My letter to Canon

Photo by Benjamin Warde of me making this shot.

The person I spoke with at Canon’s help line did not give me the greatest sense of confidence in their ability to impart my 24p request, so I took reader prosckes’s advice and emailed Canon at customerfeedback@cits.canon.com:

Dearest Canon,

I am an author, filmmaker, and photographer. I use my 5D almost every day and own several video cameras as well (including one from Canon). The filmmaking community is very excited about the 5D MarkII’s HD video mode. It is a very important development that many, including myself, see as signifying an eventual loss of distinction between video and still cameras. It is wonderful that Canon is a part of this revolution.

I realize that despite the excitement surrounding this new capability, video is a “bonus” feature on the 5D MkII. Nevertheless, it’s a bonus feature that will sell some cameras. In my own case, the HD video feature would be enough for me to immediately upgrade from my current 5D to the MkII. Except for one crucial problem: the frame rate.

It was a natural choice to offer 30 fps video, as it roughly matches the broadcast frame rate in both the US and Japan. But we filmmakers would love to have the option of 24 fps. This is the frame rate of motion picture film. Until HD video cameras adopted this frame rate (which came to be known as 24p, the “p” standing for Progressive Scan), they were not taken seriously by the film industry.

Canon’s pro video division understands this, perhaps painfully. Canon was once the darling of the independent video community, but being late to the table with a real 24p video solution meant a lot of lost business to Panasonic and Sony. Now even very low-end Canon video cameras have 24p support, although Canon is still not perceived as a leader in this area.

And while the 5D MkII is in a different class than the Nikon D90 DSLR, the D90’s video mode, while only 720p and marred by motion artifacts, is 24 fps. This is important enough that many people are buying the D90 based on this feature alone. At the same time, Panasonic’s compact LX3 also features 24p video at 720p HD resolution. Other manufacturers know what Canon’s pro video division knows: 24p is a must-have option in an HD camera.

Meanwhile, Jim Jannard of RED is scrapping his plans for a much-anticipated $3,000 video camera, based, no doubt, on the sudden explosion of large-sensor motion options cropping up at or below that price point. He has thousands of potential customers waiting to buy whatever he makes instead.

You need to be as much of a leader in this exciting new movement in camera technology as you are in the DSLR world. Please add 24p support to the 5D MkII via a firmware update. If you do, I will upgrade immediately. If you don’t support 24p, someone else will, and my business and allegiance will go with them. This is a critical time for Canon to establish leadership and show an understanding of its users’ needs.

And now for some specifics: While 30 fps is useful, it would be better if the camera ran at 29.97 fps, the actual speed of NTSC video. Similarly, when I say 24p, I am really talking about 23.976 fps. In Europe, users will want a 25 fps mode for compatibility with PAL video. Again, none of this is news to your pro video division.

For more information on this subject and to read some comments from supporters and potential customers, please see my blog:

So Close Canon

OK guys, if you’re serious about this…

Thanks for your time and attention,

-Stu

—
Stu Maschwitz
www.theorphanage.com
www.prolost.com

OK guys, if you're serious about this...

From letsgodigital.org:

During a Panasonic Press event, at which the new Micro Four Thirds system was evaluated and further explained, Panasonic also revealed the development in process of a new Micro FourThirds system camera. Panasonic already claims that it will introduce the world's smallest High Definition system camera in 2009.

Apparently Panasonic is also a believer, touting an SLR-esque camera in which HD video is more than just an afterthought. Nice to see, considering that Panasonic's debut offering in this format has no video mode at all. The compact, mirorless Micro Four Thirds system is probably closer to the eventual collision of digital cinematography and stills systems than traditional DSLR designs are.

So, Panasonic, Nikon, Canon and anyone else who wants to dip their SLR chocolate into the HD peanut butter, here's what you need to do (and what Jim Jannard of RED already knows):

Everything that matters to a photographer matters to a filmmaker/videographer. The exact features that set a DSLR apart from a point-and-shoot put the "pro" in prosumer HD cameras. It basically boils down to quality and control, but here are a few more specifics to bear in mind—if you're serious:

• Adopt a known video standard that is compatible with current NLE software. A good one. But go big—consider a "visually lossless" codec.
• Use frame rates that make sense. 24 fps is great, 23.976 fps is better. Same with 30 and 29.97. Filmmakers often shoot funky frame rates for effect, anywhere between 1 and 72 fps. And sometimes much much more.
  
• No pixel binning or other dirty tricks for hurrying the data off the sensor—give us the best stuff your sensor is capable of. Capture the full resolution and downsample to video res. Or don't—1080p is not the top of the food chain, just ask RED.
  
• DSLRs eat and sleep raw. Consider a lightly-compressed DNG sequence output as an option. At the very least, offer RGB compressed video at a wide-gamut, minimum-processing color space. Let us turn down sharpening and other "enhancements" and record something that gives us room to play in post—just like we do with stills.
• Somehow we have to focus when shooting video. The screen on that Lumix G looks mighty big, but can I make critical focusing decisions with it? Maybe I could with focus assist features that are commonplace on HD camcorders.
  
• Jello-cam is not OK.
  

But more important than any of that: Give us control of our cameras—that same control that makes the SLR experience what it is. Video is not a "mode" on a dial that you select instead of manual control.When we're shooting video, we'd like to control the camera in the exact way we do when recording stills, not via some arcane menu.

The first one who gets this right changes everything.

UPDATE: Speaking of changing everything, read the comments below. Jim has scrapped the current Scarlet design and is starting fresh. What do you wanna bet it looks a bit more like the above?

Dear Canon, 24p Please

Reader Eugenia commented on my last post (the 60th comment!) that she’d called Canon’s product feedback line and politely requested a choice of HD video frame rates on the 5D MarkII. If you care about 24p support on the 5D and would like to see it added in a future firmware update, please do the same.

Eugenia wrote:

I called (800) 828-4040, for the US. I pressed then the 3rd option, and the guy was set up to take feedback immediately…

She requested both 24 and 25 fps modes, as well as the NTSC speeds of 29.97 and 23.976 fps. I plan on simply requesting 23.976, and mentioning that as an owner of the original 5D, this feature alone would be enough to make me upgrade immediately.

Please do call and make your voice heard. This blog has gotten a record number of visits and comments in the last few days. There are definitely enough of us who care about this to catch Canon’s attention.

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So Close Canon

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.