# Canon EOS Rebel T3i Video Test



## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Feb 27, 2011)

I did a quick video test using my new Canon Rebel T3i with a IGUS Drylin Camera Slider. I used iMovie'09 to put the clips together.

My write up here...

http://www.chadsorianophotoblog.com/2011/02/canon-eos-rebel-t3i-video-test.html

My video test on Youtube here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1sdYizvEUs&hd=1


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Feb 28, 2011)

*FYI...I just created a .plist file solution for T3i in E-1 Movie plugin for FCP*






I modified the .plist camera file in the Canon E-1 Movie plugin for Final Cut Pro users out there. I posted this screen grab so one can copy and paste the code.

I posted a link in my PhotoBlog post here for my step by step instructions on the discussion forum of DVinfo.net here...

http://www.chadsorianophotoblog.com/2011/02/canon-eos-rebel-t3i-video-test.html

Good Luck!


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Mar 1, 2011)

*Canon Rebel T3i Digital Zoom Video Test update...*

I just posted another Rebel T3i Video Test using the 3x-10x Digital Zoom at 1080p resolution. It looks great but it tests the quality of your glass, most definitely.

I posted the T3i/600D video test here on Youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnAm6F0MsD4&hd=1

thanks


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## pgabor (Mar 1, 2011)

Thank you! I really looked for it. Its seems pretty decent till about 5x, after that its really all about the lens. Maybe its still looks awesome at 10x with the high end super teles or with the new 70-200 f2.8 

Can you do a test for us about the the rolling shutter? For example u use a 50mm lens and the 100 macro, and test with 2x50 vs 100 and 10x50 vs 5x100, and individual test with the 50mm from 3-10. I don't want to look exigent, these are just recommendations  but i think we all will be very glad if you can do this for us and the community.

If the rolling shutter gets better (it has to) it will be a huge thing, imagine that you want to record a fast game (football or f1 or something else) u just put on your 17-55, set it to 25mm, and go for a 8-10x, image quality will remain pretty good because it uses only the sweet spot of the sweet spot, and u get almost no rolling shutter. It would be a dream come true.

Thank you again for your effort!


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## Admin US West (Mar 1, 2011)

pgabor said:


> If the rolling shutter gets better (it has to) it will be a huge thing, imagine that you want to record a fast game (football or f1 or something else) u just put on your 17-55, set it to 25mm, and go for a 8-10x, image quality will remain pretty good because it uses only the sweet spot of the sweet spot, and u get almost no rolling shutter. It would be a dream come true.
> 
> Thank you again for your effort!



Remember, you have no autofocus, so recording games like football, basketball, etc will be manual focus. Rolling shuttter will be far from your worst problem.


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## pgabor (Mar 1, 2011)

scalesusa said:


> Remember, you have no autofocus, so recording games like football, basketball, etc will be manual focus. Rolling shuttter will be far from your worst problem.



You are right, i was wrong about the unpredictable games (almost every team game), but for example in formula one, u know exactly where the car will go, and you have bright sunlight, u easily can go up to around f11 (over that, diffraction will effect your shot much more cause you are in zoom mode), with what you get a pretty usable DOF even if you are at 500mm. Or set your focus at a fix position, and wait for the car, at 5x zoom, it will still look awesome  Or gymnastics (bars or pommel horse) where the subject moves only in a small area.

Or a better example: If you want a fast action shot in your short movie, u take the 10-22, set it to around 15mm, go for a 3x-5x zoom, and BAM you get a much better, and a much more correctable rolling shutter (i don't say that it will disappear, cause it wont, but you will be able to fix it easily.

Another interesting question, that can you do a 10x zoom with a apsc sensor without a true digital zoom? Till around 3-5x im pretty sure, its just narrows the area of the sampling, but can you go up to 10x without true digital zoom? Someone should do the math, to see, what is the zoom setting, when you use exactly a 1920x1080 area. I don't think that its over 10x, so around the 8-10x settings maybe its a true digital zoom (when the cameras just blow up your images, for example every cellphone uses this method, but there bunch of other gadgets what do the same)


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Mar 2, 2011)

pgabor,

I see what you are describing with the 50mm and 100mm comparison in digital zoom to minimize the effects of rolling shutter. I welcome any suggestions to help other people out video advice. Not only do you have manual focusing issues in digital zoom, you actually have to depress two buttons on camera (Disp+ zoom button) at the same time to increase or decrease magnification. Not very practical and almost requires full time use of a tripod.
The digital zoom would be advantageous shooting a NASA Space Shuttle launch 12 miles away or a Moon eclipse with a 400mm with a 1.6x crop at 10x. That would be like 6400mm.

As for your true resolution at 10x, my unscientific opinion says the T3i digital zoom is cropping the 18mp CMOS sensor to get you closer to the subject. A 1080p image is about 2 megapixels, so the camera has much cropping room to allow decent resolution. I am not that technically gifted to figure out all the interpolation and extrapolation going on in the sensor. If somebody out there could educate me or lead me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.

thanks


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## Admin US West (Mar 2, 2011)

pgabor said:


> You are right, i was wrong about the unpredictable games (almost every team game), but for example in formula one, u know exactly where the car will go, and you have bright sunlight, u easily can go up to around f11 (over that, diffraction will effect your shot much more cause you are in zoom mode), with what you get a pretty usable DOF even if you are at 500mm. Or set your focus at a fix position, and wait for the car, at 5x zoom, it will still look awesome  Or gymnastics (bars or pommel horse) where the subject moves only in a small area.
> 
> Or a better example: If you want a fast action shot in your short movie, u take the 10-22, set it to around 15mm, go for a 3x-5x zoom, and BAM you get a much better, and a much more correctable rolling shutter (i don't say that it will disappear, cause it wont, but you will be able to fix it easily.
> 
> Another interesting question, that can you do a 10x zoom with a apsc sensor without a true digital zoom? Till around 3-5x im pretty sure, its just narrows the area of the sampling, but can you go up to 10x without true digital zoom? Someone should do the math, to see, what is the zoom setting, when you use exactly a 1920x1080 area. I don't think that its over 10x, so around the 8-10x settings maybe its a true digital zoom (when the cameras just blow up your images, for example every cellphone uses this method, but there bunch of other gadgets what do the same)



Show us with some of your work when you have it ready. so far, no one has been able to do this well. Just using a wide angle lens and planting the camera unmoving is pretty boring. A camcorder that will track a subject makes for more interest in my opinion, but I can be convinced if I see someone actually make something interesting. Use of digital zoom is going to reduce the quality to cancorder quality in any event. It just uses a tiny center portion of the sensor, so it becomes similar to a camcorder sensor but more expensive.


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## pgabor (Mar 2, 2011)

The conversation factor for the smaller sensor comes from the ratio of the bigger sensor's diagonal size divided with the smaller sensor diagonal size. For example: an APS-C sensor is approximately 22 x 15mm. Its diagonal is about 26.6mm. The diagonal of a full 35mm frame is about 43.3mm. Dividing 43.3 by 26.6 gives a lens conversion factor of 1.6x for APS-C. (based on canon whitepaper: http://nikondigital.org/articles/canon_fullframe_whitepaper.pdf)

In this case, we only have pixel count, but its enough, because we only need their relative ratio, what you can get from the pixel count, because a pixel's size is the same on the full 18mpx part of the sensor and the cropped, fullHD part of the sensor. So: The resolution of the 600D: 5184x3456, but is 3:2 so in 16:9 it becomes 5184x2916, its diagonal is about 5948 "pixel". For the fullHD crop, 1920x1080's diagonal is about 2203 "pixel". So what conversation factor comes out from this? Its 5948/2203 = 2.7 (Its equal to 5184/1920, so i don't know canon why uses this diagonal thing anyway...) So, it seems that even the 3x zoom is true digital zoom and not a crop! Its a little bit surprising, but in fact, i barely can see any quality difference between actual size and 5x zoom, so canon manage this quite good. But its good to know that even 3x zoom is digital a little bit (the crop is up sized to fullHD)


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## pgabor (Mar 2, 2011)

scalesusa said:


> Show us with some of your work when you have it ready. so far, no one has been able to do this well. Just using a wide angle lens and planting the camera unmoving is pretty boring. A camcorder that will track a subject makes for more interest in my opinion, but I can be convinced if I see someone actually make something interesting. Use of digital zoom is going to reduce the quality to cancorder quality in any event. It just uses a tiny center portion of the sensor, so it becomes similar to a camcorder sensor but more expensive.



I never said that you should use it professionally, that's why its a DSLR and not a video camera, i never said that you can get even or better result then using a dedicated video camera (its better maximum in image quality, but not in functionality) but its a nice option to have. And i don't think that thinking about what it is capable of will hurt anybody


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## Admin US West (Mar 2, 2011)

pgabor said:


> I never said that you should use it professionally, that's why its a DSLR and not a video camera, i never said that you can get even or better result then using a dedicated video camera (its better maximum in image quality, but not in functionality) but its a nice option to have. And i don't think that thinking about what it is capable of will hurt anybody



I was not trying to put you down, I was merely trying to help you with your hope that it could be used for fast sporting events, I would not want to encourage someone to spend a lot of money and then end up disappointed. 

You are certainly welcome to buy one and try, but when you make all these claims, you should post some of your videos to back it up. That would be awsome if you can do really those things.

Good luck, I certainly wish you a lot of fun and enjoyment from your hobby. It will be a good learning opportunity.


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## pgabor (Mar 2, 2011)

BTW I think the 3x is not 3x but only 2.7x, so they use a fullHD crop part of the sensor, and they use digital zoom on it, so the so called "3x" maybe a true crop, but everything bigger then this is digital (the reason for that its easier to get always the same sample and reprocess defined by the actual zoom setting then always doing an another type of crop, for example a 960x540 for the 6x setting)

What i want with this, that this answers the thing about the rolling shutter. If my theory is right, the rolling shutter effect wont change irrespectively of the zoom setting, cause the delay between two lines are constant, cause the outread speed and distance is constant irrespectively of the zoom setting. Its hard to explain in text, but i can draw a picture tomorrow.

But if the rolling shutter will be better in 10x mode then in 3x mode, then they cropping smaller parts then native fullHD, and blowing it up to fullHD resolution.


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## pgabor (Mar 2, 2011)

scalesusa said:


> I was not trying to put you down, I was merely trying to help you with your hope that it could be used for fast sporting events, I would not want to encourage someone to spend a lot of money and then end up disappointed.
> 
> You are certainly welcome to buy one and try, but when you make all these claims, you should post some of your videos to back it up. That would be awsome if you can do really those things.
> 
> Good luck, I certainly wish you a lot of fun and enjoyment from your hobby. It will be a good learning opportunity.



Sry for the trouble/insult, i see your point now. You just want to "save" others from buying DSLRs for video stuff, cause if they see here that they can shoot "football and f1 with it" they will buy if for that or for similar thing. For these guys: DONT BUY DSLR FOR VIDEO STUFF! Its an indie filmmaker tool, not a video camera.


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Mar 2, 2011)

*My Canon Rebel T3i Practical Review*






I finally completed my practical review of the T3i on my PhotoBlog here...

http://www.chadsorianophotoblog.com/2011/03/canon-eos-rebel-t3i-verdict-and-video.html

My video test featuring the 3x-10x digital zoom here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnAm6F0MsD4&hd=1


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## DuLt (Mar 2, 2011)

*Re: My Canon Rebel T3i Practical Review*



ChadSorianoPhotoBlog said:


> I finally completed my practical review of the T3i on my PhotoBlog here...
> 
> http://www.chadsorianophotoblog.com/2011/03/canon-eos-rebel-t3i-verdict-and-video.html
> 
> ...



Escuse me but does the zoom feature start only at 3x?


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Mar 2, 2011)

Yes, the zoom feature only starts at 3x and the only resolution using this feature is 1080p at 30p or 24p. On top of that, you must hold down the "disp" button at the same time you press the plus or minus index buttons to zoom. Not very practical and requires a use of tripod.


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## DuLt (Mar 2, 2011)

ChadSorianoPhotoBlog said:


> Yes, the zoom feature only starts at 3x and the only resolution using this feature is 1080p at 30p or 24p. On top of that, you must hold down the "disp" button at the same time you press the plus or minus index buttons to zoom. Not very practical and requires a use of tripod.



No 640x480?


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## Somchai (Mar 2, 2011)

Great review & information!! Thanks


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Mar 3, 2011)

DuLt said:


> ChadSorianoPhotoBlog said:
> 
> 
> > Yes, the zoom feature only starts at 3x and the only resolution using this feature is 1080p at 30p or 24p. On top of that, you must hold down the "disp" button at the same time you press the plus or minus index buttons to zoom. Not very practical and requires a use of tripod.
> ...



DuLt,
Unfortunately, the new digital zoom is only in 1080p 30p or 24p mode. I was kind of disappointed that 720p 60fps was not included. Of course, Canon will have that feature in the Rebel T4i exactly one year from now.


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Mar 3, 2011)

Somchai said:


> Great review & information!! Thanks



Somchai,

You are very welcome!


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## Admin US West (Mar 3, 2011)

Somchai said:


> Great review & information!! Thanks



I'll second that. Its nice to have a member join and start contributing to the forum.


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Mar 4, 2011)

scalesusa said:


> Somchai said:
> 
> 
> > Great review & information!! Thanks
> ...



scalesusa,

thank you for the compliment!


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## ChadSorianoPhotoBlog (Mar 21, 2011)

*Rebel T3i Digital Zoom Video of the Supermoon*







Here is my second Canon EOS Rebel T3i Digital Zoom Video Test of the Supermoon on Saturday night.

My PhotoBlog write up here...

http://www.chadsorianophotoblog.com/2011/03/canon-eos-rebel-t3i-digital-zoom-video.html

My Supermoon 1080p video on my Youtube channel here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5EMmnP-mp8&hd=1


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