Dublin's People
Monday, September 7, 2009 at 10:44PM Two days ago I wrote of the Canon 7D that “there is no Reverie video to erase all doubts about its capabilities.” Philip Bloom has changed that with Dublin’s People.
Yes, it’s a camera test more than a short. You could even call it Bokake. But it looks freaking great and should be enough to convince folks that you can have your DOF cake and eat it too with an APS-C sensor, as long as you’re willing to invest in fast glass.
Philip did everything right, including sticking to a 180 degree shutter (1/50 at 24p and 1/100 at 50p) and thinking of the frame rates other than 24 fps as opportunities to overcrank for 24p playback.
I took the Canon 7d, Zacuto Tactical rig, Z-Finder V2 and one lone lens, a Canon 35mm f1.4, which becomes more like a 50mm lens on the 7d…
Image wise, it’s very similar to the 5dmkII. Sure it isn’t as sexy image wise, but it is pretty close. It is a tad less sensitive than the 5dmkII but only just. This is as expected due to the smaller sensor. Also I would say it is a little bit noisier image wise than the 5dmk2. But not too much.
For me the thing i love most about the camera is the different frame rates. I can shoot full HD 24p, 25p and of course 30p BUT really excitingly I can shoot 720p 50p and 60p which although when played back at normal speed locks horrible and video like to me it means you can easily tell your editing system to play it back at 24p or 25p or 30p and get a lovely in camera slow motion. I have missed slow motion since using the 5dmk2 so much.
More here.
Log in to Vimeo and download the 1080p24 original and watch it big. The 7D is gonna do just fine, flaws and all.
Reader Comments (36)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AZtWGB1Khc
Needs more subway.
Thin lizzy... Philip Bloom knows what 's good music
Cool imagery. It sure is bokake but it's a nice showcase for the cam.
Looks like Philips workshop was a lot of fun, too!
I'll say it again: I don't get it.
If Canon can put out this camera – at this price – why can't they have a Scarlet-killer to market within the year?
What's stopping them making a camcorder shaped, APS-C sensor-sized, compact-flash-based, digital-cinema camera with proper audio-in, improved "anti-jello" hardware and firmware, and a great-for-the-price (built-in?) "kit" lens with similar characteristics to their SLR kits?
Is it that the CMOS issues run deeper than they care to admit, that Jannard et al. are truly on to something qualitatively better, and that as long as they (Canon) keep saying "it's really a still camera, video is just a bonus, deal with it" they don't have to admit that fact? (I'm not trolling – I'm genuinely curious.)
Is this imagery raw? How much post trickery pokery has gone into the final image we are seeing?
I'd like to see what the camera can do with a shit piece of glass on the front, because I think that is ultimately what most of us will be using.
The 7D is a none issue for me (which is good since of a full time editor on drastically reduced hours). Living in the US , my work flow for editing (ex-CMX, current Avid & FCP) is to routinely convert 30 fps to 29.97 and
Prores. This is not as much as a leap as from 30 to 24/25. Its all cake from there. No new lenses or cameras are needed.
In fact as soon as Glues Tools release its lLog & transfer plugin for FCP
(ProRes 422 Transcoding, Time Code track and Reel Name for clips, Will build a Disk Image file (a .DMG file) and clone the memory card, not only preserving the imagery and movies, but all of the related metadata associated with the footage)
this process will be streamlined and stamped and archived!
The 7D is a none issue for me (which is good since I am a full time editor on drastically reduced hours). Living in the US , my work flow for editing (ex-CMX, current Avid & FCP) is to routinely convert 30 fps to 29.97 and
Prores. This is not as much as a leap as from 30 to 24/25. Its all cake from there. No new lenses or cameras are needed.
In fact as soon as Glues Tools release its lLog & transfer plugin for FCP
(ProRes 422 Transcoding, Time Code track and Reel Name for clips, Will build a Disk Image file (a .DMG file) and clone the memory card, not only preserving the imagery and movies, but all of the related metadata associated with the footage)
this process will be streamlined and stamped and archived!
Hee hee Bokake. I think you have coined a new term there for annoying web reels.
Stu - just as an FYI - I posted Philip's two videos together - with the 7D and the 5D2 - makes an interesting side by side..
http://blog.planet5d.com/bjd
Ben Richardson:
Canon hasn't made a sub-$2,000 digital-cinema camera because the market's way too small. You're absolutely right, the technology is all there, but to configure a camera with all the features and the price you (and I) would like might not be worth it to them. As to the issue of rolling- vs. global-shutter CMOS imaging chip, I think the argument that a global-shutter chip would be too expensive is pure BS. Sure, it's expensive now, but if there were the will to develop one, it would, like all technology, get cheaper over time. Once again, myopic thinking has resulted in the conclusion that too few people need or want a global-shutter CMOS chip.
@Adz: This footage is ungraded, the only trickery being that some 720/50 footage (eg the shots of the juggler) have been dropped into the 1080p timeline for a slow motion effect (and when playing it back, it's startling how ell the 720p cuts in with the 1080p, even at 100% resolution). So what you're seeing is what comes out of the camera.
I spent about an hour last night doing some sloppy 3-way color correction and pushing the exposure around. The yellow cast is from sodium-vapor streetlights which are widespread in Dublin. It was easy to get a more natural grade just by pulling the mids and highs towards blue-green a bit. You'll see artifacts from adjusting the exposure too much of course, but it's surprisingly flexible, even on extremely contrasty shots (eg 01:36 with the bright streetlights blowing out).
As far as I know this was shot with default settings for contrast, saturation etc. - for a real project you'd either dial down the contrast a little or find some way to add fill light and stop down a little. For uncontrolled and unplanned shooting conditions, it's amazingly good.
Just to put the compression in perspective, the original uploaded MP4 file is 8.5mbits/sec which is around 1/6th the original data rate for the camera. Bloom re-compressed the hell out of it and you can see the macro and micro blocks all over the place in shadowy areas.
Now how much better the 7D is in the native 48mbit H.264? A lot of cam for the money!
Note: shooting 1/50 at 24fps could in fact deliver some flickering. It´s not a safe speed.
"Bloom re-compressed the hell out of it..."
You are right, of course. I apologize for my misleading statement that this represents what comes out of the camera! What I should have said was that we're seeing it without any special looks applied to the color. I'm still impressed with how well even this compressed version responds to being pushed around in AE - looking forward to obtaining some native footage.
shooting 24p in a 50hz country like Ireland means 1/50th or 1/100th is ONLY option avoid flickering!
I did compress it to a manageable size as Vimeo cannot handle anything over 1gb. There is a raw shot on my blog at www.philipbloom.co.uk near the bottom of page of first post
How does the native 48mbit H.264 compares to XDCAM EX HQ?
This camera looks nice but I fear it wouldn't survive real post, green screen and heavy color grading.
There's an uncompressed clip (about 15 seconds) of the guy in the video around 1:10 at http://exposureroom.com/members/philipbloom.aspx/assets/0b8e68acc32349378168a568c69816ef/ which IS straight out of the camera - 90mb/15 sec = 6MB/s or 48Mb/s. Bringing it into AE and lining it up with the long video, it looks like about 2x the color resolution - especially noticeable if you do a slap comp, a layer with the contrast punched way up.
I don't know a whole lot about color space, but when told AE to interpret the sRGB footage as linear I was startled at the amount of detail. I do not believe this is the correct way to bring it in, but switching it revealed a lot more detail in the shadows than I had first suspected.
The URL above doesn't wory - sorry. http://bit.ly/2JHxX for the uncompressed clip on Exposure Room. Thanks Philip!
I sunno Stu: I've been following Phillip Bloom's blog a lot lately waiting for 7D news, and I'm excited to see his footage and thoughts about this camera, but 'cmon, this isn't Reverie.
Laforet's film was scripted, art directed. It was lit. It was shot with a dozen different lenses in a dozen varied, challenging locations. It had a helicopter in it.
Dublin's people is a mini documentary shot run-n-gun style with available light and available talent. It is well cut and fun to watch, but it comes nowhere close to the level of production value that Reverie aspired to and achieved. I love Bloom's work and could watch his mini montage camera tests all day, but this film most certainbly does not fill the 7D Reverie gap that you declared filled in the first paragraph of this post.
Whatever doubts you may have about the 7D's suitability for narritive filmaking, you could easily still have them after watching Bloom's flick. The camera hasn't been pushed yet. We haven't seen a subway short.
But they dont have Subways in England. :/
Philip, I think you should drag Steve's whiny butt onto the "L" and while you are there, this week, and whip out a Subway Short, Chicago style.
Was Reverie much more than a disjointed great looking short? No audio besides the music, not a very polished storyline, however it delivered by generating the buzz of what could be done with a budget and it was something that the D90 failed to do. Also as a photographers first real video production it passed with flying colors and made Vince a star.
You can never compare later shorts to Reverie because it isn't new anymore, we are already past the shock value of a large sensor interchangeable lens cam and the bokake factor.
Bloom set out to do a low light short with very fast lenses and I think he did a great job for his second go at this cam.
This is just the first few sparks of the promise this camera will deliver to the indie film maker, commercial shooters and to us stock shooters.
I have great respect for the beauty and pathos of Philips mini docs ...and have no use
for his "home movies". But Im confident with the time and opportunity he will reveal
the capabilities of the 7D with a splendid moving piece that has something to say.But
Im still not selling my 5D ;-)
I have yet to ride on the subway that allows guerrilla filmmakers o art direct and light as they see fit. The essence of a subway short is that it is shot in opportunistic fashion. Story and character are awesome, but the point - as far as camera evaluation goes - is to see what you can get under uncontrollable conditions. This'll do fine - the point of this piece was to evaluate the camera, not story or direction.
No helicopter shot, but it's a good enough test.
I liked this more than reverie.
Phillip Bloom's work is close to portraiture in this one. It's like he tells people he's gonna photograph them then films them just waiting for the picture, maybe tells them he's filming and catched the laugh/reaction.
It's human, it's pretty it's down to earth.
Also reading what Mr. Bloom has to say about the cameras he uses, and seeing the laforet interview, makes me trust Mr. Bloom to test a camera out as opposed to watch a final. He's more motion oriented, Laforet admits Reverie was his 'first' film.
Reverie looked nice. But this is touching. I dunno I like people. The old lady next to the kid horsin around was classic. It's warmer than reverie, I think it's the subjects he picks.
But hey its a video i like better that's all. I would listen to his critique on the camera he's used quite enough of these cams to say something.
Also I read a closed thread just now where some dude began bashing on Mr. Bloom like he was a canon fanboy.
The man is zen, and his reply to the basher was waaaay cool. Attitude like that shows through. Rock on Mr. Bloom.
If ultimately it comes down to the cinematographer behind the camera, does it come down on the person behind the cinematographer I wonder... just a thought.
The person who made this video seems warm. It showed in the choices he made.
The image is gorgeous, that's the camera test. The subjects he picked, that's the person behind the cinematographer. Probably why I like it.
Other good examples of 7D footage are starting to show up. Like this Perya (town fair).
Thanks for the kinds comments. It was just me going out, slightly drunk after celebrating our first workshop, and having fun with the new toy. I wanted to see how good the low light was compared to my 5dmk2s and there was so much going on around me that it was a joy to capture. I had three of the students still with me who appear in the film and I gave them the camera to play with too and they loved it!
What I wanted to show, and often try to show people, that you can make something fun, entertaining, moving, whatever out of a simple idea. Mine was simply capturing the energy of Temple Bar that night. It also gave me a chance to try out slow motion in low light, a big deal for me with this camera and I loved it.
I would love to make a proper scripted short film with this camera but I just do not have time. I am off to Chicago tomorrow then Florida, all working then back home when I have to hand the camera back :(
Oh well at least I still have my two Mk2s...but I do have the 7d on pre-order!
Philip's vid looks great, but here's a Filipino short someone just finished on a 7D that has more in common with a 'Reverie' for the 7D:
http://vimeo.com/6487566
Pretty damn impressive if you ask me. Sure the daylight shots don't looks so great in the highlights, but I think this is a clear case where a great film, well shot and edited, trumps any perceived image flaws. My feeling is that with most of the 7D footage posted so far, you could post it as 5D footage and the vast majority of people would not think twice. Perception is highly subjective and dependent on context. Everyone knows that the 7D *must* have some flaws somewhere compared to the 5D (crop, cheaper), so we go looking for it.
Agreed with Eddy on the color.
Would like to see more/look forward to seeing more 'lit for' shorts or projects, as opposed to the tons of available light work.
Possibly of minor relevance but motion picture film cameras don't have 'global' shutters either.
Brian they most certainly do have subways in England, it's called the tube. Though in Dublin (Ireland) maybe not.
To be honest 'Dublin's People' sells me more on this camera than 'Reverie' did on the 5D. It's exactly what I'm interested in - low light, hand-held, skin tones. If that looks good then controlled light and and stabilised shooting is guaranteed to work.
The Perya short seals the deal. Obviously much less rolling shutter issues than the 5D. Thanks guys.
Oh and I took the native shot Philip Bloom provided into AE and pushed the colours around with Colorista. I'm impressed. Much sharper and clearer than I expected. Good colour depth. I could mistake it for Redcode at a glance. Wow.
[["here's a Filipino short someone just finished on a 7D that has more in common with a 'Reverie' for the 7D:
http://vimeo.com/6487566 "]]
THAT is a Jem, wow, I can't believe this one has been flying under the radar. What an amazing piece of work for such a quick turnaround. The best ad I've seen for the camera yet!
Stu Mannion: I dont believe that England does have subways. Certainly if they DID, then Philip would take this camera down there, throw care to the wind, and shoot something proper shaky-cam. Since all he will shoot are beautiful portraits of people of questionable beauty, the only possible reason could be that there are no subways. You must be mistaken about this "tube" thing.
Needs moar subway.
"But they dont have Subways in England" wriiten by Brain
Sorry to be pedantic Brian but Dublin is not in ENGLAND!!!!!
We have subways in London - its called the Tube.