The T3i Saga

Chapter One

From my postings here, some of you might know I have a background in film & television. For many years I did almost everything in the industry except actual filming & editing, but now, like you, we’re all excited with the new possibilities FCPX is bringing us.

So I recently bought my first DSLR & a couple of lenses. As mentioned it’s the Canon T3i. Currently I’m in the learning phase, there are a ton of variables. Of course I hope to post a little video for you soon.

My first experiments were zooming, focussing, etc, then viewing the footage, & learning what was causing certain problems like automatic changes in aperture, video noise, etc.

So I get a call to go watch a friend perform in a Christmas concert on Saturday night. Not really feeling that keen to go, but since she had performed in a show I produced some years ago & I reasoned it might be a good opportunity to try the camera in a different setting, I went.

Immediately I knew I should have brought the longer lens. The place was packed & I didn’t have the best of seats. Still, I removed my lens cap, checked my settings & waited patiently thru the various acts. The first one that compelled me to fire up the beast was a group of deaf women performing Silent Night in sign language set to music, it was actually very moving. So I steadied the shot & began to film over the tops of audience heads, I’ll crop it later I figured.

Having played around with various digital cameras over the years, & lots of video (camcorders, tapes, etc), didn’t quite prepare me, the DSLR is a different animal. The main difference is that the shutter & the mirror which has to pop up out of the way when you start to film, both make noise. Did I mention this was in a church?

In most settings, the gentle click of a camera is fairly unobtrusive, but on this hallowed ground while deaf women were quietly performing a sacred hymn, the camera’s “KACHUNK” was like a gunshot. All my prior safeguards like dimming the LCD screen to try & remain discreet were pointless, as I could sense the nearby parishioners’ annoyance.

Right then I realized why bird watchers are always using such long lenses, because if they were any closer the timid creatures would be startled by the camera noise & fly the coop. I was in a tense situation. On a film set the stills photog has his camera in something called a “blimp,” which is like a big silencer. Now I was trying to imagine what settings could possibly mask the camera noise, the only two I could think of were, being at a Justin Bieber concert with 10,000 screaming preteen girls, or at a world cup soccer match where everyone was blaring vuvuzelas.

Fortunately the Silent Night performance was one of the quietest & only required two of my megaclicks for beginning & end. Next I thought I’d take some snapshots. There was a darling family in front of me & the mom went up to sing a song she’d written. The little ones were delighted & I was in the perfect position to get a beautiful shot, the loving husband with camcorder to his eye, little screen focused on his wife singing, it was tricky to get the focus just right & to decide on the main subject while experimenting with the depth of field. This entailed probably 5 shots. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the woman beside me tapping her fingers gleefully along with the song, but with each of my massive “KACHUNK”s, I noticed her hand spasm in shock. Then pause & get back into her rhythm, the DSLR was creating quite a disturbance & the growing tension was suppressing my creativity. You’d think with all the technological marvels in the world someone could invent a mirror movement that’s silent.

As the night progressed, the surrounding patience was wearing thin. With each new subject I focussed on I was catching stern looks I expect were normally reserved for abortion activists or Obama supporters. “Man!” I thought, “I’m just taking pictures.” Others were using flashes, but I might as well have been roasting a pig on a spit between the pews, or chanting the satanic verses thru a bullhorn.

Fortunately it was soon over, & everyone was all smiles & wishing me a Merry Christmas, one good thing about church folk, they are rather forgiving.

Another interesting side effect of using a DSLR, compared to the tiny compacts; an older woman approached me afterwards while I was chatting with my friend. She struck up a conversation pointing at the camera, assuming I must be a professional photographer. We found that amusing.

As with most things in life, there’re always some good aspects, & some less than desirable. Each piece of equipment, just like a person, has its strengths & weaknesses. Hopefully I’ll have something visually interesting to post soon.







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"...or chanting the satanic verses thru a bullhorn."

Um, no, when you do that, they all just leave, quite quickly too. Don't ask how I know that...

I find the physical form and noise of my 7D prohibitive for my nature shooting. It is loud, it is not as easy to focus, the limits are serious. Love the resolution, but the physical characteristics has be hanging on to my P2 cams for awhile longer.

Hehe... well we can't have people walking out.

Actually, the "satanic verses" is the novel by Salman Rushdie that some muslims found offensive, it's title refers to verses from the koran that some scholars view as inconsistencies. Either way, the recitation in a church would probably cause more confusion than exodus. Now that I think of it, roasting a pig in a place of worship also would only offend muslims or jews, & certainly not christians, whom I'm told are quite fond of large barbecues.

So the line of text didn't actually rely on logic or reason for the imagined offense, it was instead chosen for comedic value, the imagery of someone actually doing that in a church during a Christmas concert cracked me up when I wrote it.

But I will check out the camera you mentioned...

Thanks for playing along, Ben.