OK,

I'm still editing my footage from today but here are some very quick observations.

1. In Movie mode the HDMI outputs 1080i when you are framing up and sorting focus and exposure. It has the overlays the same as D90 and the 16x9 image does not fill the width of the screen. However the really bad news is that the moment you hit record it changes the output to 480p, worse the resolution change forces both HDMI displays I've tested to take about a second to adjust in which time you see nothing! I can't believe Canon did this, maybe there is a custom function fix but I can't find it. Anyone hoping to use external HDMI for monitoring or recording better think again.

2. The image quality is stunning in low light, even a its maximum 3200asa it is still usable.

3. It works just fine with non Canon lenses with adapters. The camera will let you record and as predicted change the aperture after an exposure lock.

4. Auto white balance seems very good most of the time.

5. It does exhibit some issues with 50hz lighting. I expected this to happen with a 30p camera but even so it is a little dissappointing.

6. Battery life is pretty good, about 90mins live view or recording. I can't get a spare battery at the moment though.

7. The slow transition between locked exposure and setting another locked exposure is nice and gradual but also a little frustrating if you are using the exposure lock to correct under or exposure in a hurry. I guess exposure compensation will be a better way to adjust exposure in a hurry.

8. The rear screen is actually very good and can be zoomed up twice to check focus on specific spot. However when you start to record you can no longer zoom to check focus, your subject had pretty well be standing still, follow focus is going to be impossible. This coupled with the HDMI problem is going to rule this camera out for most run and gun use I think. Odd as one of the primary markets for the 5DmkII is supposed to news photographers doing video.

More later

Dan

And a quick pic of me in action with my 5DmkII rig tonight.

Dan

2. The image quality is stunning in low light, even a its maximum 3200asa it is still usable.

So, 3200 ISO is as high as it will allow you to shoot in video mode?

Thanks for the quick review!

Are you able to adjust contrast and saturation in movie mode?

Thanks for the review!

1. In Movie mode the HDMI outputs 1080i when you are framing up and sorting focus and exposure. It has the overlays the same as D90 and the 16x9 image does not fill the width of the screen. However the really bad news is that the moment you hit record it changes the output to 480p, worse the resolution change forces both HDMI displays I've tested to take about a second to adjust in which time you see nothing! I can't believe Canon did this, maybe there is a custom function fix but I can't find it. Anyone hoping to use external HDMI for monitoring or recording better think again.

I read about that in the manual a few days ago, but what about the A/V Out port with the stereo video cable? Have you tried using that, and will it have a picture that takes up the screen while recording?

I can live with a 480p preview as long as its on a bigger screen.

Glad to see you go one Dan. Interesting findings too.
Have fun...
Nick

OK,

Odd as one of the primary markets for the 5DmkII is supposed to news photographers doing video.



I believe that if you shoot a still photograph in the middle of shooting video, that this takes up one second of your video. Perhaps it might be suitable for soft news being shot under more controlled conditions, but for hard news it really would cause problems. The alternative being to use a frame grab from the video, which may have a too slow shutter speed for fast moving action.

I expect this camera will be used for newspaper web videos, but it is a bit of a compromise and a video journalist with a video camera really does make more sense for this type of work.

Any concerns about shallow depth of field is nonsense for news, so issues like how long can you record before the image quality drops off and how easy the single system sound is to operate are important. Also, having a good zoom range that you can shoot hand held at the tele end.

There are good things being said about these cameras, but you may find there are limitations which don't make them suitable or a compromise for quite a few types of work.

Brian,

I quite agree. After one day I can say that I don't see the 5DmkII as a replacement for my Sony EX1 and EX3, more of a complimentary camera for times when you want a more filmic shallow depth effect. I do think some photographers/videojournalists will turn out some extraordinary stuff from these hybrid cameras though, if for no other reason than they were there when something big happened and they rolled video as well as stills.

Dan

Some types of work maybe but there are already a set of films made with the 5D2 before the camera was even in stores. I think thats pretty strong evidense of the cameras potential. Filmmakers are obviously working around any limitations just fine.

To suggest that this camera is limited to videojournalists is very short sighted imo.

Here is a new one by the way: EOS 5D Mark2 Movi - Prism on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/2314305)

Daniel,

I think you misunderstood what we were saying. We were suggesting that the camera is not really well suited to videojournalism and IS more suited to other applications like film making.

Dan

Oh, sorry about that :)

All the video we've seen to date from the 5d is very saturated, contrasty, and has the blacks crushed quite a bit (it looks very video-y). If you use the 5d's picture adjustments to take down color, sharpening, etc., all the way down, does the resulting video look smoother and more filmic? I'm not talking about temporal issues like framerate and shutter, just the image itself -- the equivalent of a more filmic gamma curve, or at least an image that would take to color correction easier.

Let us know when you get a chance. Thanks!

Ryan,

I've set my 5DmkII to Neutral picture style, sharpness all the way down and contrast at -2. Sat was left alone. The night time stuff I just shot does seem to have crushed blacks at the highest ISO settings much like the Laforet film. Still looks quite digital to me. I'm encoding my little film as we speak so you can judge for yourself shortly. I haven't had a chance to test daylight yet.

Dan

Some types of work maybe but there are already a set of films made with the 5D2 before the camera was even in stores. I think thats pretty strong evidense of the cameras potential. Filmmakers are obviously working around any limitations just fine.

To suggest that this camera is limited to videojournalists is very short sighted imo.

Here is a new one by the way: EOS 5D Mark2 Movi - Prism on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/2314305)

I would say there are areas where the camera is more suitable than video journalism. I can see these cameras having an impact on music videos for example. The current frame rates are limiting for theatrical films, but I expect people will shoot dramas with them, especially if you can shoot 25fps and 24fps.

I know a couple of members of the ASC have been testing the camera and were impressed, not for use as the main "A" camera, because there are limitations, but for "B" camera type shots.

Shooting documentaries, the proposed Scarlet cameras look more suitable than a DSLR style camera. In recent years years the one of the big advantage of the 1/3" cameras has proven to be the small size and they look like home video cameras, which helps on some productions. In the end, I can't see the broadcasters changing over to DSLR cameras except for specialised work, they're more likely to go a RED style camera for use on suitable productions.

Thanks Dan !
Glad to know it works with Nikon Glass
question (for anyone)
With Canon Lenses it locks exposure, but with Nikons (and adaptor) not so, because you can manually adjust?

Thanks for the reviews,
keep them coming
J

John,

You can lock exposure with adapted Nikon lenses the same as Canon EF ones. So basically after you have locked the exposure with a Nikon lens you can then use the aperture ring to alter to exposure. With a Canon EF lens you can alter exposure after a lock but only by +/- 2 stops.

Dan

Thanks Dan!

Some more info for you all. I've been playing around with EF lenses on the 5DmkII and found some strange quirks. As I suspected but hadn't been able to prove until now that the 5DmkII does not always adjust the aperture before the ISO. In a moderately lit room with my 35mm f1.4L the camera may choose f2 at 400asa instead of f1.4 at 200asa. This is going to make tricking the camera into maximum aperture without raising the sensitivity quite hard. I have to play some more but things don't look good.

On the plus side the AF in live view is actually quite effective, much faster than I thought it would be. The downside is that is seems to open the aperture to its widest setting to AF even when you are recording, causing a momentary change in exposure if you are not wide open to start with.

More later.

Dan

5. It does exhibit some issues with 50hz lighting. I expected this to happen with a 30p camera but even so it is a little dissappointing.


Hi Dan, thanks for posting your impressions. Can you elaborate on 50hz issues?

Much appreciated

Josh,

You get occasional flicker when the frequency of the lights does not match the frame rate and shutter speed combination. I'll post a sample on Vimeo after I've uploaded my short film. It does not seem anywhere near as bad as the effects I've seen on the Nikon D90 under Chinese lights.

Dan

Ok, the sun is coming up here so I've been able to do some more testing with EF lenses on bright light.

I think with a little care you can set maximum aperture on the camera, 1/30th shutter speed and 200asa (for some reason getting 100asa is quite hard)

On a bright day if you point the camera and lens down onto a dark surface and activate live view you can then activate the meter by semi pressing the shutter button. Then slowly lift one side of the lens off the surface and watch the meter reading change as is lifts, at one point you should get 1/30th at maximum aperture. You can then lock this exposure and enter movie mode which should keep the setting. Then you need to add the appropriate amount of ND asap so you can get shooting. I think a Vari-ND is essential for this to work. Not an ideal solution but it should do the trick.

Dan

In a moderately lit room with my 35mm f1.4L the camera may choose f2 at 400asa instead of f1.4 at 200asa. This is going to make tricking the camera into maximum aperture without raising the sensitivity quite hard. I have to play some more but things don't look good.
I know you want an fully open iris for minimum DOF, but Canon may be wise to not use fully open because of quality loss. The question is how much noise is added by the increase in ISO?

Steve,

I'm with you most of the way on the wisdom of not going to full aperture by default, however there are times when you might want it and many folks on these forums as especially interested in going wide open. I don't think there is much quality loss by jumping up a stop or two is ISO but I'll have to test more.

Dan

Dan,

What kind of control does the software give you when the camera is plugged into the computer? I understand you can shoot remotely, so maybe it will give you manual control over AE settings?

I just found the EOS software Utility manual online.

It does give you manual exposure & lens controls. But its not clear if the controls work for movie mode too.

If it does work, this would be the solution to a lot of problems! Dan, would you mind testing it?

Thanks Dan. Very Interesting.

Looking forward to seeing the video.

I imagine we are bogging Dan down here. After all I'm sure he wants to play with his new toy and not answer a million questions. However, I'll toss a couple in here. :)

Does it look like the camera tries to keep the shutter at 1/30th if possible? I can't imagine using 1/60 or 1/125 is going to look to good unless you want to achieve the "Saving Private Ryan" effect.

By your studies so far, are you thinking that the manual Nikon lenses with adapters are looking better and better for video work?

Tyler,

I think the camera tends to go for a low shutter speed unless it has to, 1/30th or 1/40th seems to the most common.

I do think manual lenses are the way forward but I'll let others be the judge.

Dan

The downside is that is seems to open the aperture to its widest setting to AF even when you are recording, causing a momentary change in exposure if you are not wide open to start with.

Dan

This practically makes autofocusing while recording (as opposed to prefocusing using autofocus) useless. Are you sure? Because this is a real downer.

Wacharapong

And here it is, my 5dmkII short is here Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/2327058)

Please feel free to spread it around, you should be able to download a version if you are a registered Vimeo member too.

Dan

Josh,

Here is the flicker video as promised YouTube - 5dmkII flicker.mov (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuYNFMgfWtQ)

Dan

I enjoyed the video so much I forgot to look at it technically.

Ouch, that is a lot of flicker. I hope the next generation of video-capable DSLRs will borrow some technology from their camcorder siblings to reduce that effect.

Thanks Don, praise indeed.

Daniel, that is a worst case flicker example. Most of the time it worked just fine, I'll keep an eye on it for sure though.

Dan

Excellent stuff... Dan. Blacks do seem crushed still, even after the steps you took. Regardless though, these images are great and every now and then this camera hits a shot and it's "golden," like the profile of the man drawing the face.

Looks like I need to hit up eBay and start looking for old manual Nikon lenses.

Thanks so much for posting that Dan! Great job, it looks terrific. The video is so incredibly clean that it's plain to see we're witnessing a new dawn of low-light videography. Of course one starts to also understand why Canon is crushing the blacks -- it makes it even cleaner, getting rid of potentially noisy shadow detail.

For the earlier commenter, to be filmlike you would WANT to shoot at 1/60 if going for a filmic look -- for 30p, that would be the equivalent of a motion picture camera's 180-degree shutter. 1/30 is equiv to 360-degree shutter and is one of the reason 5d footage to date looks so much like video -- 1/60 30p will look a lot more like 1/48 24p than 1/30 30p.

Here's to hoping someone hacks this thing. No one's hacked a DIGIC IV yet, though:

For Developers - CHDK Wiki (http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/For_Developers)

You can lock exposure with adapted Nikon lenses the same as Canon EF ones.

Dan, thank you for reporting to us on your findings. What kind of adaptation do you mean, here?

Josh,

Here is the flicker video as promised YouTube - 5dmkII flicker.mov (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuYNFMgfWtQ)

Dan

Very much appreciated Dan. That does look nasty, but as you point out, a worst case example.

Love your footage of Beijing. Gave me a real sense of being there, I could almost taste the air.

Another question if you have a chance - clearly for video the 5d is going to require work-arounds and will be of limited use for some applications; equally clearly it has massive low-light and DOF control advantages. But as an experienced EX1/3 user, what are your initial impressions of the resolution / colour rendition / and latitude of the footage you are seeing?

And are you having any luck stretching the blacks and desaturating the colours?

You're doing everyone an excellent service Dan! Thanks, Josh

Dan, thank you for reporting to us on your findings. What kind of adaptation do you mean, here?

I believe Dan is referring to simple adapters that allow you to connect Nikkors etc to EOS lens mount. These can be bought very cheaply online (under $30). This means you can mount manual Nikon AIS lens to the 5D Mkii with no optical quality loss, and they retain metering information. This is cool because old Nikkors can be obtained cheaply, they have great optics, and manual aperture dials (unlike EOS lens).

In other words, no physical adaptation of the lens itself is necessary, just a cheap adapter between lens and body.

Ryan,

I would like to be able to force the camera to a 1/60th but I can't really see how easily in uncontrolled light conditions.

Josh,

I'm going to hold off on making a judgement on how 5DmkII footage compares to that of the Sony EX until I've had more time to test it. Initial impressions are that the EX still give more lattitude and a crisper image but I reserve the right to amend that assesement.

Yes the adapters are nothing more than Nikon or Contax to EF adapters. For Nikon G lenses you need these Nikon G - Canon EOS Adapter (http://www.16-9.net/nikon_g/)

Dan

Thanks Dan,

A little off topic, but I did a little scan through your work for the Guardian - you do an amazing job, at times in immensely traumatic conditions; I imagine you must see a lot more (and live a lot more) each year than some of us do in a lifetime.

I'm glad you're taking a little time out to keep us all posted on your new toy,

Josh

Dan,

Great footage you really captured the night atmosphere of Beijing. Did you find that you attracted less attention on the streets by using a still camera against a video camera. I normally have found that a video camera attracts a lot of on-lookers

I was surprised that you did not have more 50Hz flicker from the fluorescent lights but maybe with large banks of fluro they are on different phases so maybe that has helped cancel out the flicker effect

Dan, just wonderful footage and a really great job of editing.

Beijing looks so different than it did in the mid `80s when I was working there. Wow!

I watched the Nikon night footage and I was not horrified as I expected to be given the negative comments on the Nikon. I could almost see the extra noise as film grain.

I sense we are on the verge of sea change, much like when DV arrived.

PS: Since I can't afford the Canon or the Nikon (I think) I'm seriously looking at trying the Casio EX-F1. What I like about it, compared to any $1000 camcorder, is its manual focus lens-ring, a power zoom level (to zoom-in fast to get focus) and a button that locks exposure. (Or, locks both AE and AF.) As long as everything stays constant during each shot, I can use the Media Composer CC that has the ability to create gamma curves to "fix" most exposure errors (if they occur).

Most Contax (Zeiss) lenses will also work on a 5D via adapter. Many Olympus lenses fit too. My daytime lineup for video is looking like:

14-24mm Nikon with special adapter (G Nikon have no aperture ring)
35-70mm Contax with dumb adapter
70-200mm Canon, taped if necessary

It's rather bizarre that Canon has designed a camera that encourages users to buy Nikon glass.

I would be interested in seeing a typical histogram of night shots out of the camera. Also, any 1080p torrent files?

I noticed that the focal plane drops off in a few scenes... like the guy working on his scooter. Why is that?

Josh,
That's an 85mm shift lens specifically designed to do just that.

Don,
I don't have access to anywhere I can host 1080p, does anyone?

Bob,
I had onlookers but not as many as I thought I might attract with a big rig. It is a different experience to shooting stills though.

Dan

I don't have access to anywhere I can host 1080p, does anyone?
We'll hook you up, Dan -- I'll contact you via email and get you set up for FTP upload access directly to DV Info Net.

Chris,

That's great, how big a file can you handle?

Dan

We can handle a pretty good size -- contact me via email, chris at dvinfo dot net -- we'll work it out.