Here we are a week before NAB, and I find myself with a Canon 5D Mk II full-frame DSLR with 24-105mm zoom, a Sennheiser MKE 400 microphone, and a Zacuto Z-finder—and I’m a Nikon shooter!
Here’s the thing: we’re supposed to be shooting and posting a lot of video clips on PVC for this NAB. There were four ways I could go about this:
I’ve been curious about the practicality and usefulness of using DSLRs for mopix production for a while. I bought a Nikon D90 last year, but between its rolling-shutter jellocam, its downsampling errors, and its aliasing, it isn’t usable for any real work (the D300s fixes the downsampling errors, but it’s still a wobbly jellocam; the D3s appears to be a lot better, but it’s $5200, and it’s still a 720p-and-smaller cam with 11 kHz audio).
The need to shoot mopix at NAB gave me the perfect excuse to see how the other half—Canon users—live.
With the recent release of 1080/24p firmware for the Canon 5D Mk II, I took the plunge, finding a clean, lightly-used package on craigslist. To outfit it for one-man, run’n’gun VJ work, I’ve added a Sennheiser MKE 400 short shotgun mike, which I chose for its compactness as well as its performance, and the Zacuto Z-Finder, which I like for its 3x magnification (helpful when trying to pull focus through the lens) and for its snap-on, snap-off design (so I can quickly switch between SLR and video modes).
No, I didn’t get any fancy support gear. I find that the basic assemblage is no harder to handhold than an AG-HVX200, and it’s less painful to deal with an an unbraced PMW-EX1 (damning with faint praise, perhaps, but there you have it). If once I’m on the show floor I repent, well, I’m sure that between the Zacuto, Redrock Micro, and Cinevate booths I can put something together, grin.
I’m at the show for only two days this year; in my short time I’m focusing (pun intended) on cameras and on LED lighting. Expect photos and writeups starting Sunday night, and video to follow later in the week once I’ve had time to cut it all together.
*with a tip of the hat to Carlsberg Beer’s mid-‘60s ad agency.
You probably should have gone for a GH1 - it’s much better suited to run’n'gun and ENG type footage than the 5dII. Kit = 10x superzoom IS lens + swivel LCD + built-in EVF + 1/3 the weight + 720p60 + less than half the price of just the 5DII body. Oh, well - hype wins again; have fun!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/05 at 07:36 PM
Actually, no, hype didn’t win; I thought very seriously about the GH1, and have tested it and looked at a lot of footage shot with both the kit lens and PL-mount Compact Primes. I like the GH1 a lot; it’s a FAR more usable package than the 5D Mk II for video work. And it does a much better job of creating clean 1080p than any other DSLR I’ve tested, just in terms of low-pass filtering. And I’m absolutely in love with its 7-14mm zoom! The small size / low weight is just icing on the cake.
What killed the GH1—for me—is its 17 Mbit/sec AVCHD codec, which tends to “pulse” on static shots and leave trails and eddies of compression artifacts behind moving objects. Had Panasonic let the thing record 24 Mbit/sec AVCHD (which, on the HMC40, I find quite acceptable), it would have been a much harder decision. Maybe the GH2?
Also weighing in the choice was the full-frame nature of the Canon. It lets me play with that super-shallow depth of field that everyone’s raving about, and the large sensor has better low-light / high-ISO performance than my DX Nikons or the micro 4/3rds Panasonics and Olympii (a critical point when shooting in the unlit Sony booth the night before the show opens, grin). If the choice had been between the DX-sized 7D and the GH1, it would have been a much harder call to make.
Any camera is a compromise; I haven’t found one yet that’s the best at everything it’s tasked with. This time, the Canon won out… but that’s just for me, for now. YMMV.
Posted by Adam Wilt on 04/05 at 08:01 PM
Fair enough - I’ll readily admit that the AVCHD codec is not the strongest implementation of AVCHD I’ve used. Mud on moving shots with high detail is easy to create when you want to break the codec. That being said, the “‘pulse’ on static shots” and “trails and eddies of compression artifacts behind moving objects” that you talk about I’ve never seen, experienced or heard of until now. I’ve shot literally hundreds of hours of GH1 footage, mostly on documentaries & events - and I’ve never had it’s codec break in real world shooting situations. It’s proven to be far more useful in ENG shooting than Canon’s vDSLR’s, in my experience and opinion.
As for the low-light capability of the 5DII - it’s really not all that different from the GH1. You should compare them side by side yourself sometime, or just watch this comparison here:
http://vimeo.com/10657409
You’re right, they do both have their strengths & weaknesses. I’ve shot with both of them, and the 7D, on many occasions, and I really like them all. But the GH1 is way too readily dismissed when in many situations it is a much more sensible option than any other model of vDLSR on the market today.
All that being said, and in good fun, I have to say that “It lets me play with that super-shallow depth of field that everyone’s raving about” sounds awfully close like your buying into hype.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/06 at 07:48 AM
I’m just very picky about codec quality, that’s all; stuff that most people don’t even notice bothers me—the curse of being a long-time beta-tester, I suppose. If the GH1 used milder compression (and true progressive chroma encoding on the 1080/24p, instead of interlaced 4:2:0 with pulldown), I would almost certainly have one by now; its images would be “good enough” the way the Canon’s are good enough (and just barely at that, despite its 45 Mbit/sec data rate).
As to buying into the hype? Well, OK, you got me: it’s clearly all about the hype.
I haven’t shot a full-frame SLR since 1988; everything I’ve done since has been half-frame or smaller. Last year I covered an event (ironically, a Canon 5D shoot) and was annoyed that I couldn’t better blur my busy backgrounds to focus attention on the subject. That annoyance goaded me into selling the small-aperture superzoom coke-bottle and getting wider-aperture glass.
Picking up a full-frame DSLR and a couple of f/1.4 primes on the cheap just lets me explore this further.
But that’s all just lame rationalization: I’m not really trying to expand my visual vocabulary and develop my imaging toolkit, I’m buying into hype. From now on, look out: no more f/11 tilt-and-shift tripod shots raking down the side of a camera trying to keep everything sharp. I’ll have one switch, one control in focus, and everything else will dissolve into a beautiful blur. It’s all about the bokeh, baby! [grin]
Posted by Adam Wilt on 04/06 at 10:50 AM
Mr CowPunk52
Some considerations about the GH1:
Compression: Please, open you MTS file with MediaInfo (mediainfo.sourceforge.net) and check the bitrate of the GH1 again. It is NOT 17Mbps, it is 13 Mbps (Against 45 Mbps for 5D2 and 7D). This is extremely low. Once I had a shot with the camera fixed on a tripod, some trees on the foreground and a bridge in the background with people walking over it. The codec couldn’t show the details of the trees and there were trails behind the people walking. The trees details turned into blur!
Lenses: The lenses that come with the camera (14-140) are sharp but VERY SLOW. I can’t even understand how can they ship the camera with a f/4.0 lens when canon and nikon kits are f/3.5. It was too dark for everything I ever needed out of the camera.
Micro Four-Thirds Lenses are much more expensive than Canon or Nikon Mount and there are much fewer options.
Noise: The noise of the GH1 is ugly for stills (full of coloured dots even at ISO 800) and worst for video (noise helps breaking the codec even more).
EVF: Doesn’t work in extreme low light (let’s say for a long exposure shot). They sell it like a nice thing but it’s not.
For Still: GH1 = toy / 7D = pro
The Good things on the GH1: Big swivel LCD, Autofocus (with face/object tracking that actually works), Weight, SD card.
I had a GH1 for 6 months and sold it. Now I have a 7D (which costed at least 60% more) with a tamron 18-200 f/3.5-6 and a canon 50mm f/1.8. There is no comparisson between both. I can sell a project shot with a 7D to a client with confidence. I never felt this way about the GH1 because it’s simply not good enough for anything except family videos.
There is no hype. Canon is better than the others and that’s a fact.
Now that the Ti2 is out, sell your GH1 and buy one, it’s almost the same price for a much better camera. You won’t regret.
Posted by Ivan Oliveira on 04/06 at 11:11 AM
In your main article above, Adam, you wrote, “if folks are interested, I can do a proper review of the 5D Mk II as a video camera and discuss the issues there.”
I’d love to see this happen. Thanks for the offer, and the myriad of useful articles you’ve posted on PVC.
Stephen Gagne
Westwood Creek Productions
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/06 at 11:15 AM
Hi Adam!
I would really appreciate a review of the 5D Mk II as a video camera as well - especially with focus on run and gun and documentary work!
Best,
Emil
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/06 at 08:46 PM
Count me in on wanting the 5D video review.
I was going to mention the GH1, but it’s clear that’s been thoroughly thought through.
OTOH, what’s your distribution medium? Neighborhood theatre? (a la Zacuto DSLR shootout) or the computer screen? Do you NEED the resolution, DoF and megapixels the 5D offers? Or, as you’ve attested, used this opportunity (as we gearheads do) to help rationalize a disparate gear acquisition. I know that’s what I’d do.
Oh, and for those long DoF photos you can’t get any more, that’s why Canon also offers tilt/shift lenses. 
Lastly, as fellow NAB press, I have one word for you:
Monopod.
It’s a walking stick, it holds your camera steady for long shots, it kinda works as a steadicam by moving the center of balance lower, it frees your hands because you can lean it against you and use both hands to set up a shot, it takes up next to no room, and has near no weight.
While it may be a little wonky at first- that damm stick is always in the way- after 6 hours on the floor, you’ll relish the fact that you can stand it there, and just keep it from tipping over, you don’t have to CARRY anything when you’re standing in a booth listening to the marketing rep blather on and on.
Oh, and you might ask about rotating the camera with the monopod on it for portrait shots. I learned that it’s just not necessary. There’s more than enough resolution and image quality. Shoot everything horizontal (works better for widescreen computers, and video, anyway) and crop later if needed.
Sadly I won’t be there this year, but use a monopod, Your wrist and back with thank me for the two weeks after NAB that you would have been in pain without it.
Posted by IEBA on 04/08 at 01:51 PM
“if folks are interested, I can do a proper review of the 5D Mk II as a video camera”—Please, please, pretty please! Will you include 7D and T2i in the mix?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/09 at 03:21 PM
“Will you include 7D and T2i in the mix?” Sure, if someone donates ‘em, grin…
Posted by Adam Wilt on 04/10 at 12:49 AM
All - well, I’m going to be shooting stills & video with my Nikon D300S, so that will be a basis for comparison right there.
Adam - I’m always interested in your in depth thoughts on anything video.
I also bought a D90, but bought a D300S to further my geeky explorations into HDR timelapse. I hadn’t noticed/realized the changes/improvements in the video - contrary to why I originally bought the D90, I rarely use video mode.
IEBA - good tip, I’ll be sure to bring one of my monopods (had to get a second, taller one because I was sick and tired of bending over to get a shot - I’m over 6’ 3”, so most are too short)
Posted by Mike Curtis on 04/10 at 03:56 PM
Aside: Maybe it was an East Coast thing, but Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one. Even has (had?) a jingle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nrRlXlbWCU
Back on-topic: i think that ad was shot on a Bolex. <g>
BAJ
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/10 at 07:35 PM
You’re right, it was Schaefer! I couldn’t remember, and Google took me to a newspaper ad from Carlsberg, but now that you mention the name, I can hear the jingle in my head.
I’ll update the tip o’ the hat once I’m somewhere with broadband; currently in CA’s Central Valley using a 2G Treo 650 as a dial-up modem. Fast it ain’t, grin.
Posted by Adam Wilt on 04/11 at 12:29 AM
thanks for this post I always be a fun of CANON brand camera
Posted by janschipper on 04/11 at 07:08 AM
Mike, We’ve never met (I’m now in Texas, was in Philly) and tall monopods are not that prevalent. I was lucky to be able to drive up to B&H;and physically use every monopod they had on display before I made my pick: a Davis & Sanford “Trailblazer”
Posted by IEBA on 04/11 at 12:38 PM
Adam,
I know you might be annoyed by posting the “16 CFR Part 255 Disclosure” at the end of your posts, but I have to say, as a reader, I really appreciate it. For someone working in video and trying to keep up to date on the newest, coolest, and worst, it is comforting to know what you paid for out of your own pocket and what you got to use from a company. The transparency adds a nice level.
(And thanks for all your writing, as well, of course.)
Posted by history is a weapon on 04/11 at 08:08 PM
Clarification: Bruce correctly points out that “Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one”, but it was indeed Carlsberg that said it was “the one beer to have when you’re having only one.” And I was having only one!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress…
Posted by Adam Wilt on 04/24 at 03:12 PM
