What happened to the video enthusiast of old....?

[BushmanOrig]

Moderators pls keep this post on this page.....

The reason I requested this post to stay on this forum is my question is aimed at photographers on this forum using M43 cameras and ignoring that annoying RED button on the camera... I am going for 60 and I remember my grandfather many years back, he was also a photography enthusiast and so my father. They both spend hours in-home dark rooms and I recall those image editing sessions were totally different from Photoshop...

Then I recall those movie nights when the family gathered for image slides and home movies... Don't know how many of you recall those days, sitting as a small boy or girl next to the projector stand, the noise of the film projector, smoke-filled room.... watching the never-ending videos of seawater and waves, or never-ending videos of the garden and my grandmother's beautiful flower gardens... My grandfather would "edit" his own videos using scissors and all sorts of gadgets.... it took hours to prepare and edit the final production... No 4K or 10-bit Cinema capability or blurring the background..... and yes, those guys were always ready for any event or wedding if somebody asked...

And here we are, we own amazing equipment capable of producing television-quality documentaries and only a small percentage dare take the chance to try video recording. What happened to the hour's seawater, waves, grandchildren playing, those amazing gardens....?

Why did the enthusiasm for video or homemade movies seemingly die a tragic death?

My wife had one of these permanently with her....we have boxes full of videos of the children growing up...

What will make you start recording videos?

11 May Update:- I wrote a short article to help those interested with the basic steps to take videos with Olympus and to edit them with WorkSpace

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[Bob T]

Early 2000s I went down the video rabbit hole. Did a lot of stuff, mostly amateur, but a little paid stuff. Ended up replacing a $3.4K Panny HMC-150, sometime around 2008 or 9, with a GH2, due to size. The video was darn good, and it was way easier to carry. But here is what happened...The GH2 took nice photos also, and I rediscovered photography after a 15 year break. Who knew....

In the mean time, everybody with a cell phone started flooding the world with videos, and basically drowned out us non-professionals...(And some professionals, I am sure)

Still dabble in video occasionally, and still use Vegas as my NLE, but nothing beyond a facebook post or two.

 

[BushmanOrig]

In the mean time, everybody with a cell phone started flooding the world with videos, and basically drowned out us non-professionals...(And some professionals, I am sure)

I recall the biggest obstacles I had was video editing. It's easy to press that big RED button on the camera but what after? As you said, instead we see a flood of poor quality junk uploaded all over the web, in most cases video material with little or no creative intent...

If we could simplify the video taking experience with your OMD.....will we see more creative and interesting video material reach the web?

What triggered my thought process was seeing Canon releasing a new camera with 8K Pro-Ress RAW at something like 10-Bit...... how many readers have any idea what they promoting or will you ever need 8K..... What if I told you that 720p or 1080p are in most cases more than many of us will ever need....

 

[Bushboy]

I had a Panasonic video camera!
It recorded to small video cassettes. It was very cool. Cost a fortune!
On my Olympus, I hit that red movie button quite often. But you know, movie is much more difficult than stills. Editing movie is not easy for me. I have played with iMovie heaps of times, but can’t seem to get the hang of it... darn it!

 

[BushmanOrig]

I hit that red movie button quite often. Editing movie is not easy for me. I have played with iMovie heaps of times, but can’t seem to get the hang of it... darn it!

That's fair and its 100% correct that movie editing can seem completely overwhelming to most of us... I am working on a article I started months back and I hope to get it done in a week or so... Interesting subject on focussing and lens selection...

I was thinking about a next project and thought it might be interesting to folks to learn more about video with OMD cameras... Start something like a series of short articles from the start to editing your own videos.... Would you guys be interested?

One of the ways I think could be interested is starting with what we have in the camera without having to edit. I think Instagram will be great for this. I could start with a short article on Instagram - how to prep images (edit, crop, sizing) for Instagram and how to make/upload short videos for Instagram....

Thing is if you thought taking images are fun....wait to you get hooked on filming... its really bad...

Here a small project I did with a very special group of guys.... Did it with my drone and my EM5 MKII.... no 4K or anything magic, I think forum pro's will walk away if they knew how we created the material for this movie... Some of the pics were taken with my then brand new EP1 with 17mm f2.8. I left my E3 at home....what a mistake....

 

[Bushboy]

Bring it on Bushman! Yes please!

 

[exakta]

My biggest obstacle is content. I haven't found enough stuff to shoot.

The only videos I've done so far with either my phone or my E-M10 have been musical performances. The hard part of that is finding a spot that has an unobstructed view of the performance but isn't obstructing the view of others. I've been pleasantly surprised with the built-in mikes, not going to win over any audiophiles but it's been surprisingly clear.

Of course, my opportunities to shoot have vanished due to the virus. I'll see about getting back into you when things open up.

 

[BushmanOrig]

My biggest obstacle is content. I haven't found enough stuff to shoot.

I fully understand. Personally I am more a technical guy than the greatest artist... That said I am blessed with a son that thinks in pictures and not in zero's and ones... The secret is to study gifted artist and to get ideas from watching them working. My son used to talk about going out for inspiration and I never really knew what he meant until I went with him...

You wanting to record a musical is exactly what I meant we do not see anymore. Imagine you had a 2nd camera at a different angle and you could combine the views into one video? This is one of those things making video so "creative" and exciting... getting an older GH2, G5, G6, EM10, EM1, EM10 II, LX100, EPL7 costs little and they perfect for the job...

See this amazingly interesting video.... thinking inspiration & new ideas.... See how he handles his camera, angles he shoots at plus plus.... Now picture this team 70 jr olds bending and crawling all over the place creating documentaries as granny makes hamburgers...

 

[BushmanOrig]

I am using Instagram myself. I have been educating myself on what else one can do on Instagram, especially in terms of video. To date, I only placed images on Instagram.

I have a few great ideas for how we can start getting back into video. To do that you need to have an Instagram account. Please go and open an account and get a few images up, follow others plus, plus... Very soon we will start our first video project...

For the interim, see my son on Instagram. He started something really interesting. He connects with somebody else in another country, then does a live photoshoot over Instagram. The next day he places the results on Instagram...

You will find him here

Now I tell you this to motivate you to get onto Instagram... the fun factor is HUGE and we can start a great thing on images & videos on Instagram...

Watch the space for more...

 

[BushmanOrig]

Hi

I trust you opened your Instagram account? Few viewers followed me on Instagram, thanks. I did my first video using the following:-

- Three cameras - EM1 II, Pen F, EM5 II (if you look carefully you will see the different views)
- I used all in 1080p at 25fps
- Set each camera at ISO800, color=Natural, Auto exp Mode-S with a shutter speed of 1/50
- I used WorkSpace to prepare 18 different "scenes" or cuts from the various recordings I made
- Used WorkSpace again to create the final movie (combine the 18 cuts)
- I had a LED light source for the complete movie
- I had several more videos, close-ups of the wheels, slow motion - I stopped building the movie at 3 minutes 30 seconds
- One could also build the sequences in the camera when doing simple events like a walk...
- Lenses used, Lumix 12-35mm f2.8, Olympus 12-50mm Kit lens (awesome lens), 60mm Macro lens for close-ups...

This is NOT perfect... but the intent was creating old-style movies as we knew as children. The creative bandwidth is endless, one can use ART filters, Monochrome, create unique opening & closing text, add music, or mix the sound from the movie with music plus...

This is the most friendly and exciting entry into movie making and it is HUGE fun...

The next step will be to upload the video to Instagram, which is possible...

I was thinking of writing something on my Blog with steps how-to and a few pics or a short video on how to work in WorkSpace but time might be a little difficult, are you OK to discuss or ask questions here?

This video tells you how to upload your video. I tried a 60-second version on my Instagram...

The movie was made in Switzerland - do not stop the first few seconds....let it play...

Best

 

[BushmanOrig]

Wow, guys, Olympus did an amazing job on video for those wanting to get back to easy to create home movies. What makes up a movie?

Its a collection of clips arranged and linked into a story. ​

Here some steps, how you can build your own movie:
1. Prepare your clips directly inside the camera
2. Arrange, select and build the story in WorkSpace
3. Prep an open and close text for your movie
3. Prepare a final audio file on you mobile, TV & home stereo and link in WS
4. Export final movie - upload to YouTube & Instagram

Here some tips to set up your camera for taking clips in the camera:
- The first step is to set up the camera movie format, see images below
- From the menu set up your camera (Step 1)
- Step 2, select "Movie Specification Settings" from Step 1 images
- Follow the images from left to right (Step 1 & 3)
- Now your camera is ready

Step 1

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Step 2

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Step 3

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The image on the right in the above sequence is key in creating your clips. You will go back to this screen again and again as you create your clips. With this screen you can:
- Select the time duration for each clip
- Select if the clip will be slow-mo or faster speed or normal speed
- You could even apply ART filters to individual clips

Set these settings on your camera:
- Set the shutter speed to 1/50 - (You selected S Mode in step 1)
- Set IBIS tp MS1
- You will need a variable ND filter out in the sunlight to control the exposure

What should you include in your short movies?
- Give an overview of the scene or activity you filming
- Do a close-up view
- Add an emotion moment

When back home you will download the clips and build the movie in WS...

I trust this will help those not knowing where to start... Keep in mind you can do much more in your camera and with WS

 

[mumu]

I'm sure there are more video makers today than back in the film days. Perhaps just not in your cohort. By way of comparison, growing up in the '60's, my Dad was one of the few people I knew that showed home movies and boy, they were terrible. The clips of family members were ok but anything else (vacations etc) were terrible. Nowadays, cinematic films can and have been recorded using smartphone cameras. My teens' videos are remarkably stable thanks to their built-in stabilizers and the phones also have pretty decent video editing apps, too. I'm in my late '50's and not many of my friends take the time to edit their video clips together nor are they particularly aware of camera pans and scene planning when shooting their video. It's all about capturing a video record of an event and nothing beyond that.

I got hooked on video when my compact digital cameras (such as the Canon A610 and Panasonic LXs) came equipped with decent video recording capability not long after our first kid was born. It was so convenient to have that vs. a tape-fed camcorder. What sealed the deal, though, was when I upgraded my Panasonic G1 to the GH2; I was stunned by the video quality and started shooting even more video. And to ensure there was no going back was my first GoPro. I found that video was a much better tool for conveying what snorkeling was like (we used to go to Hawaii a lot) and when I upgraded to a Sony X3000, I finally had a video recorder than produced decently stabilized footage even while walking! So for the past 7 yrs or so I've been documenting our travels with videos that include video and still photos and absolutely love doing that. It's a lot of work to edit it all but I get hours and hours of enjoyment from re-watching them. I also had a mid-life crisis last year and got back into dirt bikes after selling my last one as a teen! So that has provided another content stream for making videos. In fact, a couple of weeks ago I posted my first public Youtube videos (my travel videos are for family/friends only). I hope to record more dirt bike videos this summer, as soon as the shelter-in-place order is lifted (mainly waiting for my buddy to get his road license so we can hit some trails that will require some highway riding as well).

Here's a video I shot from a ride to a very cool mountain ridge at the end of last summer:

 

[mumu]

BTW I agree that Instagram is a fun app/tool for photographers. I get a lot of inspiration from following other photographers' work and having an Instagram acct motivates me to go out and shoot even when I'm not traveling. Since joining Instagram about 3-4 mos. ago, my street photography has improved a lot and I have a lot of ideas of how to photograph cities the next time I go somewhere.
https://www.instagram.com/all.these.moments.will.be.lost/channel/

 

[BushmanOrig]

BTW I agree that Instagram is a fun app/tool for photographers. I get a lot of inspiration from following other photographers' work and having an Instagram acct motivates me to go out and shoot even when I'm not traveling. Since joining Instagram about 3-4 mos. ago, my street photography has improved a lot and I have a lot of ideas of how to photograph cities the next time I go somewhere.
https://www.instagram.com/all.these.moments.will.be.lost/channel/

Hello, I followed you on Instagram. You a very brave man... in my best days, I would have walked away. Thanks for posting and showing the video. I was beginning to think the forum was sleeping, doing social distancing...

I am trying to remove the "fearful unknowns" like editing from filming with Olympus cameras. I am focussing on Olympus mainly because it's so simple to create and edit videos with these cameras and WorkSpace...

That is not to say there are no other options for movie making - like you who mastered these basics, as you say in your post when this bug bites....there is no end to movie-making...

 

[mumu]

Yes, learning the editing software can be difficult. Through my work, I get Adobe CC for free which is great but it also means that I had to learn a rather difficult bit of software rather than using something less expensive with more built-in/automated tools. Still, it has been worth the effort but unless you really enjoy video, I can see how that effort can scare people away.

 

[BushmanOrig]

Yes, learning the editing software can be difficult. Through my work, I get Adobe CC for free which is great but it also means that I had to learn a rather difficult bit of software rather than using something less expensive with more built-in/automated tools. Still, it has been worth the effort but unless you really enjoy video, I can see how that effort can scare people away.

I guess learning video editing software is as challenging as learning something like Photoshop. I think the difference is we forget how intense it was to change over from film photography and all of a sudden work with digital files. I recall I studied histograms for hours and it took me hours of practice to get to a point that I am comfortable with Photoshop.
I used mostly Adobe Premiere Elements to date but it hangs on my Mac and now I am learning Final Cut Pro...

But enough of that, back to the camera and WorkSpace - having played with the "Clips" function on the EM5 II it's becoming more interesting by the day. Olympus created something really interesting with the "Clips" function, that is easy to learn & use and it opens the camera to amazing creative video projects which almost anybody can try and do... Linked to WorkSpace and you enabled to enjoy a running start with your home movie-making...

 

[DefectiveMonk]

There are a whole host of things that keep me from video, the biggest probably being that I don't think I'd ever be good at it. There are so many things to think about with photography and then you have to go and add on a bunch of other considerations for video and it gets overwhelming. I also think the storage and editing rapidly become prohibitive.

I do video like some people do photography. Snapshots of cute stuff my kids do (which decreases every year they get older). I figure I have about 5 years of mobile phone videos in me and then I'm back to stills full time.

 

[jhawk1000]

I dabbled in video. I bought one of them VHS camcorder which was big, heavy, and not the greatest in quality. Drug it around Europe on several trips and did the normal "hey say something" videos of the kids. I then bought a video camera, much smaller which took the smaller tape cassette and did a great job of making the videos at least watchable through better quality. Once again, all over Europe and Scandinavia with this set up videoing everything that moved and some things that did not. I watched the videos maybe twice and now have no idea where the cassettes are located. Never learned editing nor did I or do I want to learn. I have enjoyed the pictures I took with the still camera to this day.

Scroll ahead many years, I buy the first camera which has decent, if somewhat archaic video capabilities, the Olympus EPL-1. I played with video and also played with video on a Panasonic G5 but it was confusing. The same thing though, I could care less about the video but still admire the still photos. My wife has been experimenting with video for her studio and has been using the EM-5ii with an external microphone and has been learning video editing. She is taking the time during this virus thing to actually try to learn to be more than a casual videographer. Tomorrow, she goes to work with a fellow who has high-quality drones and will be after us to buy one soon, I am sure.

I guess the reason I don't push that red button is that I know that I will not be interested in what it shows later but a photo will hold my attention for decades.

 

[BushmanOrig]

There are a whole host of things that keep me from video, the biggest probably being that I don't think I'd ever be good at it. There are so many things to think about with photography and then you have to go and add on a bunch of other considerations for video and it gets overwhelming. I also think the storage and editing rapidly become prohibitive.

I do video like some people do photography. Snapshots of cute stuff my kids do (which decreases every year they get older). I figure I have about 5 years of mobile phone videos in me and then I'm back to stills full time.

Nothing wrong taking predominantly pictures... is as much fun as doing both or mostly video... I did start with a step by step article...maybe it will make you try... The Olympus with WorkSpace is super easy and much fun...

I dabbled in video. I bought one of them VHS camcorder which was big, heavy, and not the greatest in quality. Drug it around Europe on several trips and did the normal "hey say something" videos of the kids. I then bought a video camera, much smaller which took the smaller tape cassette and did a great job of making the videos at least watchable through better quality. Once again, all over Europe and Scandinavia with this set up videoing everything that moved and some things that did not. I watched the videos maybe twice and now have no idea where the cassettes are located. Never learned editing nor did I or do I want to learn. I have enjoyed the pictures I took with the still camera to this day.

Scroll ahead many years, I buy the first camera which has decent, if somewhat archaic video capabilities, the Olympus EPL-1. I played with video and also played with video on a Panasonic G5 but it was confusing. The same thing though, I could care less about the video but still admire the still photos. My wife has been experimenting with video for her studio and has been using the EM-5ii with an external microphone and has been learning video editing. She is taking the time during this virus thing to actually try to learn to be more than a casual videographer. Tomorrow, she goes to work with a fellow who has high-quality drones and will be after us to buy one soon, I am sure.

I guess the reason I don't push that red button is that I know that I will not be interested in what it shows later but a photo will hold my attention for decades.

You right storing and editing can be a bit much... I have the same thing with my wife. She has her own scrapping blog and at one stage came to me and said she needs to start with video recordings. She has an EPL5, I set it up for her showed her to start iMovie and off she went. 3 weeks later she did her first video for her blog... I guess the ladies are specially gifted...

Like I said above I did start with a step by step article using an EM5 II. Hopefully it helps a few more guys have fun with filming...

Respect for dragging that gear through Europe... you must really like MFT cameras... ?

 

[mumu]

I dabbled in video. I bought one of them VHS camcorder which was big, heavy, and not the greatest in quality. Drug it around Europe on several trips and did the normal "hey say something" videos of the kids. I then bought a video camera, much smaller which took the smaller tape cassette and did a great job of making the videos at least watchable through better quality. Once again, all over Europe and Scandinavia with this set up videoing everything that moved and some things that did not. I watched the videos maybe twice and now have no idea where the cassettes are located. Never learned editing nor did I or do I want to learn. I have enjoyed the pictures I took with the still camera to this day.

Yeah, I've had less-than-stellar experiences with camcorders. Reliability has been uniformly poor and watching non-stabilized footage is literally nauseating for me. And I laughed at your "hey say something" remark because I've been guilty of that, too. It was also a burden to carry/manage a camcorder AND an SLR when traveling plus editing that tape into a decent video (not that I had any plans of doing that) would have required a lot of work and using very specialized equipment (eg: like a video mixer board).

Scroll ahead many years, I buy the first camera which has decent, if somewhat archaic video capabilities, the Olympus EPL-1. I played with video and also played with video on a Panasonic G5 but it was confusing. The same thing though, I could care less about the video but still admire the still photos. My wife has been experimenting with video for her studio and has been using the EM-5ii with an external microphone and has been learning video editing. She is taking the time during this virus thing to actually try to learn to be more than a casual videographer. Tomorrow, she goes to work with a fellow who has high-quality drones and will be after us to buy one soon, I am sure.

I guess the reason I don't push that red button is that I know that I will not be interested in what it shows later but a photo will hold my attention for decades.

For me, the fact that video was built-in to my camera and that it was already in an easy-to-edit and retrieve format (digital) were the keys for video suddenly being something that I could explore more deeply.