Sorry I've been a but quiet but here is a link to my latest work on fast moving basketball which Smugmug have generously hosted in full 1080p.

In the net with the Canon EOS5D MkII | Technology | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/dec/08/china-basketball-danchung-canon)

Hopefully it will answer some of the constant questions about how this camera performs. It is not a perfect video and there is plenty of room for improvement but I hope you can see where I'm going with this.

Dan

Dan:

Great job, and nice job of showing us early of the potential of this camera.

Questions:

1. How did you handle sound.

2. How complicated is the Nikon lens to Canon lens adapter- just one of the standard one ?

3. How were you shooting the moving shots.

4. Can't tell from the video, but did you have to deal with skewing from rolling shutter, especially on the moving camera shots ?

That is Beautiful Dan !
I see no Roll

Were you using Nikon Glass?

THANK YOU

Chris,

Sound was all in camera apart from the voice over which was recorded seperately, audio is my next big thing to test.

Just a standard Nikon to Canon adapter of the $20 kind

Moving shots either handheld or on a dolly

There is skew, have a look at the action scenes in the 1080p link version, but it is not as bad as I had expected. It is worse than a Sony EX-1 but far better than a Nikon D90.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Quick two questions, what type of time are you getting out of the batteries?
Second have you tried filming on a tripod going left to right from center court?
The reason I ask this is I'm going to get the 5D Mk II when it becomes more available in the states and since I film college and high school basketball I might want to test this out.

Thanks

Learvis

About 60 to 70 mins per battery charge.

No I didn't try other positions on the basketball court, sorry

Dan

Nice!

The skew effect is interesting. It doesn't matter much with people, as we don't have straight-line edges. And when the motion was in a single direction, it was fine. It's not much different than lens distortions of straight lines.

The problem is when the camera pans change speed and direction. When the lines bend left, then right, things get rubbery and I start to feel seasick.

This is great news! I can use the camera for fast motion, as long as I plan the shots to avoid back and forth pans and such. One move per action shot is better for narrative stuff anyway. With live stuff, you don't always have that option.

And yes, the skew is much less than what I've seen from the D90. I would have preferred to keep $1,700 in my pocket, and would be content with the smaller sensor, but the D90's skew and heavy compression were deal breakers.

beautiful footage... very sharp and colours, exposure etc are great. The skew is fairly noticeable on the fast pans... but I still think we are looking at the future here.

Why did you use Nikon and not Canon Lens?

Hi Dan,

Thats the best i've seen out of this camera.

Great work, this has set the benchmark.

James

you can manually adjust the aperture on the older Nikon lens.

Why did you use Nikon and not Canon Lens?

you can manually adjust the aperture on the older Nikon lens.
Yes. And here is the example:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/photo-hd-video-d-slr-others/138471-5dmkii-manual-lens-aperture-control-video.html

Dan and other owners:

1. It looks like to me that you gain best control over this camera by using manual lenses. Is that your experience ?

2. In using manual lense are you getting to a point that you can lock down shutter speed and ISO for a particular series of shots consistently. With HV20, for instance, we used the cell phone screen trick lock camera into 1/48 shutter and eliminate automatic gain. My question suggests a similar approach to this camera. Is that doable ?

Chris,

To this point yes, I am now getting pretty confident that I can get the aperture and shutter speed I want most of the time using manual lenses and vari-ND filter. Getting ISO is a little more difficult but you can get it pretty close to where you want. This all assumes that the camera is displaying the exposure it actually uses , which I'm not sure anyone has actually confirmed for sure yet.

Dan

BTW,

I'm off to Africa on a shoot for a week so won't be around here too much. I'll give you more findings from super bright environments when I get back.

Dan

Have a great trip, stay safe, and bring back some killer video!