Atn. Canon Japan

Canon EOS 5D Mark IIのビデオモードはフィルムメーカー達にとってとても素晴らしいものです。だが、次の二つの変更でさらにそれは完璧なものとなるでしょう。

• オプションで24フレーム／秒への対応（24fpsは映画の基準コマ速度）
• シャッター、絞り、ISOのマニュアルコントロール

これらの機能がファームウェアアップデートによって5D Mark IIに実装されることを切に願っています。もし不可能な場合、次のビデオモード付き一眼レフカメラに実装することを何卒ご検討下さい。 

よろしくお願いします！

In English:

The video mode on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II is very exciting to filmmakers. It would be perfect with only two changes:

• an option for 24 frames per second, the frame rate of film
• manual control of shutter, aperture, and ISO

I hope that you might be able to add these features in a firmware update to the 5D Mark II. If not, please consider them for your next video-enabled DSLR.

Thanks!

How freaking cool is that? Thanks to Saru for the translation.

Oh Canon...

How can you, on the same page, say both this (italics mine):

…This sensor size difference means that for any given combination of aperture value, subject distance and angle of view, images from the EOS 5D Mark II are going to have much shallower depth of field than images from a conventional HD device… This difference in the look of movies created by the EOS 5D Mark II is part of the reason why we believe it will be embraced by creative professionals.

…and this:

In addition to the adjustable settings listed above, the following settings are made automatically by the camera and cannot be adjusted by the user:

• ISO speed
• Shutter speed (from 1/30 to 1/125)
• Aperture

Yep, if there’s one thing creative professional embrace, it’s an utter lack of control.

Please Canon, the camera is released, it’s a huge hit. Get to work on a firmware update to add 24p and manual exposure control.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II in the Wild

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II has shipped in Asia, and the videos are pouring in. Today we have a Korean adaptation of Reverie and some gorgeous Beijing streets at night, complete with perhaps my most vivid Beijing memory, constant spitting.

Both of these movies allow Vimeo members to download the originals for closer inspection, which is worth doing as Vimeo tops out at 24 fps for HD. That means these 30 fps movies are getting a crappy 24p conversion when Vimeo compresses them, which hides some of the 30p smoothness, but not in a good way. Watching the originals, you vividly perceive the you-are-there smoothness that comes from 30 fps and a 360 degree shutter. Some love it, I hate it, but regardless of how you feel, on Vimeo you are not getting the true 5DmkII footage experience.

EOS 5D Mark2 Movi - Prism from chador on Vimeo.

Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Discussion with Dan Chung here.

Vincent Laforet has some new footage up on his blog as well, including some aerial tilt-shift work.

Pictures and Clarity

No milk in the fridge this morning, forcing me to make an Americano rather than my usual cappuccino. In that spirit, here’s an undiluted rant on cameras, DV Rebel priorities, and what we might hope to hear from RED next week.

What are you looking for in a camera? A big sensor? 2K? 4K? Raw? Uncompressed output?

What you should be looking for is a machine that transmits your creative energy into the images it makes.

The least friction between you and your images.

The fastest route to the emotional truth.

I shoot a lot of stills with a 50mm at f/1.4. The shallow depth of field helps me portray what I consider to be the emotional truth of a situation. But this practice is only feasible thanks to a hundred little details about the camera’s ergonomics and electronics. If any of those failed, I’d shallow-DOF myself right into a collection of unusable photos. My Canon 5D is more than just a box with a big sensor and fast glass. It’s a machine designed to create opportunities and then, when they arrive, to make sure I don’t miss them.

Many videographers find their first experience with a 35mm lens adapter to be quite a cold splash of water. The images from these rigs can look amazing—but it just became a whole lot more work to make them even acceptable. Your system got a whole lot less agile, your solution more brittle. The ways to mess up a shot grew in proportion to the potential for greatness.

• As soon as you have manual focus, you need a follow-focus, which means you need a rail system.
• As soon as you have a fast lens, you need a variety of ND filters, which means a matte box.
• As soon as you taste the glory of fast primes, you need more of them. You’ll never have enough. Time to go Pelican Case shopping.
• As soon as you have shallow depth of field, you need a big, sharp monitor and mad focusing skills (possibly provided by a second person). You will blow takes due to bad focus.
• As soon as you have a small camera, you need support gear for something as simple as prolonged handheld work.
• As soon as you have manual control, you need quick, intuitive access to that control.

Video cameras have long had solutions for all these things. Good autofocus and fingertip manual focus with LCD focus assist. Built-in ND filter wheels and well-placed toggle switches for common functions. Zebra overlays, histograms, waveform monitors, professional audio inputs and monitoring. And built-in lenses that zoom like crazy and focus from a millimeter to infinity.

The video camera manufactures aren’t winning any ergonomic battles these days. After the gloriously balanced DVX100, Panasonic gave us the unwieldy HVX200. Not to be outdone, Sony provided the wrist-wrenching EX1. Nevertheless, the video cameras of today are mature, evolved machines not just for making images, but for ensuring that you make exactly the image you want, with a minimum of fuss.

And yet not a single video camera under RED One’s price has a sensor bigger than your fingernail.

Along come these video-shooting DSLRs, with enourmous sensors, the wrong form-factor for video, and none of the features that turn an DVX100 into a battle-ready companion. They make awesome images, but they do so at the expense of the operator. When you only see the images, these cameras seem like they must be the best thing going. But the images are the result of a process, and that process is painful. It’s up to you to decide if sexy DOF is worth giving up control. As you make that decision, here are some things to bear in mind.

• It’s better for a film to have good audio than shallow depth of field.
• It’s better to have control over your camera than to shoot in HD.
• It’s better to have good lighting than raw 4K.
• It’s better to put time into color correction than visual effects.
• It’s not HD if it’s not in focus.
• There’s no such thing as a rough cut with no sound.
• Your story is told using the images you create, not the ones you intended to create.
• You’re not done editing until you’ve watched your film with an audience of people who don’t care about your feelings.
• Your film is still too long.
• Your next film will be better. How’s it coming?

(That last one is more for me than for you.)

The D90 and the 5D MarkII can make compelling moving images. But they are not yet cameras that will support your creative development as a filmmaker, growing with you as your skills develop. Did Vincent Laforet want Reverie to feel like a masterfully-lit soap opera? Did Matthew Bennettt want Subway to feel like the wobbly video from a jailbroken iPhone? We are at times seduced by aspects of these demo reels that are perennially absent in our video viewfinders, but we are not seeing the work of a cinematographer in full control of their craft. We’re seeing accidents—some happy, some not. Images borne of a battle with an uncooperative piece of kit. Mario Andretti doing his best with front-wheel drive and an automatic transmission.

This Thursday, when RED reveals their new cameras, I’ll be looking at features and specs along with everyone else. But I’ll also be evaluating whether these cameras seem to be filmmaking companions that allow me to craft an image intuitively and effortlessly. The camera should disappear, leaving only me and the images that, for better or worse, I created.