» Posts Tagged ‘5dmarkii’
I mentioned previously that I’d shot a micro-short to test out the RED SCARLET, and here it is. To put the camera through its paces, we wanted to use it in a real-world setting instead of shooting charts in a studio — but we also didn’t have the time or budget to put together a “real” short. What we set out to make (and what we ended up with) is something more than a series of test shots, and something less than a proper short. This was a no-budget, quick production on which everyone donated their time. Let me know what you think! More »
I saw mentioned on a few other blogs that the price of the Canon 5D Mark II — still the only best full frame video camera in the world1 — had dropped to $2k. “Nice,” I thought, thinking back to how I paid $2500 for mine — but I wasn’t sure if that was cause for an entire blog post. Then I saw that, because of a price war, B&H is throwing in a whole bundle of stuff included in that $2k price: a SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card, a Lowepro Adventura 170 Shoulder Bag, and the Red Giant B&H Video Production Software Bundle (reportedly worth $720 collectively). And free US shipping. You’re not going to find a better deal than this — the only question is whether you’d rather wait for the next full frame HDSLR from Canon (which is the 1DX… which will retail for $7k). The 5D Mark III probably won’t be out for quite some time, given Canon needs to give the 1DX room the breathe. One other thing to mention: the Mark II has terrific resale value due in part to its excellence as a still camera.
The new iPhone 4S shoots 1080/30p video. No, I’m not saying you should use it to shoot a narrative film, but in terms of ubiquity we’re going to see a lot of footage from the 4S going forward — as an indicator of this ubiquity, the iPhone 4 is the single most popular camera on flickr. Those blurry cameraphone videos used on the news for eyewitness reports are certainly going to be a lot sharper, but how does the much-hyped new lens fare against the video quality of a Canon 5D Mark II? Here’s a shootout video from Robino Films, who set both cameras up on the same tripod and rolled simultaneous video: More »
I love the smell of fresh aliasing in the morning! Video/DSLR maven (and Man-child backer!) Philip Bloom first broke the news of the VAF-5D2 optical anti-aliasing filter for the Canon 5D Mark II, a $375 filter that promises to fix pesky moire issues on the venerable Canon DSLR. Now he’s got a full review of the filter (I have one on order, as I think it could extend the life of my 5D), which causes a negligible 1/8 stop of light loss: More »
As part of a guy’s night out I saw the new Conan: the Barbarian the other night and it was honestly the first time I found myself thinking in a theater, “this is soft — I could really do with a 4K image.” It was also the first time I thought, “I bet my five year-old nephew could write this.” But then I read an honest and insightful post by screenwriter Sean Hood on Quora, and the behind-the-scenes answer (especially with three credited screenwriters) is never as simple as “it was badly written.” Getting back to the first thought about 4K, however, internet TV show Film Riot asks the question: once compressed for the web, how different are the RED EPIC and Canon 5D Mark II? Of course there’s a big difference in the theater, but how about on your laptop? More »
Yesterday Philip Bloom dropped a bombshell on the HDSLR world, announcing that he’d found a filter that claims to fix most aliasing problems on his 5d Mark II — and that actually works. Earlier solutions have caused a loss of sharpness or didn’t work at all, whereas this $385 optical filter seems to genuinely eliminate moire on most lenses. Check it out: More »
Director Jason Wingrove has posted a number of beatific shorts filmed at the same Australian sea pool. This isn’t a scientific test by any means, as each short was shot on a different day; but while it may be difficult to compare cameras when what’s in front of the lens is different, it also makes for more interesting viewing since you’re not watching the exact same thing over and over again. Kudos to Jason for some beautiful shots. First up is the RED EPIC shoot, which was done at 120fps: More »
Among the dozens of booths touting cool gadgets at this weekend’s PhotoPlus Expo was Glidecam, whose camera stabilization devices (otherwise known in popular lexicon as, ahem, Steadicams) are always a hit on show floors. However, while it’s always easy to pick up a pre-configured device and take a few steps with it, the real trick with camera stabilizers is to spend the time to set them up and balance them just right. Because it’s by no means plug-and-play, Cristina Valdivieso from CanonFilmmakers.com has recorded a good how-to video for setting up a Glidecam, step-by-step: More »
Ever since Canon released 24p in a firmware update, DSLR shooters look for significant new features anytime a new firmware is released. However, version 2.0.8 of the 5D Mark II firmware, which was released today, appears to offer only bug fixes — nothing on our wish list. If you’re curious anyway, or want to upgrade to the latest firmware, here’s their breakdown of the updates in 2.0.8: More »
A couple of weeks ago, DP Timur Civan posted some stills on Cinema5D taken with an ancient 1908 Wollensak 35mm F5.0 Cine-Velostigmat hand cranked cinema camera lens. This diminutive lens produced some wonderfully atmospheric images (sans color correction, even). As someone who shot The West Side through the oldest Nikon lenses I could find, in order to give it the appearance of another time and another place (and by “oldest” I mean “cheapest”), I really appreciated these images. Now Timur has shot a video using the antique lens on his 5D Mark II, and it’s one of the most analog-looking videos I’ve ever seen from a DSLR: More »
By disabling the “write speed detection” failsafe of the Panasonic GH1, hacker Chris has doubled the GH1‘s AVCHD bitrate from 44Mbit to 86Mbit — a drastic increase over the camera’s stock speed of 17Mbit/sec. The culprit in limiting the previous incarnation of the hack to 44Mbit was apparently Panasonic’s desire to make the camera compatible with cheaper SD cards, thus placing an artificial limit on the SD write speed, independent of the actual speed of the card used — since removed by Chris. From EOSHD: More »
The forthcoming RED EPIC and ARRI ALEXA cameras both claim 13+ stops of dynamic range, which is just about equal to that of 35mm film. To me, dynamic range is a more important metric than resolution (others would disagree). Regardless, for those of us who own a 5D Mark II, how does our DSLR fare when measured against these high-end cameras? More »
Real-time High Dynamic Range imaging is coming soon to high-end motion picture cameras, and will likely change a lot about how moving images are captured and seen. In the layman’s hands the process is typically reserved for still images because combining two moving images in post is nigh impossible. But Soviet Montage Productions took two Canon 5D Mark IIs and cleverly used a beam splitter to feed each DSLR the exact same image. The resulting 1:30 clip is exactly the kind of camera demonstration that people love to Twitter about, whether the demo is significant or not. But here’s the thing about this clip (particularly the first shot): it’s gorgeous. More »
The season finale of House was famously shot on a DSLR, specifically the 5d Mark II. FOX doesn’t post full episodes online until 8 days after they air on TV, which is why the season finale hasn’t been available anywhere — until now. Here’s the DSLR-shot episode in full: More »
A quick heads-up for 5d Mark II shooters: there’s a new (seemingly minor) firmware update out there. Of the three listed fixes, the only one that piques my interest is the first: More »
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Jacques E. Bouchard: *fared. Writing is still the most important part of filmmaking. 'Joy Ride,' the First Nikon D800 Test Film