So Close Canon
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 12:29AM 
The 5D MkII has been officially announced, and the features match most of what was rumored, including a 1080p movie mode.
At 30 frames per second.
Remember how I said how stunning it was that Nikon chose 24 fps for the D90’s D-Movies? How it could have so easily been anything else? How if Canon came out with a movie-shooting DSLR that shot 30p I’d be less than thrilled?
Well it’s worse than that. Because a 5D that shot 24p at full HD resolution would have been a very important camera. For Canon to have come so close and botched that one detail is almost unbearable.
Maybe we can get Canon to offer a 24 fps mode in a future firmware update. Someone point me at Canon’s headquarters. I need to stand on their lawn with a boombox over my head.
UPDATE: Featured Comment from Joe:
I sometimes think that Canon has a pathological fear of true 24P. They have avoided serious contention to be the Indy filmmaker’s video camera year after year because of this.
30P is not only useless in relation to 24P (and film) -
it is actually dangerous.
Reader Comments (65)
Im a little suprised everyone is complaining so much. With a sensor that large and some decent prime glass, it should be capable of some great dynamic range and very short depth of field.
Im interested to know if I can use the HDMI out on the 5dmk2 as a 1080p stream to capture with a Black Magic Intesity.
If so it would be a great uncompressed capture for studio shoots, as the HDMI out would be BEFORE compression.
Anyone have any info on this?
I would be more concerned about AF, IS, etc., usability during video mode than the recording frame rate. Sure, 30 fps is only useful for NTSC TVs, but I suspect it would take maybe a week or two at most before somebody hacks the firmware and changes 30 or 29.97 to 23.976.
I'm personally interested in the 5Dmk2 as a still camera and have no interest in using one for video. That said, I'm intrigued by Stu/Joe's repeated comments regarding 24fps vs 30fps and was hoping for some more info.
I understand the difficulties in converting between the two... what I don't understand is why we aren't all using 60fps (or higher). These days most cinemas are tending to be digital, most monitors/tv's are 120Hz. Why would someone choose 24fps? What is it about 24fps that you prefer?
Canon did not botch anything. By not offering 24p they are protecting their pro video cams.
Protecting them from what sr99? From people buying another Canon product instead?
I second info's comment: what about the hdmi output? can we record pal/60i/25p/24p/... from it? The camera should work with PAL tv's. Also- I tried CC'ing the fullrez samples from dpreview.com in AE and got some nasty macro-blocks. What do you think, Stu? Will Cineform capture. bypassing comperssion, will do the trick? Let's do some creative thinking here, instead of complaining.
I'm getting this camera next year, and will be shooting action with it (skateboarding), so I prefer the 30fps. But, a mode to switch between 30 & 24 would be nice.
I just called Canon about the 5D-MII (in US, press the 3rd option) and the guy was VERY helpful, and when I mentioned that I needed REAL 29.97 (instead of 30.00 fps), and 25, 24, and 23.976 fps options, and how important that is for proper video editing (29.97) and for indie filmakers (24p), he wrote everything down to the company's INTRANET feedback form.
I suggest everyone doing so! It's a free call, it only took me 2 minutes, and they were very receptive for the feedback!
Awesome Eugenia! Could you post the number you called? I'll create a new post asking people to call it.
Boombox hoisted!
Sure! I called 1-800-828-4040, for the US. I pressed then the 3rd option, and the guy was set up to take feedback immediately (no wait).
I asked for the following:
1. Offer the option of 29.97 and 25.00 fps instead of just 30.00, because when you import any frame rate that's not exact as expected in an NTSC or PAL timeline, the video editors usually resample (instead of re-timing) and this creates ghosting in the final. Only Vegas has a manual way, and AE through a plugin, to fix this -- other editors don't. So this 30.00 is a dangerous option to have for editing, especially as most people don't know about this.
2. Offer 24.00 (film) and 23.976 (IVTC film) as options too. I specifically told him that these frame rates are very important to indie filmmakers and without them none of them would consider this product.
He wrote everything down, and he submitted the form to his intranet, he said. He was open in the feedback, and fast to deliver.
All these comments about Canon protecting their "Pro Video" line. What line would that be exactly? Canon certainly makes Pro Video lenses, but I'm not sure what camera they'd be concerned about cannibalizing sales from by offering 24P in a DSLR. (Anyway, as cool as this would be, and as useful for VFX types, is anyone really going to replace a high-end HD camera with a DSLR? I see this as potentially being a really handy auxiliary camera, not an 'A' camera.)
To Stu, Jesse.
Canon, unlike Nikon, is heavily invested in pro video cams (canondv.com) and 24P is in demand from a lot of indie/documentary type film makers. If Canon bundled high end slrs and pro video cam features (like 24p) into one package, they would cannibalize the sales of their own video cams.
It would be interesting to see how Nikon, with zero investment in video cameras, integrates video camera features into its slrs.
sr99, please see my response to that in the comments of the next post:
http://prolost.blogspot.com/2008/09/dear-canon-24p-please.html
Any idea if the HDMI is 8-bit or 10-bit 4:2:2 uncompressed ?
Aaron, I read somewhere that the choice of 30p was simply down to the fact that this is the frame rate on Japanese TV. Not much creative thinking from Canon on this count. I'm not even sure how much these guys are or are not aware they've come within a whisker of releasing a true bomb in the movie-making / video market. Then maybe they don't even see it as a movie-making tool with humongous potential. I dunno.