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It might seem curious to focus on just one HDSLR accessory, but you’d be surprised how many times we get asked about optical viewfinders.  There are two important points to consider for this discussion:

1.  Adding a viewfinder to an HDLSR is a game-changer.  It adds a new level of stability, control & capability that cannot be duplicated without a viewfinder.

However,

2.  Generally speaking, you don’t need a viewfinder to conduct interviews.  In fact, if you’re doing a “slow entry” into the world of HDSLR shooting, then do yourself a favor & save your money to buy the RIGHT viewfinder for when you REALLY need it.

The tweeting/blogging/review community is pushing all kinds of cheap viewfinders.  In talking with people who have tried out some of these in an attempt to save money, I remain confident that our investment in the Zacuto Z-Finder was money well-spent.  It’s no secret that this is the best-constructed option with all the features we need.  And if construction isn’t as important as saving money, consider this:  many of the lower-cost viewfinders use plastic optics, which means that it can’t be treated with anti-fog spray or wipes, which creates all kinds of “amateur-night” issues on a shoot that you might not realize when you’re just doing some backyard tests. 

I continue to believe that you get what you pay for with viewfinders.

I really like a viewfinder as a stabilization device.  When rehearsing a complicated scene, I use it in conjunction with the camera’s “magnify” feature, a follow focus & sharpie to make my pull marks. But the camera’s low-resolution LCD screen itself isn’t going to help you focus that well no matter how close you are to it or how much it’s enlarged.  (If you haven’t shot on a DSLR, it’s important to note that once you hit the record button, you can’t use the magnify feature to check focus.  That function is unavailable.) 

Back to the original question—for interviews, I set my ISO, shutter speed & f-stop, magnify the eyes, focus, un-magnify, re-frame & start rolling.  (Which is why I don’t shoot with a very aggressive f-stop during interviews, because the viewfinder isn’t going to show you if your subject is drifting a bit out of focus anyway, and it would be very difficult to try to track with them to keep them in.)  I’d rather comfortably watch the LCD monitor than lean into viewfinder if the end result is going to be the same anyway . . .

If you were interviewing a terminator cyborg, or someone with chain mail instead of skin, the LCD screen would do okay showing you if the focus was off.  But the current generation of DSLR LCD screens isn’t helping us ensure that people stay in focused.  In fact, we ask subjects not to wear pin stripes & to remove their glasses . . . the types of things that would actually HELP us stay in focus if we wanted to shoot shallow & track focus using the on-board LCD monitor.

Of course, this is where a monitor like the Marshall V-LCD70XP-HDMI comes in particularly handy.  If you want to shoot an interview with an aggressive f-stop, you’ll want a higher resolution monitor to do it.

And beyond the challenges that the low-resolution LCD screen create for focusing, because the LCD viewfinder is so small, objects look more in focus than they really are.  (This is the other edge of the sword.)  The temptation is to constantly try to create a more shallow focus field, because the background objects appear to be more in-focus that we want them to be.  But that’s an illusion.  Once you get the footage (even at f/4.0) onto a monitor, you’ll see that the background was a LOT softer than it looked like on the camera’s LCD screen.  (Oh, and this is where you’ll notice if your subject wasn’t in focus, or where they drifted out if you were shooting at a particularly fast f-stop.)

As early adopters in the HDSLR world, we get a lot of e-mails asking, quite simply, how we do things & what equipment we recommend.  Naturally, we push back on the discussions that focus purely on equipment.  On any given day you’ll see a dozen re-tweets like “it’s not what’s in your bag, it’s how you tell a story” and we couldn’t agree more.  Even with a pretty solid background in production technology, a conversation strictly about equipment has become . . . well . . . distasteful.

However, at some point, somebody who’s got a little experience with what to invest in, what to avoid, and what to keep in mind should step up.  So, I’ll share some ideas in a 3-part blog entry geared specifically towards shooting interviews.  (Most questions center around what’s the best way to capture direct-address, interview, and “my story” content . . . it’s at the center of what we do & it makes sense that the majority of the equipment questions that we get center around these styles.)

Here are some thoughts about audio . . .

The question is “what do you do for audio?”

Since current HDSLRs don’t have line-level inputs, no metering, monitoring & the world’s cheapest (auto-gain) microphone pre-amplifiers, recording audio separately is the only good option.  There are a number of devices out there that claim all sorts of things (Beachtek, JuicedLink, etc.) but you simply can’t get around the camera’s crappy microphone pre-amps no matter how much money you spend on an interface device & how good their marketing is.  So recording audio (that matters) has to be done using a separate device at this point.

I feel obliged to mention that I consider the SoundDevices 744T to be the right tool for most broadcast-level work.  But for everyday industrial work (especially interviews) I like my Edirol R4 Pro.  But those devices (and the Marantz, Tascam & others) are pretty big, relative to the new size expectations of the HDSLR generation.  So a lot of people (including us) end up with the Zoom H4n. 

The good news is that the Zoom H4N is very convenient, and great for picking up stereo sound effects & ambience, too.  I’ve used it to capture a handful of foley sounds—not that I wasn’t willing to pay $3.60 to download the right sound, but so far, I’ve been able to record exactly what I wanted in less time that it would have taken me to find a good match online.  BTW, you’ll want something like the Maha PowerEx charger and a pack of high-capacity rechargeable batteries (at least 2,000 mAh).  The zoom won’t last through most shoots on regular store-bought Alkaline batteries, even in the power-saving “stamina” mode.  Oh, and this might be a good place to mention how much we love the Redhead Windscreen.  Everyone with a portable recorder should have one of these.

But the Zoom isn’t a silver bullet & here’s why:  For interviews in everyday environments, we use pretty nice lavalier microphones (the Sanken COS-11s).  In fact, the microphones costs 1.5 times more than the recorder itself—and you can tell; the microphone preamps on the Zoom don’t do justice to the full sound of the Sanken.  So yeah, the Zoom is very portable, but I seem to be on a short list of people who’s outspoken on the poor sound quality of the Zoom when used to record from microphone sources.  But it fits the bill when we need better sound that the camera can provide & when taking a full-size hard disc recorder just isn’t an option.  I’d like to A/B test the Zoom with the Tascam DR-100 but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

As with all 2-piece recording systems, you can sync the audio to the video using a variety of methods.  Some (like the “Indy clap”) don’t cost a cent.  But a $45.00 Standard Slate from FilmTools.com is a good investment if you’re serious about coming across as a professional.  (After all, your client is probably wondering if you grabbed the wrong camera!)

Of course, pages could be written comparing microphones & their price points, multi-track recording, connecting a mixer to a HDSLR with a mini plug for reference audio & all sorts of other things we’ve experienced.  But if you’re like us, 80% of your audio is taken care of using the equipment & techniques I’ve suggested here.