Canon 5DMkII makes me want to accept 30P
Seems like Canon will not be coming out with any sort of firmware upgrade to get 24P out of the 5DMkII. It also seems like RED is pushing back it’s promised deadlines (which they also promised not to stick to, so it’s hard to blame them).
This makes me really want to think more seriously about the 5DmkII for video. There are now workarounds for all the main shooting issues (manual f-stop - twist the lens, or use manual nikons, manual ISO with * button to lock it down, manual shutter speed - http://www.vimeo.com/2425650). They might not be pretty, but they work. The only real stumbling block is the 30P shooting mode. If I can just convince myself that the 30P isn’t so bad, then I’d jump on the bandwagon. The upsides are many- most importantly, big sensor, and great low-light performance. Now instead of obsessively reading Reduser.net (which replaced my obsessive reading of DVXuser.net) I can read http://www.5dfix.com/ and other 5D sites.
For run-n-gun documentary work, it looks just amazing- you could get away with just a few lights (or none at all with some natural light), a small audio kit, and you’re good to go. You could fly a very light stabilizer rig to help with the handling issues- Here’s some footage from switzerland- http://www.bildblog.ch/canon-5d-mk2-expedition/ they are just using a hand-held glidecam, it’s not perfect, but it’s not too bad for being so damn portable.
Come on canon, or hackers! make my day.
DXOmark DSLR Sensor comparisons
My friend John sent me this link to a website that compares the sensors on nearly all DSLRs. It’s pretty amazing, I sure wish they could do the same tests on a few video cameras…
Here’s the link:
http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/eng/DxOMark-Sensor/Camera-rankings
Video/Film Sensor Size Chart
After looking these up on wikipedia too many times, I decided to make just one chart that lists all the sensors size of the various DSLR, and video cameras out there, or coming soon. I actually never understood that Super 35 (s35 on this chart) is the size of regular 35mm movie camera film, and is significantly smaller than full frame 35mm film. I didn’t even go down below 1/2″ sensor size, because it’s just too depressing to see how small the sensor is on my HVX200.
