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My thoughts about the 5DMrkII firmware update

October 20, 2009 By

A little bit eclipsed by the announcement of the 1DMrkIV, the announcement of an upcoming firmware update for the Canon 5DMrkII that would give it 24p and 25p is, for most people much more news worthy.

The first benefit of shooting in 24p is, of course, getting the elusive film look we have been talking about since almost a year.

I personally dont care too much for 24 vs 30p. The important element in this news for me is how Canon is going to implement this feature. Are they just going to drop down the frame rate so we can record longer clips or are they going to use the 20% saved bandwidth to increase the bitrate?

We wont know until next year (please make this January!), which make me wonder how it could be so long to implement such update.

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Details from the Afghanistan war coverage with the 5DmkII

October 17, 2009 By

First, if you have not seen this clip yet, watch it. It is interested in both its form and its content.

Battle for Hearts and Minds Trailer from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.

Next, go read Danfung Dennis explanations of how it was shot and the gear he used. I like his Glidecam setup, looking at the picture you can see how many plates he used to balance the rig. Having played with a Glidecam 4000 balanced for the 7D, I can confirm how much weigth one has to put on this thing to make it stable.

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Have you looked at the MagicLantern firmware recently?

October 8, 2009 By

Up until two days ago, I did not. Oh boy, was I in for a surprise! Trammel has been working hard and added a few cool features. Some of these will be in the next firmware update, so stay alert.

1080i output from the HDMI out of the camera

Why this is great? Because it allows us to use an external monitor such as those made by Marshall or SmallHD. The cool thing with these monitors is that some of them include special functions to ease focusing by applying a contrast based filter (similar of the highpass filter in photoshop), zooming, display live histogram, etc..

Cool stuff, mostly for people using the 5DMrkII to shoot films since it requires a bigger rig than what I could carry for my wedding jobs.

SMPTE Time code

If you need time code, you will be happy. If you dont, you wont care.

Warning

As always, you should understand that if you use the hacked firmware and blow up your camera, I cant be held responsible. The good news is  no one ever complained about an issue with the firmware so far.

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Arctic Surf Movie shot with a Canon 5DMrkII

October 1, 2009 By

A dew days ago, I was contacted by Yassine Ouhilal, a renowned surf photographer  who created a movie about people who were crazy enough to surf in the Arctic!

First, take a moment to watch the clip.

This is a preview of a yet to be shot full featured film on the subject.

Shooting in such harsh conditions is a real challenge and I asked Yazzy a few questions about it. [Read more...]

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5d Mark II vs 7D: why more megapixels is better for photography

September 29, 2009 By

With all the talks about the 7D, it might be a good time to step back and look at one of the most useful feature of the 5D Mark II: its high megapixel count. While the 7D is very close to the 5D in terms of pixels, the 5D still has about 20% more and, for someone like me, it matters.

Most people will tell you megapixel are just a marketing trick to lure less knowledgeable photographers toward “newer camera models”. While this claim is true for Joe Average trying to buy a new camera, for the serious photographer, megapixels are important. Even if you are not planning to print anything larger than 8×12, the more you have, the more comfortable you will be in your edit.

[Read more...]

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Need feedback on my secret product

September 27, 2009 By

Remember my hint from a previous post about a new secret product I was working on? Well, I am glad to say that prototype #1 is about to be completed and I am going to use it next weekend to test it out in the field.

If it proves useful, the next step will be to start manufacturing a small batch for resell but, before doing so, I would like to have some feedback from you guys. Basically, I can build it two ways:

• DIY style, which means it will look like a DIY project, made out of wood, etc…
• Pro level version which means painting everything black, curved corners, no nuts coming out of the module, etc..

Of course, one option is much more expensive than the other. This is why I would like to poll you guys about the importance of looks for you.

Notice I am not talking about features or prices, I just need to know if I should invest time in prettifying the whole thing or not.

Sorry if I don’t give more details but until I am ready to sell there, I rather keep everything secret to protect myself against copycats.

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List of 5D Mark II issues

September 24, 2009 By

Since I got my random flipping shutter issue, I have done a lot of Googling to see if other people have had the same issue.  During this process, I discovered a few other issues 5D Mark II owners might have and thought it would be a good idea to list them.

While looking at this list, remember that Canon has sold tons of these camera and most of them have no problems. The web is a big ecochamber where one person complaining can generate more noise than a thousand happy customer.

Random flipping shutter

In live view mode (while not recording) the shutter randomly start flipping. I already talked about it here. My camera is still at Canon for repairs. I will write back on this once I receive their incident report.

Burned sensor

This issue has been identified by extraordinaire photographer Sam Hassas. The guy is well known for framing the sun with his subjects to create big and nice sun flares. Go look at his stuff and see how cool it is. The downside of this technique is that it seems like he burned the sensor in four spot. Since he has been doing this for a while and probably shot thousand of stills framing the sun, there are probably no reason to panic but it is better to be aware of this.

We are still waiting for details but you can follow the thread here.

Black dot

While still present after the 1.1.0 firmware update, this issue is not getting a lot of press anymore. I guess people accepted the limitation and moved on to complain about the lack of 24p. You can read about it here.

24P

Some user have reported that they cannot shoot in 24p, citing this as a major issue. We are still waiting for an update from Canon to see if they aknowledge the problem.

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RAW video for Canon 5DMrk II and 7D? (Rumor) – Follow up

September 21, 2009 By

It seems like I forgot the most obvious output when I did my analysis of this rumor… The USB plug! I cant believe I forgot it! It has enough bandwidth to carry a RAW signal to the hypothetical module. It would basically be the same thing as when shooting in tethering mode, except for video. Suddenly, such a product looks much more viable (and still as desirable!).

Of course, we have no idea if it is remotely possible from a technical point of view and if the rumor is actually true. Lets just hope it does not come from the same guy who said a 24-70L2.8IS would come soon!

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Droplet for 5DMrk II and Beachtek DXA-5D owners

September 20, 2009 By

If you use a Beachtek DXA-5D to capture sound while recording with your 5D, you should take a look at the new droplet my friend Mathieu has created. The droplet convert the file to ProRes HQ and remove the low frequency used to disable the audio gain. Simple, but effective.

Get the droplet here.

If you would rather use other devices, take a look at this post on audio devices.

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RAW video for Canon 5DMrk II and 7D? (Rumor)

September 19, 2009 By

Robert saw this on Canon Rumors coming from the Red User forum:

“A little birdy just whispered something pretty remarkable into my ear. I cannot verify this AT ALL but rumor has it that Canon may be prepping to unveil a RAW or sRAW recording module for the 5D2, 7D, etc, which would record possibly via the CF card slot. Apparently they are being tested and used now.Will post more details later if I get any. Don’t know about framerates or RAW vs sRAW. And again, this is totally unconfirmed, from a single “high-placed” source.”

And the news has also been covered by Mitch.

While it is hard to give much faith in a rumor like this, still, I would like it very much to happen. Everyone who has been on this site for long enough knows that every single time I try to back a rumor, it blew up in my face. So, I am going to resist the urge and simply analyze the information we have so far. [Read more...]

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