Zacuto product video

With the release of the CAnon 5DMrkII (and to some extend the Nikon D90), a whole new industry is taking shape: low budget film making. As with the coming of any new market, a supporting industry has to take shape. A few suppliers have already stepped in and my favorite so far has to be Zacuto. They have released a video showcasing their product on Vimeo.

While the price of these accessories might seem high, actually they are in comparison to the price of the camera, you have to see them as long term investment. What ever you upgrade to in the future, they will always work.

I am sure we will see some China manufacturers sell knockoff of these soon, if you are willing to run the risk of the mount falling apart during shooting. 

Most useful item of the kits: the follow focus! I am working right now on a ghetto version of it involving rubber bands and wood sticks, I am not kidding.

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Link: Photography Bay D700 vs 5DMrkII noise face off

Photography Bay released an interesting comparison between the 5D and the D700. The goal of the test was to see how each body performed in low light at high ISO. 

While I am happy the 5D came on top, it had to be expected since it is a more recent model and images were down-sampled to the lower denominator. As it is pointed out in the review, there are no totally objective way to make these reviews since so many parameters come into play.

That being said, I disagree with his conclusion stating that Canon should have kept the pixel count lower to have a better ISO performance.

First, down-sampling the pictures shows the 5D already has great performance at the 12 megapixel EPD (Equivalent Pixel Density, just made that up). So, as long as you dont need the full image resolution (when is the last time you printed a A2 anyways?), you know you are going to have a lower noise image.  

The other reason is flexibility. I rather have the choice between noise and resolution than no choice at all. 

People tend to forget that high resolution is required for:

  • Straighten crooked pictures (if you zoom out a bit when taking the shots)
  • Photoshop manipulations

My conclusion after looking at the review? Another test must be done against the D3 just to fuel some brand war, and as luck would have it, I have access to a D3. Stay tuned!

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Exposure control videos from Bruce Dorn

Bruce released 3 very informative video on his website about how you can control the exposure of the Canon 5DMarkII using neutral density filters. The principle is simple: if there is too much light, the camera will close the aperture, which in turn will increase the depth of field. The solution is to use the filters to reduce the amount of light that goes into the camera, so it opens up (automatically) it aperture, and create a nice bokeh in the process.

Quick recap:

Video 1: shows the various filters and explanations

Video 2: explain the advantages of 4×6 filters vs 4×4

Video 3: example of the video captured

Over all the whole thing last about 20 minutes and it is a good investment if you want to shoot video with your 5D. Go and watch it! My only complain is that Bruce did not show the one thing I was interested to see: Depth of field changes controlled by the circular variable ND filter. 

Note: you can also use a circular “normal” polarizer to do the job, it is just that the variations are between 0.5 and 2 stops so you will only see much of the difference if you are in medium lights.

Link: Bruce Canon 5D markII section

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Manual focus confirmation

This is something written in the manual, but I have noticed that few people know about it, and even less read the manual. So I thought it would be a good idea to write about it. 

When you are in manual focus mode, if you half-press the shutter button, the camera will beep and highlight the squares that are in focus. This is a great way to get a confirmation when you are not sure if you are in focus or not. Of course, it cant be trusted at 100% (else why would we use manual focus in the first place?) but it can be useful. 

The best way to use this trick is to activate all autofocus points so when one blinks you know where the focus is in the frame.

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Canon 5DMrkII video mode tutorial (video)

I saw this gem on Vimeo. While it does lack some production quality, it is a very good primer and first time video tutorial for anyone who just pull his 5DMkII out of the box.


How To Use Video Mode on the Canon 5D MK II from Tyler Ginter on Vimeo.

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Where should you upload your video?

With the increasing number of 5D owners (ok Nikonist, D90 owners too!), we have to expect the number of high def movies to increase dramatically in 2009. In fact, I am certain that most of the quality video content of 2009 will be shot in 35mm. Would it be a D-SLR or a DV cam with a 35mm adapter. 

So, the question is: where should you upload your video? While the most popular choice would be YouTube, after some testing I found Vimeo to be much more fun to use and features rich. The community is also much more mature and most important, spammer free. I will do a more in-depth post about it soon but for now, just go and give it a try!

Note: dont miss the HD channel.

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Another ‘official’ 5D video from Canon

There is another behind the scene video on the Canon USA website about the 5DMarkII. This time, it is with Bruce Dorn (famous wedding photographer). While the production quality is not as good as with Reverie, it is very informative to see how he works and his setup.

Warning: you might be subject to gear lust.

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Reverie Video

 The home page of Vincent Laforet is now hosting the famous Reverie video which started all the buzz about the 5dMarkII. There is also a discussion with Vincent about the production of the video on the Canon site too.

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