The Long Telegram

Working with digital SLR cameras for video is a constant balancing act, a trade-off between the control and depth of field you get from the Canons and the Nikons of the world versus the fact that this is not, in fact, a video camera.

The best (maybe only) manual can be found on Vimeo, where people are posting  breathtaking short documentaries, montages and generally beautiful work. The name of the game is to watch what they do and to copy them relentlessly.

I’m offering up my favorites in three blog posts sorted by genre.

Up first, travel montages play to all the strengths of dSLRs and gloss over the weaknesses. They generally don’t use sound, a typical weakness of the camera unless you go all Frankenstein on it. And they allow the videographer to think like a photographer, capturing beautiful travel stills that happen to be in motion.

Khalid Mohtaseb – Egypt/Lebanon Montage

This montage is here for two reasons: the color grading is the best I’ve ever seen and I have no idea how to replicate it. The pop to the moving dolly shots is mind-blowing. Also, the clarity of the footage is pretty incredible. Not sure what this guy’s transcode workflow is, but he’s got it right. On the newsier side, check out his video from Haiti.

Ivan Vania – a journey through asia

This one does well despite being shot pretty much entirely handheld. That probably helped in getting all the great motion shots.  Also, it really shows what you can get out of fixed lenses.

Ami Vitale – Indian Culture

Ami Vitale’s montage is an ad for the Nikon D300S. While it didn’t work on me, the result is an awesome mix of shots and techniques. The water shots are unbelievably sharp and evocative, and the time lapse footage is some of the best I’ve seen. There are a few things I saw that made me decide to invest in a dSLR rig, and this is definitely one of them.

Gunnar Konradsson – Iceland

If I ever had any doubts about whether it was worth the effort to schlep around a tripod, this video dispelled them. Also, it’s Iceland.

Dan Chung – China’s 60th Anniversary National Day

Mr. Chung is one of the most prominent photographers doing news videos with dSLRs. He has lots of great videos here. This one is particularly cool because he’s melding footage from three cameras shot at different frame rates and with different techniques. The result is pretty hypnotic.