Behind the Scenes Classic Wings Aero Services Shoot from Rick Brown on Vimeo.

With Canon’s announcement today of the XC10, a compact, prosumer 4K camcorder and a new 4K video format, XF-AVC; I felt inspired to discuss whether I felt video was a good thing for those of us who are primarily still shooters. It is a very complicated issue and one that I do not have a definitive answer to, but will endeavor to tell you about my thoughts on the matter. (I suggest you take a look at the op-ed piece on the XC-10 at dpreview.com,)

There has been much talk in recent years about how video is important to the business model of photographers these days and in the coming years. I have dabbled in video and not had much business success with it. Although admittedly, I have had a little. For example, my stock agent recently licensed a clip of mine to a major motion picture. I’m not sure which one, but I know she licensed many clips from several photographers to “Noah.” However, I do know of at least one local photographer who has been doing a significant amount of directing these days; Carli Davidson, the photographer of Shake, the well known book. Thus, my experience with the business success of video isn’t necessarily indicative of what to expect.

The learning curve is also difficult. It takes a good long while to figure out what looks good as motion. Furthermore, if you plan on doing your own editing, something most photographers will probably need to do, at least in the beginning, the editing software has a very steep learning curve.

One aspect I can guarantee you will only be positive about video though, is it is fun. I know I have had a blast with it. I think most photographers probably have the mindset that we will enjoy any visual medium we can get the hang of. By that I mean, I don’t enjoy drawing or painting that much, because I don’t have the best hand/eye coordination and don’t do this sort of artwork well enough to meet my standards. I’m sure though that if I could, I would have a blast painting.

Anyhow, I can’t tell you whether you should get involved in video or not, but I hope I gave you some things to think about.

Take a look at some of my other video work.