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On 17/9/2008 Canon introduced the Canon 5D MK2, this camera has successfully proved to be revolutionary for filmmakers everywhere across the planet - for the first time Canon introduced an HD full frame DSLR that is great for really impressive video image recording.
This element was put in by Canon because journalists have been inquiring about it for quite a while and also the convergence between stills photography and video within the same device was swiftly becoming viable.
Nobody was more shocked than Canon when Filmmaker Vincent Laforet was among the first filmmakers let loose on the completely new digital camera. His very first attempt Nocturne wouldn't disappoint, in truth it's no overstatement to say it set the field of film-making on fire. The real reason for this is that the substantial full frame sensor within the camera permits the operator to generate a truly lovely depth of field that old fashioned small sensor camcorders cannot reproduce.
The standard film cinema look is quiet difficult to outline but one of the main components is the depth of field that any 35mm film aperture produces. The Sensor (or film gate) in the Canon 5D is even bigger than the sensor within a 35mm movie camera, in truth it's nearer to shooting on 65mm.
Despite this astounding depth of field property and it's very swift adoption by the film making network, the canon 5D MK2 camera does have it's complications when filming video.
One of the main issues is line skipping or moire. The canon has to remove information from the thousands of pixels that make up it's sensor so that it can make a 1920 X 1080 HD file. It does this by throwing away every third line of information - line skipping. This could certainly turn out to be disastrous if you're shooting a subject that has quite a few horizontal or vertical lines - as the image steps across the dumped lines of information it can look horrendous. I usually try to keep clear of check shirts!
Another hassle is picture 'skew', this is evident when panning left to right quickly - vertical lines bend and twist noticeably - this is a problem on all CMOS video sensors but notably poor on the Canon because it's scan rate from the top to the bottom of the sensor is very sluggish and there is no internal compensation. A solution to this is to quite simply steer clear of any quick pans!
Another obstacle is definitely the 'form factor'. A DSLR is a very awkward form to film with, there is no focused eyepiece so only two points of contact - both hands. In a perfect world three points of contact are necessary to get a stable image whilst shooting hand held video. In the past two years a large number of proprietary camera support devices have been devised by a vast array of companies but they all fundamentally do the same task - supply one more point of contact by means of a shoulder or chest support technique.
The rear LCD monitor can certainly be troublesome to view in brilliant sunlight and there's a lot of 3rd party products and solutions to cope with this, from inexpensive hoods to really expensive lensed eyepieces and additional displays operating off the built in mini HDMI port. There are many worries with the HDMI feed, most significantly, it is rather small and breakable. Additionally there is a delay when serving the image from the dslr to a monitor after pressing record, which means patiently waiting eight or nine seconds before obtaining a monitor image. This can be troubling in a documentary scenario.
The camera records in 8 bit quicktime H264 and even though this produces amazing pictures it isn't really deemed to be a pro recording file format due to the H264 data compression. Having said that the camera has been employed for a great number of TV dramas, documentaries and features. It's image attractiveness obviously outranking it's technical restrictions.
In spite of the stated problems, many film makers (including myself) put up with these grievances because Canon have turned out a seriously superb, creative, film-making device. When they can improve the stumbling blocks with the MK3 then they're going to have crafted a truly awesome camera at a astounding selling price.
This element was put in by Canon because journalists have been inquiring about it for quite a while and also the convergence between stills photography and video within the same device was swiftly becoming viable.
Nobody was more shocked than Canon when Filmmaker Vincent Laforet was among the first filmmakers let loose on the completely new digital camera. His very first attempt Nocturne wouldn't disappoint, in truth it's no overstatement to say it set the field of film-making on fire. The real reason for this is that the substantial full frame sensor within the camera permits the operator to generate a truly lovely depth of field that old fashioned small sensor camcorders cannot reproduce.
The standard film cinema look is quiet difficult to outline but one of the main components is the depth of field that any 35mm film aperture produces. The Sensor (or film gate) in the Canon 5D is even bigger than the sensor within a 35mm movie camera, in truth it's nearer to shooting on 65mm.
Despite this astounding depth of field property and it's very swift adoption by the film making network, the canon 5D MK2 camera does have it's complications when filming video.
One of the main issues is line skipping or moire. The canon has to remove information from the thousands of pixels that make up it's sensor so that it can make a 1920 X 1080 HD file. It does this by throwing away every third line of information - line skipping. This could certainly turn out to be disastrous if you're shooting a subject that has quite a few horizontal or vertical lines - as the image steps across the dumped lines of information it can look horrendous. I usually try to keep clear of check shirts!
Another hassle is picture 'skew', this is evident when panning left to right quickly - vertical lines bend and twist noticeably - this is a problem on all CMOS video sensors but notably poor on the Canon because it's scan rate from the top to the bottom of the sensor is very sluggish and there is no internal compensation. A solution to this is to quite simply steer clear of any quick pans!
Another obstacle is definitely the 'form factor'. A DSLR is a very awkward form to film with, there is no focused eyepiece so only two points of contact - both hands. In a perfect world three points of contact are necessary to get a stable image whilst shooting hand held video. In the past two years a large number of proprietary camera support devices have been devised by a vast array of companies but they all fundamentally do the same task - supply one more point of contact by means of a shoulder or chest support technique.
The rear LCD monitor can certainly be troublesome to view in brilliant sunlight and there's a lot of 3rd party products and solutions to cope with this, from inexpensive hoods to really expensive lensed eyepieces and additional displays operating off the built in mini HDMI port. There are many worries with the HDMI feed, most significantly, it is rather small and breakable. Additionally there is a delay when serving the image from the dslr to a monitor after pressing record, which means patiently waiting eight or nine seconds before obtaining a monitor image. This can be troubling in a documentary scenario.
The camera records in 8 bit quicktime H264 and even though this produces amazing pictures it isn't really deemed to be a pro recording file format due to the H264 data compression. Having said that the camera has been employed for a great number of TV dramas, documentaries and features. It's image attractiveness obviously outranking it's technical restrictions.
In spite of the stated problems, many film makers (including myself) put up with these grievances because Canon have turned out a seriously superb, creative, film-making device. When they can improve the stumbling blocks with the MK3 then they're going to have crafted a truly awesome camera at a astounding selling price.
About the Author:
The Article Author, Mitchell Blatwood is a film maker developing winning program material for cinema, broadcast and corporate companies. He manages Tall Man Films and possesses over 10 years experience of video production bristol. Take a look at the web site for additional free tutorials.
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