How often do you shoot video with your DSLR?

[JR]

With all the video capabilities of the EOS camera like the 7D, 60D, 1D4 or the 5Ds, how often do you shoot video compared to shooting still?  Are you using a seperate camcorder instead for your home movies?

I thought I would use the video feature much more on my 5D mkII but I ended up using video maybe 10% of the time versus 90% of time shooting still.  I find not always ideal to shoot with a DSLR due to manual focus and image stabilization (so need a tripod or monopod if your lens does not have IS for example).  When done right the result seem much better then my Sony camcorder, but more preparation needs to go into it which sometime prevents me from using it...(especially since I have mostly prime lenses...)

Thanks for sharing your habbits and tips...

[Isaac]

5% of the time however it is a nice added feature.

[Maui5150]

I generally forget it is even there.

[stringfellow1946]

Once in 2 years, I bought the 1DMk4  for taking photos NOT Video, a total waste of space & money for something I never use. I just wish Canon would separate the two formats completely. Ie if you want video then buy a video camera NOT A DSLR. By combining the two formats its just a POOR jack of all trades & master of NONE.   

[NormanBates]

my DSLR only shoots stills for use as custom white balance, and for lens tests; everything else is video, so I guess my answer is "100%"

edit: I'm sorry, no disrespect, and please don't take this badly, but I hate it when -usually uninformed- people say "if you want to shoot video just use a video camera" - most often they don't have a clue - did I tell them to use a point-and-shoot instead of their DSLR? because it's basically the same: tiny sensor, s___ty pictures

[awinphoto]

I rarely shoot video even though I really want to get more engrossed in it and learn more so I can offer it to my clients... the 7d's video really suffered on pans but my new 5d2 doesn't suffer as much as the 7d, even though the 7d has better still video image quality in the highlights... It's something I know I should do more of to advance in the industry, but it always falls off my radar. 

[RC]

Oh ya, I forgot, my 7D has a video mode.

[Dylan777]

I have 2 kids(3yrs & 9 months). My wife and I take them out in the weekend often.  I do use video on my 60d(2 - 5mins clip). I think having video features on camera is quite usefull for us, especially, we do not have a camcorder at this moment.

But again....using 60d as tool to take picture is our primary purpose.

[Freshprince08]

Oh ya, I forgot, my 7D has a video mode.

+1

Think I've used it once each on the 7D and 5Dii, just out of curiosity!

[Jim K]

Never and never on my old Minolta A2 bridge camera before I got a DSLR. Never on the Panasonic PnS I bought for my sister.

I keep meaning to try it out but never get around to it.

[Axilrod]

90% video/10% stills - I shoot live music all over the country usually the setup is:
5DII with 14L or 16-35L II as static cam
5DII with 85L or 135L on fluid head
7D with 35L or 50L on Shoulder rig
+$60k worth of audio gear = Pretty awesome quality
As much of a pain in the ass as these things can be to shoot with, the results speak for themselves.

[distant.star]

.
Perhaps you really can't teach new trickery to old dogs.

I'm doing the same amount of video with my DSLR today that I did in 1975 with my SLR.

A while back I spent about $100 for a Kodak Zi8 video camera. So far I've used it three or four times -- deer in the yard and such. It doesn't draw me the way stills do. When I see deer in the yard, my first thought is a choice between the 70-200 and the 100-400, then it's light and background and best place to be for best composition. Just pointing a vid camera at the subject doesn't challenge me the same way.

Maybe the "everyman video" brings back annoying childhood memories -- when half the fathers and uncles were aiming 8mm video cameras at kids at Christmas and birthdays and first bicycle, etc. Some had light banks that blinded everyone present. And then the inevitable Saturday night dragging out the projector and having to watch all this stuff over and over. "Watch what happens when I run it backwards and Jimmy comes up out of the pool and onto the diving board!"

Anyway, don't mean to hijack the thread, and no disrespect to so many people making amazing videos today -- I LOVE watching them. And if anyone wants to see a genuinely creative use of video in the 1950s, I urge you to watch "Disneyland Dreams," a 1956 effort by a family who won a trip to Disneyland:

http://www.archive.org/details/barstow_disneyland_dream_1956

.

[gene_can_sing]

It just depends on which camp you talk to.

I live in Los Angels and work in Television. I know a lot (and I mean a lot) of people who own the various Canons (5D, 7D, 60D, etc..) and almost everyone one of them shoots only video.

I mostly shoot video, but I do use stills for doing Timelapse photography. Sometimes I take pictures of family events, but that's about it for stills. For work and independent projects, it's only video.

This is a still camera forum so everyone on here is a stills shooter. If you go to DVXUSER.com or Cinema5D, those people use Canon's exclusively for video.

You have to remember, video is here to stay and the ONLY reason the 5D was considered "Revolutionary" and made huge headlines, is because it was the first affordable large sensor HD video camera. Without the HD video, it would have been like the Nikons, just another Camera. Nothing special. Canon took a huge leap over Nikon because of the video.

[KacperP]

I just wish Canon would separate the two formats completely. Ie if you want video then buy a video camera NOT A DSLR. By combining the two formats its just a POOR jack of all trades & master of NONE.

"I just wish that Apple would separate the two formats completely. Ie if you want to listen to music then you buy mp3 player NOT A PHONE. By combining the two formats its just POOR jack of all trades & master of NONE." 

Let's be serious. DLSR's are hardware + software. Video functions does not stand in a way of photos, just like M mode does not stand in a way of Tv and Av modes.
If you install Premiere on computer it does not cripple Photoshop.

[theuserjohnny]

For me I do video more than photography, I'm into the whole making movies thing. My father on the other hand uses it more for photography, he's like a majority on here who even knowledges the features existence.