Not much work between Christmas and New Year. Well in Halifax it was kicking off!! Newly formed production company Shot & Chopped were shooting their latest commercial and only had one day to get it in the can.

Harry Sona, the director, wanted to a rig that would travel light yet perform well. They decided to opt for the Canon 7d with Zeiss SLR prime lenses.

This was my first job with the Canon 7d but was lucky enough to use it over Xmas....filming family...and what a camera!
I have to admit I was sceptical as to how these still/movie cameras can perform...it was a delight. Very easy-to-use menu buttons/pages....excellent screen. The Canon 7d really performed well.

Niggles...well yes. The lenses are designed for stills work and therefore the aperture is controlled from the camera dial...and noticeably click stops. No live histogram...which would be useful and camera screen and monitor can't work at the same time...it's either one or the other. "Proper" high quality sound has to be recorded independently...we used the Zoom H4N hand-held recorder.

But saying this...the results we achieved were fantastic.

This camera is great for lo-budget commercials, pop promos but not for documentaries where  situations continously change. I thought the results were so good I am tempted to recommend this camera for upcoming film to use for g/v's, and stings.

Also as a stills camera it is insanely good!

Canon 7d and Zoom H4N were supplied by central rental.