Use for video on my 7D...

[rpcrowe]

I have come upon a use for video to enhance my still photography. It was suggested to me by a fellow member of one of my photography meet-up groups.

I attended a model shoot at a beauty college today and shot numerous models. I discovered this great use for the video on my 7D - to identify the models. I simply turned on the video shooting the models face and asked her for her name and for her email address.

That way, I had a record of who the models were and a way to email them the images that I shot.

I will no longer be frustrated in trying to use a notebook and attempting to read my scribbled notes. I have a permanent identification for each model on my CF card. Wherever the images go, the ID goes at least until I can annotate the images with the model identification.

I can see me using this method of identification in many different ways to preserve information about a lot of my future images. I wish that I had video capability on my trip to China to record some of the information the various guides provided.

[jeeperman]

Simple yet extremely effective. Likely the one reason I could see to include video in my next upgrade.

[rpcrowe]

I investigated the memory it takes for shooting video at the minimum 640x480 using my Canon 7D. I get approximately 6 minutes of video per GB of memory. The video identification usually takes about 15 seconds. Since I shot about six models or so; my ID took about 90 seconds total or about 250MB, give or take.

This, IMO, is pretty minimal memory use. I have a lot of memory available since I vastly increased my CF cards for last year's trip to China. Additiponally; to a guy used to shooting with medium formal equipment which gave me from 12-24 images per roll and with 35mm film which gave me 20-36 images per roll; carrying and switching a few memory cards is no chore at all...

[ktuli]

Richard,

This might be a good use for an old 1GB card you have laying around but aren't likely to use for actual shooting.

The trick is just remembering to switch it in and out for the video.

- Bill