Just trying to learn more about the MKII.

I know that 12 minutes is the cutoff before you have to pull the trigger again. Is that because of the FAT32 4gig limit, or because of the "CMOS overheat prevention" that I've heard about? To go along with that, if you keep hammering the video and heating up the CMOS...has anybody noticed side effects like noise, etc.?

I haven't had a chance to really dig deep and search for this, but has anybody attempted to shoot an entire wedding strictly with the MKII and be successful with it?

Also, on a side note....does anybody have any reputable places that they know of where the MKII is usually readily available without getting financially raped in the process? I see several places openly saying that they have plenty in stock but the businesses look shady to me and I would certainly be scared to pull the trigger at the checkout.

Thanks for any info and help!

Take care,
-Brad

I have never done it, but there is one

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/wedding-event-videography-techniques/144780-first-all-5d-wedding-video-shoot.html

I have never done it, but there is one

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/wedding-event-videography-techniques/144780-first-all-5d-wedding-video-shoot.html

Thank you Noel. Wow. That was impressive.

This last Saturday was the first time I've attempted to shoot the entire day with just the 5D. It seemed to hold up just fine and I'm excited to start editing this one. I did use my XHA1 during the ceremony as my stationary camera and safe shot but probably won't use anything from it. In about 10 hrs of shooting I went through 4 16gig CF cards and about half of an 8 gig. I needed two batteries to get through the whole day as well. The scariest part of the day was the toasts because I had no idea how long they would drag on but luckily they only last about 5 minutes a piece. All-in-all, I think most of the weddings I shoot in the future will be completely shot with the 5D, it's such a light setup when paired with the Merlin.

Hey Josh,
First off, i would like to say i how i love your work!! You are one of the Best of the Best in the industry!



About the battery, i thought each battery can record for ~2hr. Did you have to turn the camera off often, to save battery? Also, how were you able to capture audio?

Listening for Josh's responses as well......

Also, what lenses did you use for the day?
What did you do for the ceremony, just keep pressing record when it timed out?
What's the minimum requirement for a CF card (specifically) in the MKII for video?

I know I will have more questions....I can't remember them right now. haha

Thanks guys.

Wow Jack, thanks, you just made my day! I'm not sure how long the batteries are supposed to last but two of them got me through ten hours with room to spare. I'd say I probably shot between 6 and 7 actual hours of footage and I don't remember turning the camera off a lot but I'd flip it off during downtimes for sure.

Since I hardly ever use any natural audio in my videos I just used the onboard mic to handle everything but there ceremony and the toasts. The audio during the ceremony (the ceremony was short by the way, probably about 30 mins) was captured by wireless mic on groom and sent to the XHA1 and I used a Sony IC Recorder plugged into the church's mixer for the officiant's voice. Toasts were recorded with the IC Recorder via the DJ's mixer.

Since I actually consider myself a photographer I have a full range of lenses to use with the camera. I used the 70-200 2.8 by far the most. The lens has the Image Stabilization that steadies the shot like our camcorders would which helps with the shaky footage. When flying the camera on the Merlin I used a 35mm 1.4 lens which seemed to be a really good combination. The 50mm 1.2 would probably be another good combo when mounted on the Merlin.

Since all my ceremonies are short form, I never needed any clip longer than a few minutes, so the 12 min max recording never was really a problem.

I'm not exactly sure what the minimum CF card requirements are but I used Sandisk Extreme IIIs and they seemed to work just fine. The 16 gig cards were about $120 a piece at my local camera store which was nice.

All-in-all, shooting video with the 5D is just so much more inspiring, it really brought me out of my shell for a day which really helped make the day much more enjoyable. It does suck tricking it to stay in a lower aperture but once you get the hang of it you get really fast at tricking it.

Hope that helps. Keep in mind, i haven't even started editing the footage but I watched quite a bit of it last night and I'm really excited to start messing with it.

Hey Brad,

I've shot all day with the 5D as well. You can check it out here on Vimeo: Ben and Sally - a 5D Mark II wedding video - HD on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/2824845)

Lots of 16gb CF cards and lots of batteries is all you really need. I've got four batteries and three or four 16gb CF cards. As Josh said, go the fastest cards you can get, no less than Extreme III's.

Warning: Once you start shooting with the 5D you'll want to sell all your other cameras :) Don't say I didn't warn you.

Cheers,

Matthew.

Hey Brad,
.............
Cheers,
Matthew.

By the way, congrats on making the EventDV TV top 25 list!

Very, very nice. It felt like I was there - sign of a great video!

I noticed another photographer; were you shooting stills for them as well?

By the way, congrats on making the EventDV TV top 25 list!

Thanks heaps Jason!

Very, very nice. It felt like I was there - sign of a great video!

I noticed another photographer; were you shooting stills for them as well?

Hey Dana,

Thanks! I was just focused on video for the day. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to borrow a 5D Mark II for the day so I did a 12 hour round trip to film that wedding. It was possibly the first wedding video in Australia shot with only the 5D - that's why I made the trip.

Cheers,

Matthew.

Wow guys, thank you so much for all the feedback so far.

Ok, so it's like this....(I know this is going to start sounding repetitive across multiple threads) but I'm going to have about $3,700 to drop on a new camera but I have to be very careful which route I go because that will be it for some time. I'm not afraid of the 5D. My close friend is a pro photographer, and I use to have a Letus so it wouldn't be so intimidating. I think the 5D would fit our style.

I just need to know what exactly I should get first if this is the route I choose to go. What a good general lens would be, speed of CF cards, WTB batteries, etc. I guess the first thing is seeing if I can even find one for sale from a reputable place.

PS- The Extreme III's are 30Mbps write speed. I thought the MKII was higher than that. (DP Review says 38.6Mbps) Is that right?

take care,
-Brad

Brad,
It worked for me already on several all day occasions, even in -4F outside.
Couple of wedding recently, that I shared here. I own two of 5D's

First congrats to Matthew for making the list.

I am envious that you guys can drop $ 3k easily to buy a camera, whereas I am still saving for my first HD Camera

...................I am envious that you guys can drop $ 3k easily to buy a camera, whereas I am still saving for my first HD Camera

Nothing comes easy friend. I am taking a HUUUUGE leap of faith (literally) on this side business that will hopefully bloom into something more fruitful. When you have the full backing and support from a wonderful wife, it just makes things a little easier. (or maybe a lot easier, haha.)

Nothing comes easy friend. I am taking a HUUUUGE leap of faith (literally) on this side business that will hopefully bloom into something more fruitful. When you have the full backing and support from a wonderful wife, it just makes things a little easier. (or maybe a lot easier, haha.)

+1

I got my new camera 2 weeks ago. It took me months of research, showing to my wife and "brain washing" her that I need this new camera. Hopefully I was able to put some money away from the tax return and also was assured by some of my customers (I do a lot of corporate gigs recently) that they will be very happy to pay a little more for HD quality. I felt sometimes that I was applying for a business loan - from my wife :-) But now it's here and I'm pulling all the strings to have that baby paid off in first 6 months after the investment. And my wife is happy to - she sees me working every evening on a videos.

Nothing comes easy friend. I am taking a HUUUUGE leap of faith (literally) on this side business that will hopefully bloom into something more fruitful. When you have the full backing and support from a wonderful wife, it just makes things a little easier. (or maybe a lot easier, haha.)

Brad, I am pretty sure you made the right choice. I am thankful for DVI, I now look at wedding videos on an entirely different point of view. I have stagnate the last 5 years & after seeing work from all the guys here, I woke up & found a new "life".

+1
I felt sometimes that I was applying for a business loan - from my wife :-)
:)
I know that feeling!
Its so easy to get caught up in the equipment side of the business, especially if you don't have kids, mortgage, college funds, car payments, family insurance premiums, IRA's etc. Its easy to think a piece of equipment will substantially improve what you can bring in, when what you do with the equipment is far more important.

That being said, the 5D MII is an exception. I just hope Canon will allow the tech to trickle into camera with manual controls that still accepts 35mm lenses.

First congrats to Matthew for making the list.

I am envious that you guys can drop $ 3k easily to buy a camera, whereas I am still saving for my first HD Camera

Hey Noel,

Thanks for that congrats mate.

A lot of hard work comes before dropping $3K on a new camera. That plus substantial loans which is the case for me. Keep saving mate, nothing worse than paying off gear that is obselete.

Cheers,

Matthew.

Are more wedding videographers or photographers buying it? Are people buying it to be able to shoot photo *or* video or photo *and* video? It's fascinating to see how this might change the industry, though I wouldn't want to become a photographer.

I just got back from Los Angeles where we shot a narrative short for 3 full and one half day with the 5D. I got the 5DII from Precision Camera (was a Dvinfo sponsor it seems until recently) on Saturday and we started shooting on Monday.

We used a borrowed (all Canon) 24-105 f4, I bought a cheap 1.8 50mm and the director has a 17-40mm f4. We used the wide in bathrooms, the 24-105 for most stuff that was run-and-gun, and the 50mm for shallow depth of field. I'll be using Nikon lenses once I get back to Hawaii.

I got a 16G Extreme III and we borrowed an Extreme IV and the director said the offload times were similar. The Extreme III is 30MBps and not 30Mbps so it is more than fast enough. We shot about 2.5 hours of footage a day so we emptied a card between locations. I kept the two batteries charging (one was borrowed) as much as possible and we never ran out of juice.

What I can say is to mainly verify what has already been discussed. The audio is a pain due to lack of live monitoring but the image quality is so amazing that the camera is incredibly useful. We shot a huge amount of clips each day doing half a dozen takes of many shots. We were able to shoot in ways not before possible because of the low light performance and small form factor. The ability to pull a camera out of a small bag and walk onto a bus and shoot the main actor in a linking scene without irritating the driver or other passengers is priceless.

PS- The Extreme III's are 30Mbps write speed. I thought the MKII was higher than that. (DP Review says 38.6Mbps) Is that right?

take care,
-Brad

Slight correction, in that the ExtremeIIIs are 30 MB/s which is 240Mb/s while the camera records at a variable bitrate between 36 and 42 Mb/s. The data rate of the ExtremeIIIs is far more than sufficient for the video file, on paper. The only issue is that the camera reacts slightly differently to using a UDMA compatible card. When using an ExtremeIV UDMA card, there will be less video noise in the clips. This is especially apparent in the darker parts of the image. We have done extensive testing of this, and the issue has been confirmed by Canon, although they haven't explained WHY that is the case. Anyhow, the ExtremeIV cards come in UDMA and non-UDMA varients. The UDMA versions are much more expensive, but there is a difference.

PS- The Extreme III's are 30Mbps write speed. I thought the MKII was higher than that. (DP Review says 38.6Mbps) Is that right?

the card speed is in megabytes/sec, the camera's data rate is in megaBITs/second - 38.6 megabits is equivalent to just under 5 megabytes - so the cards have plenty of headroom. Slower cards are actually fine in terms of the camera recording speed, but the faster transfer rates really make a difference when you're offloading from the card to your computer.

EDIT: just noticed Mark's reply above with the same info. The less noise thing is intriguing though as it would seem to be totally unrelated to card speed - the only logical explanation I can think of is that it's a temperature issue. It's feasible that the faster cards are more efficient and therefore run cooler especially since the camera isn't pushing them near their speed limits. Less heat from the card/circuitry may mean the sensor can run cooler (or shed heat more efficiently) and therefore generate less noise.