Canon 500D

If I understand Canon’s product naming correctly, this cam will be 100 times better than the 5D.

The rumored next-gen Digital Rebel, AKA the 500D, now has a face to the name. I don’t ordinarily post camera rumors, but I got excited when I saw the flip-out screen.

1080p HD video is one of the rumored features of this camera, and after my experience shooting with the 5D Mark II, I must say that an articulating screen like this is a must-have for a video-equipped DSLR.

Fortunately, it is probably also an easy case to make that an articulating display makes sense for any live-view DLSR, whether you’re shooting video or stills (the GH1 has one, but so does the video-free G1 of course), so let’s hope we see more screens like this.

Via canonrumors.com via zoomonline.dk.

Panasonic Talks GH1

Digital Photography Review has an epic interview with Mr. Ichiro Kitao, General Manager of Panasonic's DSC Product Planning Group. DPReview asks some good (if gramatically malformed) questions, including "What's the reception been in the camcorder division been to the GH1?" (sic). In general I love DPReview and admire how they ask tough questions when they get these interviews, but there's one point on which I disagree with them:

We're not big fans of the dedicated movie button. Would it be possible to allow the main shutter release to optionally be used to stop and start movies?
No, but we will consider this option for the future.

What happens if you press the shutter button when recording a movie?
It activates a one shot AF operation.

Panasonic's design sounds spot-on to me. Of course, I haven't used it, but the GH1's dedicated video start/stop button strikes me as preferable to having some kind of mode switch, and using the shutter button as push-to-focus seems ergonomically perfect to me.

Stills folks might be predisposed to place too much importance on the ergonomics of the video start/stop button. I guess if you're not planning on editing your video, you might want hairtrigger control over video recording—but I would much rather have my index finger hoving over something that is of use while I'm recording, like focus.

In stills, capturing "the decisive moment" is all that matters. In motion, precisely when you began recording is meaningless—but managing your dynamic composition during a take is everything.

This Now Please

(click to embiggen)

Apple today announced that the iPhone 3.0 software will add support for external hardware devices. That means that someone could create an HMDI-to-dock connector, which would allow you to use an iPhone/iPod Touch app to monitor your video on-set. Such an app could features scopes, focusing aides, and about a million other amazing things that I haven’t thought of yet.

So, uhm, what are you waiting for, someone?

GH1 Live MOS Skew

I hate to admit it to y'all, but I went all CSI on a crappy sample video from the pre-production Panasonic GH1 to check out its jello-factor. Verdict: skew is present, but it's minimal, and hard to see without this kind of party-pooper hoop jumping.

The original video is here (and below). Props to Slashgear for making a 720p vesion available for download.

Here's some 5D Mark II footage for (highly unscientific) comparison. I assume this has been run through some kind of auto-stablization such as one finds in Final Cut Pro and iMovie 09, which is not unlike what I did to the GH1 clip.