Canon announces free 24p / 25p update for EOS 5D Mk. II

[Chris Hurd]

Agreed, nothing new here really; merged w/ our existing 5D Mk. II firmware update thread.

[Peter Berg]

Has anyone any ideas/rumours as to when the release will happen? I got a shoot at the end of Jan I'm planning for - be very handy to know when it's coming out....
cheers

[Andy Wilkinson]

"Early 2010" is all I've read around the web - not exactly specific enough for your needs just yet ...

[Peter Berg]

thanks Andy - here's hoping !

[Jim Froom]

Sometimes I base my observations on common sense and gut feelings. I've watched the video a few times and if I HAD to bet what we are going to get, I'd go with the 4 modes shown on the screen from Tim Smiths presentation. I've watched the video a couple times, and while I wouldn't bet my house or life on the 4 capture rate modes, I would make a bet that we will get those 4 modes on the 5DmII.

This firmware is a long time in the making. Canon is a big company with lots of resources. It would be stupid to not give the 5DmII the same modes as it's cheaper brother the 7D.

I have both and editing them together is too much extra work. I need the same rates/modes on both cameras.

The 5DmII was first delivered the last week in Nov 08. Until two months ago, they were still back ordered. Many people believe the film/video purchases are a small part of the overall sales, but I'd guess they are substantial. My guess is this is a HUGE profit center for Canon. Why not make it better and spurn some more sales to keep the money train going? I know I'm excited for a Jan/Feb release. Again, Jan/Feb is a guess, a gut guess.

[Bill Binder]

I don't think it's about them being "stupid" or not, I think it's about the hardware capabilities of the 5D2. But, if it can be done, I agree with you, it'll be the same as the other models.

However, in terms of it being a huge profit center, I guess it depends on how you think about it. It could be just cannibalizing high end video camera sales, in which case it's a huge profit suck. Also, I think you may be surprised by how few sales are from primarily video people when compared to primarily photography people, I'd be shocked if it was even 5% of sales to be honest.

[Mike Williams]

From my personal experience Canon was no where near my radar until the 5D. I now have the 5D ( sold my Nikon D300 and all Nikon lenses ) along with three L series lenses, some old nikon glass and a few non L lenses, macro 100, 15 fish eye.

How many times would you say that needs to happen to make Canon some money:) I can't even begin to imagine how many people have not bought other brands cameras and gone with the 5D, so I have to disagree that it could be a profit suck.

I am happy with the 30p but would really like to try 24p. I read about the 7D overheating in warmer climates so that is OUT for me.

[Andrew Clark]

Well Philip Bloom stated on his blog that the screenshot in the video is NOT the 5d but the 1d mkIV. How he knows this is not quite clearly stated.

720/60p would be an awesome option to have BUT ..... I've seen a few posts on the 7d threads (and in other forums as well) that a few owners have experienced overheating problems when utilizing the 720/60p mode. So I don't know if the same would apply for the 5d since the 7d has two digic processors vs. one for the 5d.

[Zsolt Gordos]

Originally Posted by Bill Binder

However, in terms of it being a huge profit center, I guess it depends on how you think about it. It could be just cannibalizing high end video camera sales, in which case it's a huge profit suck. Also, I think you may be surprised by how few sales are from primarily video people when compared to primarily photography people, I'd be shocked if it was even 5% of sales to be honest.

Bill, there might be a flaw in this logic. Canon does not have high end video portfolio as of today. In their video department they have not responded to the tapeless challenge of Sony EX series and stuck with HDV format with their so called "high end" cameras, in the same time they came up with a ton of consumer HD cameras. Apparently their response was nothing but HD recording with their still cameras.
If they wanted anything from video guys, this was the only thing they did for about 2 years. Your 5% is just a guess, right? I think its not more than 5% overall who went to the Canon route with prosumer HD video.
On the other hand Canon is the only one today that can give you the desired film looking DOF out of the box without the overpriced spinning glasses sitting on crippled looking and ridiculously long rigs. If you don't want that hassle you buy into an another, which is the limitation of the VDSLR of these days. But for the latter you pay only the fraction of the price.

One day Canon's move will be listed in the marketing books as another example of blue ocean strategy, where they have created their own market by value innovation and involved people who would not buy pro video cameras otherwise and attracted many who would have bought a competitor.

In the meantime they have kept their costs low (no entirely new video cam line development, just a video add-on to their SLRs), also compensated their late response to the tapeless HD challenge. With the introduction of the really low cost 7D they will involve more and more people who previously had nothing to do with pro HD.

And - additionally - they will boost the sales of their glasses. Smart.

[Bill Binder]

I'll buy most of that, makes sense to me.

The 5% was just a guess, but I'm not sure it's being interpreted the way I meant. I was just saying that it's my personal belief that there are orders of magnitude more people buying the 5D2 primarily for photography as opposed to buying it primarily for videography. That's not to say the new segment isn't wildly important, but just saying make no mistake, it's a stills camera first and foremost, and I personally believe that's why the overwhelming majority of people buy one.

[Evan Donn]

The numbers are sure to be fuzzy because there's probably a lot of crossover in use between still & video, but here's how I look at it:

# of Vimeo clips tagged 5DmkII: 3,096

# of Flickr photos from the 5DmkII: 37,925

a 10x difference, not that huge until you realize that the vimeo stat is all time - while the flickr stat is for yesterday. The flickr all time count is 8.5 million. So while it's not a precise method I think it pretty clearly indicates the usage overwhelmingly skews towards still photography.

[George Chinn]

Hi Guys,

I think this might have gone under the radar, so thought I'd bring it up again.

Originally Posted by George Chinn

Hello all,

I went to the launch of the 1D Mk IV at Park Cameras in Burgess Hill, UK. Whilst there I chatted to the guys from canon about the 5D MkII. I managed to glean the following.

1) The update should be available in Jan/Feb

2) It should include 50p 60p (although he sounded a little sketchy about this)

3) The AGC will remain in place

I had a little play with the 1D Mk IV but no memory cards were allowed as the cameras where pre production, so I couldn't really tell much from the LCD on the camera with regards to image quality, although saying that the LCD itself is very nice, and an improvement over the 5D MkII.

I hope this is of interest to people.


All the best,

George

[Peer Landa]

Originally Posted by Evan Donn

# of Vimeo clips tagged 5DmkII: 3,096

# of Flickr photos from the 5DmkII: 37,925

a 10x difference, not that huge until you realize that the vimeo stat is all time - while the flickr stat is for yesterday. The flickr all time count is 8.5 million. So while it's not a precise method I think it pretty clearly indicates the usage overwhelmingly skews towards still photography.

Well, to me your argument is like comparing apples to pumpkins -- I'm one of those who bought the 5DMKII for video only, but yet, I've shot more stills with it than videos, (unless you count my videos as 30 individual stills per second ;^)

However, when it comes to the time I've used the camera, it's more like 99% video vs 1% still photography, if not even less, (I use a different SLR for still gigs).

-- peer

[Tom Roper]

Originally Posted by Zsolt Gordos

Canon does not have high end video portfolio as of today.

They do if you count the fact they make the most high end glass for 2/3 eng cams.

[Jon Fairhurst]

I'm in the same situation as Peer. I can snap a photo in the time it takes the firmware to boot. I generally shoot RAW, but if I shoot JPGs, I can connect a USB cable and upload and huge number of snaps.

Making a film? That takes more time. :)

Personally, I was not remotely in the market for a still camera. Had my wife told me to get an SLR, I would have resisted spending over $500. Then Canon releases the 5D Mark II and within a month, I dish out $2,700 for the thing, as well as money for memory cards, spare battery and lens adapter. Not to mention the money I've spent on lenses and other accessories since then.

I had looked at the HVX200 and then the 170 and never pulled the trigger. Had RED released Scarlet on the schedule they announced at NAB, I would have bought that. When the D90 came out, I really wanted that to be my camera, but the codec and rolling shutter didn't make the grade. When the 5D Mark II came out, my D90 budget more than doubled overnight.

The 5D Mark II is really a breakthrough product. It broke through my bank account barrier and removed my money - while leaving me smiling. :)