New in my Studio – HD Video Recording w/ Canon EOS 600d

I’m so excited to announce I’ve just set up an HD Video Recording System for my Recording Studio with my new Canon 600d Camera. As a trailer, take a look at the video of Fernando Sor’s beautiful Study Op. 6 n. 11! Enjoy watching the video and listening to the music. Just make sure to select HD video playback (1080p) and watch Full-Screen! If interested you can continue reading about the recording setup, editing and the studio’s vision for the future!

Recording Audio/Video

I’ve recorded this simple multicam HD experiment with more or less no DSLR skills, only slightly tweaked camera settings and no professional lighting. I recorded audio first with my trusted Michael Joly modded Oktava Mk-012 Microphones in Stereo AB Configuration (shoot me an email if interested in details), did some basic processing in Logic Pro 9 (EQ and Reverb, no Compression though) and started shooting video from 3 different angles, along with audio playback for easier post-synchronization in Final Cut Pro X.

The Canon 600d was set-up as follows:

Shutter speed: 1/50 s

ISO: 400

Aperture: f/5.6

Picture Style: Neutral + set Enhance: minimum, Contrast: minimum, Saturation: -2 (according to Philip Bloom‘s Vimeo Tutorial on shooting video on a DSLR)

Resolution and Frame rate: 1080p (HD), 25 fps.

For the lighting I used my normal Studio Halogen lights, and since the light was not as soft and neutral as I wanted it to be, I added a simple China Lantern from IKEA alongside them (Tip as seen as on this Vimeo tutorial).

Issues I’ve come across

Issue: Choppy video playback in FCPX

Solution: Preferences > Playback > Use Original or Optimized Media > Select “Better Performance” as Video Quality. This way, my over 4-year-old Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook can handle all the processing and video editing suddenly becomes smooth as butter! Bingo.

—

Issue: No Canon Software (EOS Utility) support for OS X Lion

Solution: Some users have reported a simple down-grading of EOS Utility to version 2.8.1 has sorted out the problem. I, however, am unable to connect my camera that way, so I’ll just have to wait for Canon’s next software update (publicly announced to happen in the first quarter of 2012). Why is this so important? Because EOS Utility has been so far the only way to load custom Color Profiles onto your camera (read in the next paragraph).

Plans and Vision for the future

Short-term plans: To educate myself about DSLR Photography, Video Shooting and Lighting as well as continue improving in the audio domain. In the next few month, I will be adding several custom cinematographic Color Profile onto my camera, namely Technicolor’s CineStyle, Cineplus’ Cinema Picture Style as well as Marvel’s Cine (read this tutorial if interested).

My wish for the future is to make amazing looking footage accompanied with highest quality audio (whether on location or in my Studio), especially in the field of classical and world music. In the past few years YouTube has been flooded with vague musical performances and low quality video & audio content. Although the recent technological development and social media has provided us all with great opportunities to share our videos with the world, this has inevitably led to an overall-increased noise. Besides, the time we (users) spend online has become increasingly valuable. To sum up, I’d like to take advantage of everything written and provide only video content of highest grade to be able to compete with the rest while also giving back to the internet and music community.