On 17/9/2008 Canon introduced the Canon 5D MK2, this camera has successfully proved to be revolutionary for filmmakers everywhere across the planet - for the first time Canon introduced an HD full frame DSLR that is great for really impressive video image recording.
This element was added by Canon mainly because journalists had been demanding it for a while and the unity between stills photography and video in the same device was quickly becoming viable.
Nobody was more shocked than Canon when Filmmaker Vincent Laforet was among the first filmmakers let loose on the completely new digital camera. His very first attempt Nocturne wouldn't disappoint, in truth it's no overstatement to say it set the field of film-making on fire. The real reason for this is that the substantial full frame sensor within the camera permits the operator to generate a truly lovely depth of field that old fashioned small sensor camcorders cannot reproduce.
The conventional film cinema look is tough to define but one of the significant elements is the depth of field that a 35mm film aperture generates. The Sensor (or film gate) in the Canon 5D is a great deal larger than the sensor found in a 35mm movie camera, actually it's closer to filming on 65mm.
Despite this astounding depth of field property and it's very swift adoption by the film making network, the canon 5D MK2 camera does have it's complications when filming video.
One of the major problems is line skipping or moire. The canon must get rid of information from the thousands of pixels that comprise it's sensor to ensure that it can create a 1920 X 1080 HD file. It does this by throwing out every third line of data - line skipping. This could be terrible if you're shooting a subject that has quite a few horizontal or vertical lines - as the image steps across the dumped lines of information it can look unpleasant. Normally I try to keep away from check shirts!
Another drawback is picture 'skew', this is recognizable when panning left to right quickly - vertical lines bend and twist noticeably - this is a difficulty on all CMOS video sensors but famously terrible on the Canon because it's scan rate from the top to the bottom of the sensor is very sluggish and there is no internal compensation. A solution to this is to simply stay away from any quick pans!
Another obstacle is definitely the 'form factor'. A DSLR is a very awkward form to film with, there is no focused eyepiece so only two points of contact - both hands. In a perfect world three points of contact are necessary to get a stable image whilst shooting hand held video. In the past two years a large number of proprietary camera support devices have been devised by a vast array of companies but they all fundamentally do the same task - supply one more point of contact by means of a shoulder or chest support technique.
The rear LCD monitor is generally problematic to look at in bright sunlight and there are various 3rd party items to cope with this, from low-cost hoods to pricey lensed eyepieces and additional video display units working off the built-in small HDMI port. There are lots of worries with the HDMI supply, most notably, it is quite delicate and fragile. Additionally there is a delay when feeding the image from the dslr to a monitor after hitting record, this means patiently waiting eight or nine seconds before acquiring a monitor visual. This can be maddening in a documentary situation.
The camera records in 8 bit quicktime H264 and even though this produces amazing pictures it isn't really deemed to be a pro recording file format due to the H264 data compression. Having said that the camera has been employed for a great number of TV dramas, documentaries and features. It's image attractiveness obviously outranking it's technical restrictions.
In spite of the stated problems, many film makers (including myself) put up with these grievances because Canon have turned out a seriously superb, creative, film-making device. When they can improve the stumbling blocks with the MK3 then they're going to have crafted a truly awesome camera at a astounding selling price.
This element was added by Canon mainly because journalists had been demanding it for a while and the unity between stills photography and video in the same device was quickly becoming viable.
Nobody was more shocked than Canon when Filmmaker Vincent Laforet was among the first filmmakers let loose on the completely new digital camera. His very first attempt Nocturne wouldn't disappoint, in truth it's no overstatement to say it set the field of film-making on fire. The real reason for this is that the substantial full frame sensor within the camera permits the operator to generate a truly lovely depth of field that old fashioned small sensor camcorders cannot reproduce.
The conventional film cinema look is tough to define but one of the significant elements is the depth of field that a 35mm film aperture generates. The Sensor (or film gate) in the Canon 5D is a great deal larger than the sensor found in a 35mm movie camera, actually it's closer to filming on 65mm.
Despite this astounding depth of field property and it's very swift adoption by the film making network, the canon 5D MK2 camera does have it's complications when filming video.
One of the major problems is line skipping or moire. The canon must get rid of information from the thousands of pixels that comprise it's sensor to ensure that it can create a 1920 X 1080 HD file. It does this by throwing out every third line of data - line skipping. This could be terrible if you're shooting a subject that has quite a few horizontal or vertical lines - as the image steps across the dumped lines of information it can look unpleasant. Normally I try to keep away from check shirts!
Another drawback is picture 'skew', this is recognizable when panning left to right quickly - vertical lines bend and twist noticeably - this is a difficulty on all CMOS video sensors but famously terrible on the Canon because it's scan rate from the top to the bottom of the sensor is very sluggish and there is no internal compensation. A solution to this is to simply stay away from any quick pans!
Another obstacle is definitely the 'form factor'. A DSLR is a very awkward form to film with, there is no focused eyepiece so only two points of contact - both hands. In a perfect world three points of contact are necessary to get a stable image whilst shooting hand held video. In the past two years a large number of proprietary camera support devices have been devised by a vast array of companies but they all fundamentally do the same task - supply one more point of contact by means of a shoulder or chest support technique.
The rear LCD monitor is generally problematic to look at in bright sunlight and there are various 3rd party items to cope with this, from low-cost hoods to pricey lensed eyepieces and additional video display units working off the built-in small HDMI port. There are lots of worries with the HDMI supply, most notably, it is quite delicate and fragile. Additionally there is a delay when feeding the image from the dslr to a monitor after hitting record, this means patiently waiting eight or nine seconds before acquiring a monitor visual. This can be maddening in a documentary situation.
The camera records in 8 bit quicktime H264 and even though this produces amazing pictures it isn't really deemed to be a pro recording file format due to the H264 data compression. Having said that the camera has been employed for a great number of TV dramas, documentaries and features. It's image attractiveness obviously outranking it's technical restrictions.
In spite of the stated problems, many film makers (including myself) put up with these grievances because Canon have turned out a seriously superb, creative, film-making device. When they can improve the stumbling blocks with the MK3 then they're going to have crafted a truly awesome camera at a astounding selling price.
About the Author:
The Article Author, Mitchell Blatwood is a film maker crafting winning program material designed for cinema, broadcast and corporate customers. He operates Tall Man Films and has more than a decade experience of corporate video cardiff. Take a look at the website for more free training.
No comments:
Post a Comment