Total control over 'Shutter' speed 1/40 to 1/8000 and 'ISO' workaround.

[James Miller]

Set up your cam us usual making sure your live view is on 'Movie Display'.
1/ Switch into live view.
2/ Release the lens 'Push the button' and twist then lens 1-2mm until the live view turns off. You may need to turn the lens slightly more to stabilize the image. (you will see)
3/ Turn on live view.
5/ Using a bright object you will be able to get the ISO at 100 and shutter from 1/40 to 1/8000 then lock it off.
6/ I lit the sink and filmed the water and fast pans to test. It's dark here so I can't test outside yet but it works well.

Notes:
Works best with fast lens's. (Takes more light i.e the sun to force slower lens to shoot fast)
I find with fast shutter speed I get 50Htz light strobing. No control over aperture shows '00' as expected. Be careful not to drop your lens. I think you might be able to isolate the pin/pins on the lens to mimic this. If you cover pin 4 (near the step) it will stay on live view when you twist the lens.

James

[Jon Fairhurst]

I assume that this is for Canon EF lenses. Do you first set the aperture, before twisting the lens?

It would be cool if one could rig wires and a switch. It would make it easy to go between photo and video modes, and would help avoid dropped lenses!

[James Miller]

Hi Jon, yes tested with ef lens. No aperture control, lens is wide open. Would work with adapter ring and Nikon lenses with manual aperture control.

I used tape on my contacts. If there is demand I sure someone will knock up a solution.

[Bill Binder]

This has been discussed elsewhere on the Net, but I don't have my cam yet so I haven't played around with this yet.

However, I believe you can gain complete aperture control using a similar technique, but I make no warranty over your camera. Try at your own risk.

Anyway, go into aperture priority (or manual), set your aperture as desired, press and hold DOF preview, and while holding it, twist the 1-2mm like discussed in this thread to disconnect the contacts. The aperture remains where it was, but shows up as 00 still. Or at least that's what I understand.

Give it a try and let us know the results.

[Evan Donn]

Originally Posted by Bill Binder

Give it a try and let us know the results.

Just tried it and it works exactly as you described, and is a reasonably quick way to set your desired aperture. The lens seems to hold solid enough in this position but I'd only use it in reasonably controlled situations where you didn't have to worry about the lens shifting anymore. Of course this also disables autofocus and image stabilization.

It's nice to know it can be done, but I really, really hate workarounds like this. It's just pathetic that we should have to jump through these kinds of hoops to make a professional tool work in a professional manner.

The sad thing is that Live View Exposure Simulation mode works exactly as the video recording function should; put it in manual and see exactly how every change affects your image as you make it... and then you hit record and watch it all go away, only to return immediately to where you want it as soon as you stop recording. If they would simply enable this mode to record video as is this would be a serious video tool; as it is now I'm not sure if I'll even keep the camera because of the lack of control, workarounds or not.

[Daniel Lipats]

Is there HDMI output in "Live View Exposure Simulation mode"? If so, maybe we could settle for the 1080i image and gain the manual control & record to another device?

[Jon Fairhurst]

I read in another thread that the HDMI output goes down to 480 lines during video recording. It also has the on-screen menus.

[Daniel Lipats]

Thats true but just don't hit record. Record the HDMI preview stream itself.

But I just remembered that the HDMI preview has the data overlay...

[Don Miller]

I don't see how the electronic "shutter" could be really operating at those very fast speeds.

[Don Miller]

Originally Posted by Daniel Lipats

Is there HDMI output in "Live View Exposure Simulation mode"? If so, maybe we could settle for the 1080i image and gain the manual control & record to another device?

I'm sure Canon has worked hard to not give us any high quality output.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Originally Posted by Don Miller

I don't see how the electronic "shutter" could be really operating at those very fast speeds.

The RED cams will have even more amazing electronic shutter speeds.

If the D90 and/or 5D MkII used the mechanical shutter for video, the on board mics would be completely unusable. If you watch/listen to the samples on the web, there's no shutter noise.

[Ryan Koo]

Someone needs to hack the firmware. Any genius hackers out there?!?

Obvious a massive undertaking, but we'd be EXTREMELY lucky to get a 25p firmware update out of Canon, much less any additional manual controls. The CHDK folks have done a tremendous job with DIGIC 3-based cams...

The thing with the 5dMkII is that the features are all there, it's not necessarily a matter of adding anything new, just changing when certain functions are live or deactivated...

[Jon Fairhurst]

...and slowing the capture to 24/25p would be a lot easier than speeding things up!

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

Originally Posted by Don Miller

I don't see how the electronic "shutter" could be really operating at those very fast speeds.

How come? It's an electronic shutter, it can run at just about any speed you tell it to...

I'd be more impressed at a mechanical shutter running that fast since a 2degree shutter would sure have to be precise since your exposure would be off up to a full fstop if it was 1 degree off.

I think 1/8000th shutter = 1.35degree shutter at 30fps.

Maybe you mean the pixel readout rate?

[James Miller]

Tiny test at 1/800 f2.2 50mm ef lens.

Canon 5D Mrk2 1/800 shutter f2.2 50mm iso 100 on Vimeo