a very compressed and bass-y version of the human voice, but for no budget run and gun style web videos I could see it being perfectly adequate. No, its not going to work over long distances. No, its not going to work with any other interference in the area, but it is going to work better than the built in mic on your dslr and it will work better than a silly shotgun sitting on top of the camera.

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Canon 7D, 60D and t2i Video Zoom recommendation list


Going back to October 2009, I released a recommended zoom list for the Canon 7D. Here is the 2010 Update for all of the Canon crop cameras

Wide:
Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX
Tokina
Why: Still the best wide-angle constant aperture zoom lens
Why not: Hard to find in EOS Mount


Normal:
Tamron 17-50 VC f/2.8 XR Di-II VC LD Aspherical (IF)
Tamron
Why: Great Price with rebate right now, not limited by EF-S mount for future camera use (reason why Canon 17-55 is not recommended, though it is a better lens)
Why not: Varying build quality from lens to lens
Alternate: Purchase without VC to save a few dollars



Telephoto:
Budget
Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 II EX DC HSM Lens
Sigma 50-150
Why: Lens is just as sharp as 70-200 for video, great price for a 2.8 constant aperture telephoto zoom lens
Why not: No Image stabilization

Better
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Canon
Why: Classic lens that has been superseded by the newest version of the 70-200. IS works very well. EOS mount means that you wont be limited by camera body choice in the future
Why not: Expensive for just video purposes



Maybe we will have a few more choices next year, but for this year, the picks remain the same. When the next next 5D has a crop mode, you will be thanking me that you didn’t purchase any Canon native EF-S lenses, as the lenses above will all work perfectly on a cropped full frame sensor.

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