A parachute, a stiff breeze, a death defying drop off and the will to conquer it. All in a days play for a paraglider. . .boy does it look fun!
Exquisite cerulean skies played host to a stiff breeze on Sunday. Blowing straight in off the fathomless blue of the pacific, it was smacking straight into Point Cartwright at the perfect speed from the perfect direction. The Paragliders knew it was going to be a perfect day when I rocked up to Point Cartwright on Saturday afternoon to shoot the sunset and caught them packing up. Enrico, a young italian guy with a ready smile was kind enough to take my phone number and let me know when they were heading down the next day.
When I received the call, it was all hands on deck, battlestations, game on, and a couple of other cliché’s I can’t think of right now. I grabbed up the 7D, lenses, a fleccie and the HVX with the shotgun mic and jumped in the car and sped down there (within the speed limit and obeying all the road rules) as quick as I could.
I didn’t go into it with a plan really, I was just trying to get nice shots, enough make a quick cut and hopefully get a couple of real crackers to keep for the future. I did know that I wanted it to be pretty mellow, relaxing and convey the fun that these guys were having. My god, did it look like fun! I was so jealous watching these guys just soaring across the sky, up and down the point. It’s not cheap though, apparently you’re looking at around $8-10K to get set up. It would want to be fun for that much! 
I used the usual lenses for this, the Sigma 30mm f1.4 was great for the handheld stuff. Alot more stable in the hand than the 500D too. Still got to watch that rolling shutter though. The depth of this lens really allows for some nice bokeh effects at decent distances. I really like that about it. You don’t have to cram your subject right up against the camera to get some depth. The shot of the old people watching the paragliders from the seat shows that to good effect. They were quite a distance away and shot wide open @ f1.4.
The Tokina performed wonderfully, as usual (albeit without the autofocus ability) and was great for my wides. I didn’t use it for much else as all the action was pretty far away.
Now the 75-300, I know it’s not a great lens. Heck, it isn’t even a good lens, but I am consistently surprised at the image quality of the video it captures. It was fantastic this day, all though it did get a little bit of it’s wind wobble, I had it moving so much it didn’t seem to bother it a lot. Manually tracking focus on these guys as they were moving was pretty hard but with practise you quickly get better. It’s not ideal, but hey, what else can you do. . .Get me a follow focus! That’s what I can do! (All in good time, Christian! )
The 50mm 1.8 II worked nicely for some hand held stuff, but it didn’t make the cut here. There is still quite a bit of footage left over, it just didn’t seem to work with the track and the feel I was going for. With a higher energy cut, it would get some airtime, but here it just wouldn’t have worked.
The 7D was a joy to shoot with! It didn’t overheat at all, even though it was going pretty much flat out with it for the two hours I was there and I was in full Queensland sun. I’ll write more about the camera in a later post.
I want to thank all the guys who helped out, let me poke camera’s in their faces and were genuinely nice, decent and great to be around. Enrico, George, Ryan, thanks a bunch guys and I hope we get to shoot again real soon. Next stop, the hinterland!
More soon. . .
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Great stuff, especially the blue blue ocean. You mentioned a Tokina. What sorta lens? Thanks.
Hey Daniel,
Thanks for the feedback mate!
The Tokina is an 11-16 f2.8. Great lens for the 7D video mode, just got to watch the autofocus if you use it.
Great report! And very promising video
did you use some filters?
Hey Andr,
I used a circular polariser on most every shot. Pretty much whenever I shoot outdoors the Polariser is on. Cuts glare and makes colours pop.
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Great shots, man- must have been difficult to track focus as you say. I’m curious- do you use an eyepiece for the LCD such as the Zacuto Zfinder or Hoodman Loupe?
Cheers Jesse!
No I don’t use an eyepiece. I sure would like one, though! I hear they’re great!
all the vids look lovely man, are you getting much of the aliasing or moire that others complain about? The red canopy seemed to exhibit some. Did this get a full on grade or just a tweak of the curves? were the interviews recorded from the in body mic? Again great job keep em coming.
Hey Dave,
Thanks very much mate!
The aliasing on the 7D is definitely apparent in some shots. It’s well reported on the web and there sure are a lot of people complaining about it. It’s inherent in all of the Canon cameras, due to them skipping lines when they read the sensor or something (don’t quote me on that though, I’m not as much of a tech head as I’d like to be!). Do I see it? Sure I do, and when I do, I don’t like it. But would a broadcast audience Joe Punter recognise it? Definitely not.
In my opinion it’s acceptable. I know it’s there and there are ways to shoot to avoid it, but I feel that the benefits of the format far outweigh the drawbacks. The fact that my HVX has been relegated to shooting interviews and most of the time just recording audio that I can run underneath the main interview shot from the 7D, really is a testament to the quality of video coming out of these camera’s.
I’d say the Red canopy looked a bit weird because of the colour space more than anything else. 4:2:0 is no good for red on a coloured or black background. It’s almost like the DV days. You have to be careful with that combo.
As far as the colours are concerned, there was no grading done at all on any of the shots. All colours were achieved in camera. I love a grade as good as the next guy, but if I can get it nice in camera, happy days!
Thanks for stopping by!
Christian
Sorry I just re-read the intro about the mic on the hvx. Are you over cranking any of these shots for slomo? How much footage do you get on each card?
I didn’t shoot any slo-mo in the paragliding clip. It was moving slow enough as it was, so I just stuck to real time.
I haven’t filled a card yet, so I don’t know how much you get. I would ‘guess’ that you’d get around 40 mins of full HD to a 16gb card. If I fill one, I’ll let you know!
Hi Christian, planetMitch from planet5D here, would it be ok if I borrow your video and some of your text on this post for a post on planet5D? (Didn’t find a way to email you here)
Great video, nice colors and very well put together. What is the name of the song in the video? Thanks
Hey Philip,
Thanks mate! The song is just a pre-made loop from an audio program I use. Sorry I can’t be more help there. . .
Christian
That looks like so much fun!
Nice Vid. Found it through planet5D. Just received my Canon 7D 4 days ago. Shot a few stills, no video yet. My very first SLR cam, so reading the manual. Quite a different animal than the 3-chip prosumer JVC and Canon vidcams I’ve been using. I live in Northern California where we can get some great outdoor shots too. Your video has stoked and inspired me. Thanks, mate.
Awesome! Stoked and inspired! That’s fantastic! You’ll love your 7D mate! You will have so much more fun shooting the 7D than any prosumer video cam! Make sure you throw us a link to your videos when you start putting them up!
Nice Vid!
What’s the music?
Hey Herve,
Thanks for stopping by. See answer above re: music.
Christian, first saw this clip at vimeo. Seeing this video makes me want to buy the 7D. I’ve never shot HD before. I’ve done stuff with an Ikegami, a Betacam SX, and some miniDV stuff, but still no HD. It’s time I jump on the bandwagon. What type of tripod are you using? Also, is that the same tripod you use for your other shot in the Hinterland? The one with the slow smooth pans. I’ve been thinking about wanting to shoot DSLR, but one of my concerns is the idea of using a small tripod. I like big sticks with a long arm. I love the ultra telephoto locked down shot of the ocean where one of the paragliders drifts into the frame from the bottom. Beautiful.
Hey David,
Thanks for the kind words mate!
Yeah HD is nice, but it is absolutely chewing through my drive space like nothing else!
I use a Manfrotto 503HDV Fluid Pan Head on Manfrotto 525MVB sticks. The sticks just arrived today though, i was using the 055XB’s, buy they started giving out. No wonder, they have been submerged in saltwater, beaten and battered over the last 2 years!
For video you’ve got to have a decent tripod. I take that thing everywhere!
Go out and buy your 7D and fresh tripod and get shooting!
I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. . .
Its amazing how with not even a pro setup you can achieve so much!!
Congrats on that dude!! It made want to go make films
Thanks Max. What do they say about the gear not making the movie? This stuff isn’t too different to what I was shooting on the 500D a couple of weeks ago, it’s just in full 1080 now.
You can make pretty pictures on anything. Don’t let the lack of an expensive camera stop you from getting out there and shooting!
Hi Christian !
such a lovely video ! Waow ! Congratulations !
being an old-fashioned lover of argentic, I’m finally close to fall in numeric univers. EOS 7D will be my next – and first – SLR !
For everyone, thanks to Shazam (must-app on every iPhone), the music is : Relvolving Door by Crazy Town (album : The Gift of Game), maybe an acoustic version…
keep going on, Christian ! I will try to follow your way, here in Switzerland !
Hey Gilles!
Thanks man, really appreciate that hey!
I’m sure you will be happy when you get your 7D. Make sure you let me know when you get some footage up!
Stay in touch!
Christian
Hey there Christian,
Not sure if there’s anything I can say that hasn’t already been said, beautiful images. I’m making a bit of a transition from stills to video (my 7d is in the mail on it’s way here right now) and am looking into video editing software, so I was just wondering what you use. I’m not looking for something crazy but I would like something that will allow me to take advantage of the different properties of the camera, i.e. different frame rates, etc., and look nice.
keep up the great work,
-Seth
Hey Seth,
Thanks for that mate!
I use Final Cut Studio to for editing and post.
My advice would be to skip the software aimed at beginner and do the hard yards learning something more full featured. Your learning curve may be steeper at the start, but it’s really not that difficult and once you have gotten used to cutting simple stuff, the tools to take it to the next level will be right there instead of you outgrowing something simple and having to move to a new program again. For a bit more info on what I use, check out here
Good luck with it all
LOVE this video, great job. Question I’m not familiar with the “circular polarizer”. Is there a specific one you recommend for the Canon 7D?
Hey Dirk! Thanks mate!
I use Hoya Circular Polarisers. I haven’t as yet coughed the big bucks for the Pro1D Multi Layered, super dooper awesome ones yet. To be honest unless I’m using the 100-400 at full telephoto, I can’t see any major difference in image quality by putting the polariser on.
Really diggin this video! As everyone else has said, the colors are just insane, very nice job! Can you tell me, are you shooting in full manual? If so, what kind of shutter speeds did you use for this video? Many have said to keep it around 1/50th for 24p or 1/125th for 60p. For me to try and run those speed in full daylight, I need to stack on some ND filters.
Again, great video, let’s see some more when you can!
Hey Mark! Thanks for the feedback mate!
I always shoot in full manual mode, but I know for certain that I didn’t pay much attention to the shutter speed. I don’t have any ND filters as of yet, and so I opt for shooting wide open most of the time at higher shutter speeds. Although this does rob the shot of ‘natural’ looking motion blur, I don’t mind so much.
I understand that there are certain ‘desireable’ shutter speeds for folks out there trying to emulate a more filmic look, but I am not one of those. Don’t get me wrong, I like motion blur as much as the next guy, but I’m not to squeamish about shooting normal action at 1/4000 if I have to either.
Use whatever works and looks good to you, I say!
Christian