Full HD on Canon EOS 5D Mk. II -- officially announced

[Dan Chung]

Having used the D90 I'd say an external monitor is a must for serious work, I assume the same will be true on the 5DmkII. Has anyone tried one of these Manhattan LCD yet?

Dan

[John Sandel]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

… right about the manual aperture, because the camera can't control the aperture at all then it can't automatically alter it. The big plus of this is that when you lock ISO and shutter on the EOS5DmkII you will still be able to alter the aperture, and hence the exposure, to your liking.

Thank you for that straightforward explanation. It makes the basic workflow clear.

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

… if you are going to shoot stills Canon lenses are the better option. We are talking movies here.

Yes. Precisely my interest.

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

For which lenses are best have a look at 16-9.net classifieds … ebay … zeiss, nikon or leica is the way to go, especially the cheap 50mm and 28mm lenses. You can of course look at Tokina, Tamron, Vivitar, old russian lenses etc etc

Thus, a world of glass, ranging from the dodgy to the priceless, to experiment with. I've been waiting for this facility in DV for some time.

[Tim Polster]

One question about manual aperature rings and the 5dII.

If you lock exposure in the camera, say at f4, then you put one of these lenses that have an aperature ring on the camera, what happens when you turn the aperature ring?

Do you get different shades of f4?

Because the body can not react to the changes because it thinks the aperature is locked down.

Sounds like a 35mm adapter kind of setup.

[Henry Coll]

how didnt i think about that before?

30p also comes with 30p related shutters, which are not a problem in NTSC countries, but anywhere where there's 50Hz (most of the world), lights will flicker like mad, totally ruinning the video.

therefore if it can only shoot at 30p, the 5Dmk2 could only be used under the sun in 50Hz countries. Use any light, or a mix of them, and footage will be awful.

this must be fixed. Canon must allow for 24/25p too.

[Christopher Witz]

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

One question about manual aperature rings and the 5dII.

If you lock exposure in the camera, say at f4, then you put one of these lenses that have an aperature ring on the camera, what happens when you turn the aperature ring?

Do you get different shades of f4?

Because the body can not react to the changes because it thinks the aperature is locked down.

Sounds like a 35mm adapter kind of setup.

With modern ( Nikon and Canon EF and others.. ) all communication between camera and lens takes place through electrical contacts; there are no mechanical levers or plungers.

when you put a fully manual lens ( older nikon with adaptor or contax C/Y with adaptor ) on a eos body, the camera reads "0" for the aperture. It has no idea what F stop the lens is set at... also... when you stop down the lens the image in the viewfinder will darken more per stop..... old school.

I have a few Carl Zeiss contax C/Y lens' that I put on mu 1ds3.... very nice ... but good "L" canon primes perform just as good, with the benefits of full control from the camera.

Also.... when shooting 1080p on the 5d2, I doubt one will notice the so called improved resolving power of the ziess lens'.

Also 2.... the manual focus rings on the EF lens are VERY smooth...... follow focus will be very easy as opposed to older fully manual lenses that are sometimes stiff.

[Dan Chung]

Your missing the point, with a EF lens you will LOSE manual aperture control on the 5DmkII after you lock exposure. With a manual lens you can adjust the aperture at will after locking the other variables. For run and gun this is essential.

Not ALL EF lenses have very smooth focus, yes I would agree good L glass can be just as good. The point is that it is also much more expensive than manual lens options. Also the look , or bokeh, of the lens will show on video. I for one prefer the look of some zeiss lenses over their Canon counterparts.

[Prashanna Jayaseelan]

We at our institution decided to put together what the Canon 5D Mark II would look like if it was up to videographers. Unfortunately we don’t have the 5D2 so we compromised by using the Canon 5d it was setup on the Varizoom DV Rig along with the Ikan 8″ Monitor and a senheisser on camera mic.

We wanted to give a feel for the kind of setup we would eventually be seeing next year, if 5DII takes off in the video industry (which most likely will). But I don’t see it taking over Video Cameras but that is a whole other topic.

Here is the link:
Canon 5d Mark II - Mock Setup Pics P-your VISION Productions’ Blog

[Philip Gioja]

Honestly I hope that they don't completely blur the distinction between the two - am I the only one that thinks that that would look a bit lame? I want a cooler-looking body -- I want to look different (read: cooler) than the photogs.

[Christopher Witz]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

Your missing the point, with a EF lens you will LOSE manual aperture control on the 5DmkII after you lock exposure. With a manual lens you can adjust the aperture at will after locking the other variables. For run and gun this is essential.

Not ALL EF lenses have very smooth focus, yes I would agree good L glass can be just as good. The point is that it is also much more expensive than manual lens options. Also the look , or bokeh, of the lens will show on video. I for one prefer the look of some zeiss lenses over their Canon counterparts.

little do we know about the 5dII... but I'd think you can still spin the wheels for iris from the body during vid shooting.... or at least have the iso automatically adjust. ( from the dpreview hands one..."Auto ISO in all modes except manual" )

[Gints Klimanis]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

Having used the D90 I'd say an external monitor is a must for serious work, I assume the same will be true on the 5DmkII. Has anyone tried one of these Manhattan LCD yet?
Dan

Yes, I have it. Check out this thread:
2 low cost HD field monitors - Page 3 - The Digital Video Information Network

[Tim Polster]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

Your missing the point, with a EF lens you will LOSE manual aperture control on the 5DmkII after you lock exposure. With a manual lens you can adjust the aperture at will after locking the other variables. For run and gun this is essential.

Not ALL EF lenses have very smooth focus, yes I would agree good L glass can be just as good. The point is that it is also much more expensive than manual lens options. Also the look , or bokeh, of the lens will show on video. I for one prefer the look of some zeiss lenses over their Canon counterparts.

I guess what is hanging me up is the question of if you lock the aperature in movie mode, will it be advanced enough to then recognize the manual aperature lens and let go of the lock you just put on it?

I would think it is either auto iris or locked down, no in-between.

So your manual aperature might have to operate within the f-stop selected.

This will all be clearer when a video person gets their hands on a model!

[Barry Gregg]

I think I might have to sell my 1Ds MkIII and my XL-H1 and get one on these instead. Save a bunch of money and have one camera that can do both stills and motion. Amazing.

[Mark Kenfield]

I was just on the phone with Canon's media reps and apparently they're not going to have any review samples of the 5DII here in Australia until December :( so we can't run a proper evaluation of the camera's video abilities until then.

I like that little setup you've put together Prashanna. Though as hilarious it looks, I think if you throw a mattebox on the front end of the lens most people won't know the difference!

[Tom Hardwick]

Just a thought. A pretty 'normal' 12x zoom on something such as a Sony Z1 takes you from 33 mm to 400 mm, and from f1/6 to f/2.8. The 20x zoom on the Canon XH-A1 is even more impressive.

Now have a look-see at what you can bayonet onto the new 5D Mk2. Having realised how limited the zoom range on offer is, take a look at the weight, price and speed.

Here's an example. One of the longest wide to tele zooms they do is the 28 - 200 and it's f/3.5 - f/5.6. So it's a 7x zoom that's 2 stops slower (that takes the edge of the low-light performance and dof control), costs £250 (£345 from Canon), takes 72 mm filter and weighs over half a kilo.

There's still life in the little 1"/3 chip yet.

tom.

[J. Stephen McDonald]

A couple of people have mentioned the much shallower DOF that the 5D will produce than dedicated camcorders. Some have expressed enthusiasm for focusing it manually. But, do they understand that with this large sensor, how much more precise the focusing adjustments will have to be than with a camera using 1/2-inch or 2/3-inch sensors? On movie sets where one scene may take all day to produce, setting the focus on 35mm or 70mm cameras is an art in itself and there's plenty of time to do it right. However, when you're out in the field with a video camera, many types of subjects have to be shot from the hip, so to speak. Often, there's little time for that level of focusing. I think that many people will find this camera problematic to use for some types of video shooting. I can imagine a lot of people who would buy it mainly for still pictures and who would use the video on a more casual level, might be frustrated with trying to get good footage. I doubt I would want it for wildlife, sports events and other subjects that move fast. The question might be, how well would the autofocus of the lenses it uses, work for this kind of video shooting? Or does the camera even drive the autofocus of the lenses, when it's in video mode? When I shot track meets with my full-size Beta, with a 9.5mm to 165mm lens, I could set the focus on the farthest point of the action and back off to about 3X when the runners came by close. With 2/3-inch CCDs, the DOF kept the focus sharp. How well could a manually-focused 5D handle this situation? What Tom just said about the value of small video sensors as opposed to the limited amount of zoom power, the cost and the weight of D-SLR lenses, also figures a lot into the overall practicality of the 5D for video.