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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Canon EOS Rebel T3i Digital Zoom Video Test #2: Supermoon



Consider it the Canon HD DSLR "Space Race" to the moon. Not your average full moon lunar cycle but the largest full moon in 18 years. Touted as the "Supermoon", I was determined to zoom in close to surface with my trusty Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600D.



The Lunar Deities would have been proud of my DSLR video accomplishment. I utilized the new 3x to 10x Digital Zoom feature of the Canon EOS Rebel T3i. Imagine a digital zoom of 1400mm to a whopping 4800mm focal length equivalent to get a real close look at the Apollo Landing sites. So if I pair a 1.6x crop factor Canon Rebel T3i/600D to a Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS lens and then multiply that focal length with the 3x to 10x digital zoom, you get an amazing Full HD 1080p video resolution of the Supermoon.



A more down to earth approach using the 3x to 10x digital zoom feature of the Rebel T3i/600D borders the surface of our own planet. This extra reach of the digital zoom provides a practical solution to the "out of this world" prices for premium Canon "L" glass super zooms. The Supermoon test above is a 1080p video shot at 29.97fps. Edited with the new iMovie'11 and used Quicktime at best quality to get a 250mb h264 video file.

You can view more features in my Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600D Verdict and Video Review.

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3 comments:

  1. Can you use the 3X-10X digital zoom in the still image mode or is it only when recording video?

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  2. jhambley,

    Unfortunately, the 3x-10x digital zoom is only for video capture. Even in Live view during video capture with the digital zoom enabled, the camera prompts you "stills" are not possible when click the shutter button to take a picture.
    You can always grab a still frame of the video in post using MPEG Streamclip. A 1080p still frame is equivalent to 2 megapixels.

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