On 17/9/2008 Canon introduced the Canon 5D MK2, this camera has readily demonstrated to be groundbreaking for film makers all over the world - for the first time Canon announced an HD full frame DSLR that is ideal for impressive video image capture.
This element was added by Canon mainly because journalists had been demanding it for a while and the unity between stills photography and video in the same device was quickly becoming viable.
No one was more surprised than Canon when film maker Vincent Laforet, who was among the first filmmakers let loose on the unique dslr camera. revealed his first effort - 'Nocturne' did not disappoint, in truth it's no overstatement to state that it set the world of film-making on fire. The reason for this really is that the very big full frame sensor inside of the camera makes it possible for the operator to generate a truly gorgeous depth of field that conventional small sensor camcorders can't replicate.
The traditional film cinema look is difficult to explain but one of the major factors is the depth of field that a 35mm film aperture creates. The Sensor (or film gate) in the Canon 5D is a great deal larger than the sensor used in a 35mm film camera, in truth it's nearer to filming on 65mm.
Despite this awesome depth of field property and it's very quick usage within the film making community, Canon's 5D MK2 camera has it's problems 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 drawback is picture 'skew', this is recognizable when panning left to right quickly - vertical lines bend and twist noticeably - this is a difficulty on all CMOS video sensors but famously terrible 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 simply stay away from any quick pans!
Another drawback may be the 'form factor'. A DSLR is a very cumbersome form to film with, there is no focused eyepiece so just two points of contact - both hands. If at all possible three points of contact are necessary to get a secure image whilst filming handheld video. In the past two years quite a few amazing camera support systems have been produced by a wide group of suppliers but they all fundamentally do the exact same thing - deliver one more point of contact using a shoulder or chest support platform.
The rear LCD screen may be troublesome to see in bright sunlight and there's lots of third party products to deal with this, from low-priced hoods to expensive lensed eyepieces and external displays working off the in-built small HDMI port. There are numerous issues with the HDMI supply, most significantly - it is rather vulnerable and fragile but there is also a lag time when serving the image from the camera to a monitor after pushing record, meaning waiting eight or nine seconds before obtaining a monitor picture. This can be exasperating 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 added by Canon mainly because journalists had been demanding it for a while and the unity between stills photography and video in the same device was quickly becoming viable.
No one was more surprised than Canon when film maker Vincent Laforet, who was among the first filmmakers let loose on the unique dslr camera. revealed his first effort - 'Nocturne' did not disappoint, in truth it's no overstatement to state that it set the world of film-making on fire. The reason for this really is that the very big full frame sensor inside of the camera makes it possible for the operator to generate a truly gorgeous depth of field that conventional small sensor camcorders can't replicate.
The traditional film cinema look is difficult to explain but one of the major factors is the depth of field that a 35mm film aperture creates. The Sensor (or film gate) in the Canon 5D is a great deal larger than the sensor used in a 35mm film camera, in truth it's nearer to filming on 65mm.
Despite this awesome depth of field property and it's very quick usage within the film making community, Canon's 5D MK2 camera has it's problems 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 drawback is picture 'skew', this is recognizable when panning left to right quickly - vertical lines bend and twist noticeably - this is a difficulty on all CMOS video sensors but famously terrible 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 simply stay away from any quick pans!
Another drawback may be the 'form factor'. A DSLR is a very cumbersome form to film with, there is no focused eyepiece so just two points of contact - both hands. If at all possible three points of contact are necessary to get a secure image whilst filming handheld video. In the past two years quite a few amazing camera support systems have been produced by a wide group of suppliers but they all fundamentally do the exact same thing - deliver one more point of contact using a shoulder or chest support platform.
The rear LCD screen may be troublesome to see in bright sunlight and there's lots of third party products to deal with this, from low-priced hoods to expensive lensed eyepieces and external displays working off the in-built small HDMI port. There are numerous issues with the HDMI supply, most significantly - it is rather vulnerable and fragile but there is also a lag time when serving the image from the camera to a monitor after pushing record, meaning waiting eight or nine seconds before obtaining a monitor picture. This can be exasperating 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 supplying excellent video material for cinema, broadcast and corporate clients. He operates Tall Man Films and has more than a decade experience of corporate videos bristol. Take a look at the web site for more free guides.
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