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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Canon 5d MK II professionally shot footage

On the spot. :)
 
Quite a budget for demo footage!

Spend the same money and time and lens quality on a Red demo and then compare. Wait, Peter Jackson did that a couple years ago with a pre-production model and early, early build and it was at a whole other level than this stuff.

However, my bigger concern is the workflow, on set monitoring, audio, follow-focus and matte box mounting?

-shooter
 
It is what it is

It is what it is

It is OK for what it is : 30fps (the file actually is slowed down to 29,97), with a rather smooth esthetics, which Canon does not allow the user to modify or parametrize.

Rolling shutter: you see it at several occasions, but it is not really a "show stopper" as for the D90. Once, you see a fiickering on the GPS, that is really ugly, and there is a shot with the camera handheld in the car. It is not easy to actually see the wobble, but the shot is short as well. Looking at the frames, it is there, but there are prosumer camcorders out there that are worse.

So, if you take the video function of the 5D II for what it is and not for what it is not, it can be a fun creative tool.

We will now wait for RED's "answer" :-))) and yes, go for it, the market has just grown sooo much. Canon will be the machine to promote RED to a wider public.
 


Dude, I don't care... that footage looked freakin awesome... and it was not locked off or static. Some of those shots were epic wins no matter how you slice it.

The only thing is, they should offer that at 1080p so we can see if it will really hold up at that res.
 
shooter said:
Quite a budget for demo footage!

However, my bigger concern is the workflow, on set monitoring, audio, follow-focus and matte box mounting?

-shooter
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts. Canon needs to trickle this technology to their Camcorder division. NAB 2009 is going to be Historical. Otherwise I am sure other after market companies ala Element Technica is going to flood the market with 5D cine accessories.
 
That clip is a great example of the potential the camera holds. I think it's fairly obvious whoever shot it is a great stills photographer... The images are top notch, but the camera work, directing and editing show much room for improvement. In any case, I can't find any severe skew problems, not that there isn't any, but not any worse than an EX1 (my personal POV), light sensitivity looks superb, and the prospect of all that quality in a dslr form factor that I can take with me anywhere and at a price point I would be willing to sacrifice to the crash cam gods for the sake of a great shot has me all excited about it. YMMV. :)

Cheers.
 
Canon and Nikon produce compressed (H.264) RGB. Red's answer will be compressed (wavelet) RAW. It will set them apart just by that; significantly!
 
If they can go 30 why can't they easily make a 24p mode?
Is it just a software thing if it can do 30 now?
 
This 5DII looks fantastic in low light... at that rez.
I'm betting it'll also be great at 1080P.
But while I like a lot of the shots, the whole thing feels very video. Oversharpened, a bit jerky, video.
I could also see some of the limitations of the form factor still being stills-oriented. This will be equalized as accessories are adapted or created to fill this purpose.
If I didn't have confidence that Scarlet would be much better from a pure output and editing standpoint, I'd probably get one and use it with a G adapter for my Nikkors.
 
I wonder why they did not offer this as a 1080p sample? Hhmm. Canon is obviously paying for the bandwidth, so that's not an issue.

Once you see video that beautiful, then you start to think about more practical matters, like how you would pull focus, etc.

One potentially very interesting aspect to all of this is the Cineform HDMI recorder....

http://www.cineform.com/products/CineFormRecorder.htm

I can imagine building a cinema camera type rig for the 5Dm2 with a recorder like this.... you might really get some great stuff, if the recorder could grab 10-bit 4:2:2 off the HDMI port, for example.

I'm sure the 24p thing can be addressed with firmware (or a hack?), but the two remaining issues are: No RAW, and no overcranking.
 
I think he made a mistake about that. I hope he's right, but I think if it could shoot RAW, Canon would be hyping that fact.
 
I thought it looked very video at times (popped highlights, that smeary motion cadence as he runs up the steps and grabs the flowers) - on statics and slow pans it looked okay. Some noisy shadows in the night exteriors - but hey, if it avoids a lighting truck and four sparks I'm sure a producer would be happy.
 
It's awesome. I was going to buy a d90 but now I think I'll get one of these... after we hear what Jim has to say about the new red still. I like my 5D a lot. I also like my RED a lot.
 
Not RAW, unprocessed

Not RAW, unprocessed

Tom said:
I think he made a mistake about that. I hope he's right, but I think if it could shoot RAW, Canon would be hyping that fact.
Click to expand...

No, he means that there was no post processing of colours etc. And I think that is the price of the absense of a RAW format : you have to decide the look before the video gets compressed to H.264. This is what he has done, fixed picture style, white balance and brightness, etc, and the out-of-the-cam footage looks like that.

I think on some shots there is saturation (of the red channel) on the skin, that is the price of going down to 8 bit at the shot.

Still, very impressing and best "bang-for-bucks" out there.
 
But the truth is in 1080 full resolution.
Speculating now when you see only compressed H.264 to ¼ resolutions, that is already compressed, is counterproductive.
Let’s them post downloadable 1080p format and only then we will judge this material, based on technical merits. Judging on artistic merits and artistic skills is not the issue here.

Sure it is not the RAW so you can’t edit the clips, it is like shooting in JPG format and tries to edit in PS or Light Room. Once you get the clips you are locked to what you shot at that time.

I just want to see how prosumer cameras output compares to it.

Well, even 1080 doesn't compare to prosumer cameras, Canon 5D doesn’t offer any features for filming but I want to compare anyway. After all it is the first attempt of DLSR to include capture of moving pictures.
 
The lighting was a bit rough for a film style footage, a sort of "professional" high photo shots in a way but all look pretty "kitsch" and pretentious at the end.

Even f/1.2 wide open lenses were not fast enough if you don't have RAW files.

RED has RAW files that you could process somehow in a similar way (RED Alert, RED Cine) as a film in laboratory.
 
I don't see why you need to defend RED all the time. Scarlet will kick 5D's *perse hands tied behind its back, but the Scarlet is not out there yet. Anyone with some fun glass for the Canon will find it hard to resist at this point, especially when you could be holding one in your hands in december, this year.

*finnish
 
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