The burning question – video camera or DSLR?

BMM Club meeting 6 November 2025

President David opened the meeting at 7.30pm, welcoming our newest members Joel, Grace and Jason, along with club members Nigel, Paul, Murray, Adam, Noel, Peter, Heather, Michael, Freddie, Damian, Sandeep, Balachandar, Leonie and David F and visitors Danielle S, Michael S, Lachlan D, Vanessa N and Samantha.

Apologies: Treasurer Glenn who is on the sick list, but hopefully for not for long.

David began the meeting showing a trailer for his movie on the 70^th anniversary celebrations for Indooroopilly State High School, talking briefly about the challenges he faced but he described the video as being ‘quite cool’. David said he wanted a music score as an intro for the video, so they took the school anthem and put it through a program called Suno, a music generating AI program and it created 33 versions from heavy metal to Japanese styles and Gregorian chant. The future is with us. David also showed a second music video featuring David’s guitar music and a video being made with a collaborator. That’s still in production and refinement.

David said he was making a list of the people we need internally – publicity officer, social media coordinator, marketing/promotions, plus external people such as stunt people, vfx etc. Anyone with those skills or knows people with those skills let David know at presidentbrisbanemaker@gmail.com

David mentioned the member profiles that the club is urged members to submit a photograph and short blurb about themselves, such as your interests, skills and ambitions etc.

He mentioned an organisation called Communify, a community organisation which works closely with communities in a wide range of ways from supporting people in crisis as well as training and employment and multicultural programs.

Special Guest: Lachlan Doig who has a YouTube channel Breathe Deep and Seek Adventure “devoted to showcasing the weird history and other gems found in Brisbane and the surrounding areas”. Since 2020, he has created 145 videos which have had a total of more than 1.6m views, and has 10,600 subscribers. Lachlan explained he is “absolutely obsessed with history’ which began at a very early age when his father who was equally obsessed with Australian history and ‘dragged us all over the place’ looking at Australian history wherever they were every museum whenever they visited big cities. The turning point for turning that obsession into a passion for making history videos came during a visit to Britain when it was suggested to him that “Australia has no history”. A chance encounter at Londonderry in Northern Ireland where he saw a memorial “Free Derry – Show Israel the Red card, followed by a visit to Inishmore, a remote, barren place in the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. With a population 800, it has existed for more than 4,500 years, it is a place that ‘shouldn’t have survived, but has”. So he asked the eternal question Why? That’s the question he has been asking and answering in and around Brisbane for the past five years. Take a trawl through Lachlan’s YouTube videos and you’ll be impressed by the volume of his work.

Afterglow: Michael M showed his latest film, Afterglow, shot during September’s Brisbane Festival capturing Skylore – Nieergoo, Sprit of the Whale which featured amazing night time footage of hundreds of drones over the Brisbane River, and Afterglow the breathtaking after-dark experience of fire sculptures, candelit installations, liver performances and illuminations in the City Botanic Gardens.

After the break we watched a video produced by Kohsuke using the AI ‘text to video” program SORA,“a video generator for video creators”. Kohsuke simply entered “Boiled Frog”, and, basically, you get what you asked for. Weird but interesting. No frogs were harmed in this unreal world of make-believe.

So now, back to reality and the big tech lesson of the night “video cameras versus DSLR”.

Nigel posed the question ‘Why would you use a video camera over a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) camera”?

There are many similarities, but more importantly there are also many differences.

Below is a summary of Nigel’s excellent presentation.

Video Cameras  

• good for dedicated, long-form video recording  

• superior audio and servo zoom control  

• generally good built-in mics and XLR inputs for professional microphones  

• interchangeable lenses on high end (expensive) models  

• doublers (2x) • LANC controllers common  

• ease of use, but less versatility for photos  

• less ‘artistic’ image look out of the box  

• lots of equipment to haul around (lighting, sound, tripods)  

• higher capacity batteries available for many makes and models  

• video outputs include A/V, SDI and HDM 

Controls  

• Better ergonomics  

• Servo zoom  

• Focus (auto, manual)  

• Iris (some ring based)  

• Frame rate up to 50i/50p  

• Shutter speed  

• Gain  

• White balance control  

• Zebra • Peaking  

• ND filters often built-in  

• Normally quiet operation 

DSLR/mirrorless  

• versatile hybrid for high-quality stills and video  

• interchangeable and prime lenses available (good ones expensive)  

• typically not servo zoom, ring based, mechanical  

• generally poor built-in mics and limited audio extensibility  

• artistic effects like bokeh (depth-of-field) but BEWARE of critical focus  

• better low-light performance from larger sensors • steeper learning curve  

• recording time limits (29 minutes): import tariff (historical)  

• LANC controllers available but limited controls • generally more expensive than video cameras • more portable compared to paraphernalia needed for video  

• video outputs limited to HDMI 

Controls  

• Not as ergonomic  

• Modes (P)rogram, (A)perture priority (S)hutter priority (M)anual  

• generally not suited for video, but improving  

• mode (after thought mode ☺) • Frame rate (video) lock to (S)hutter priority  

• Iris • ISO • EV+/- • ND filters seldom built-in  

• White balance • Zebra • Peaking  

• Can be noisy in operation 

We rounded out the night with Peter showing trailers from his ME project which is still in production. For some of his films, he is using SUNO, “a program for music creators”. Peter said he put in some lyrics and the program spat out a tune.

Green Room. On November 29 Peter is running a session on interviewing skills, and on December 6 he is filming a Christmas Story. All happening in Peter’s Green Room. Peter also showed a teaser for his film Coming Out which he said is ‘coming out’ soon.

David updated the club on progress of the Smoke and Mirrors as well as Quiet Achievers.

UGG competition. We have a two themed competition - one is a commercial for BMM and the other is Light and Dark.

To round out the night we watched a TV commercial for coffee by American film maker David Lynch. David Lynch Coffee . David Lynch an passed away in January this year and was renowned for ‘surreal’ film making. This one is definitely in the surreal category. You may never drink coffee again.

Due to time constraints, we had to hold over Freddie’s table read of Smoke and Mirrors project.

Our next meeting is on Thursday 20 November. To see what’s coming up just go to our “Upcoming Meetings” on the front page of the BMM website.