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Filed under: Cameras •

Scarlet Killers - Attack of the HD DSLRs!

Q: Steve Hullfish

A: Chuck Westfall, Technical Advisor for Canon U.S.A., Inc:

 

Q: Tell me about the EOS 5D Mark II.

A: This is basically - as you can tell by the name - a second generation of the EOS 5D which is our high end advanced amateur Digital SLR. And one of the things that this particular product category has done is kind of establish the full-frame image sensor at an affordable price point in a relatively lightweight and compact camera body. If you go back to 2005 where we introduced the original 5D it came into the market at a time when the only full frame DSLRs were roughly in the $8000 price range and it came in at $3299. Now,  three years later the 5D Mark II is a far, far superior piece with the addition of the 21 Megapixel sensor and the HD movie mode for roughly $600 less at its introduction. So it’s kind of an exciting product now because it has updated the technology and at the same time has dropped the price even more.

 

The basic spec is 21 Megpixel full-frame CMOS. For still photos we can shoot up to 3.9 fps. And it has a full range of standard digital SLR features. The headline feature on this camera is the full HD movie support. That’s still relatively unique to have a 1080p 30fps movie capability.

 

Q: And why would you put that feature in this high-end consumer category?

 

A: Well, it’s a starting point for us and I’m sure that over time this technology will proliferate across the industry. We understood that the initial interest at least at the initial stage, was going to come from what I’ll call advanced amateur and even entry level and advanced professional photographers who wanted to try out the feature first without necessarily getting involved in a full-blown professional camera. And then the other reason is that being full-frame it really gives us a chance to show off the image quality that the sytem is capable of producing at a relatively affordable price point, so it spreads the appeal of this camera out to as wide of an audience as we could. If we’d gone considerably lower in the product line, like a Rebel-class camera first, I think we would have cut off a lot of the interest that the higher-end people had and vice versa. So this is enough of an upper-advanced type of camera that had enough of a foothold in both the amateur and professional market to be able to appeal to both.

 

Q: Tell me about the size of the sensor.

 

A: The size of the sensor is exactly 24 x 36 mm.

 

Q: How does the size of the sensor help with image quality and greater depth of field?

 

A: It helps quite a bit with depth of field because of the fact that it is large. For any given combination of subject distance, angle of view and lens aperture, you’re going to get less depth of field with the larger format, and that’s true with not just this microcosm of full HD on this camera, but it’s also true in general photography. If I had an old-style Hasselblad with 2 1/4” film, and I was equalizing every single setting that I possibly could in terms of the subject distance and f stop and the focal length of the lens to get the angle of view to be the same, then I would have less depth of field in the larger format. The size of the format really does make a difference in how much depth of field control there is. And at the same time it also allows us to make each of the individual pixels relatively larger so that we’re able to increase the sensitivity to light and at the same time reduce the noise levels in low-light.

 

Q: And how is the camera sensor used in HD mode? How is the HD being generated?

 

A: What we’re doing is basically having the sensor do progressive scan. For all intents and purposes, it’s throwing off a full sensor’s worth of image data at 30fps. The reason I make the distinction is that there is a slight difference in aspect ratio of the actual sensor, which is a 2:3 aspect ratio via the HD format which is 16:9. That’s another factor where the fact that it’s a CMOS sensor comes into it because we’re able to basically not read out the thin strips at the top and the bottom of the frame, because that wouldn’t get used because of the difference in aspect ratio. Within the range that we are reading out we’re essentially just doing a progressive scan. We’re getting a full amount of data out of that, then downsampling, then compressing it and writing it to a file.

 

Q: Are there choices in the camera about file types, compression or frame rate?

 

A: There are no such choices really. The file type is always .MOV. The compression is always MPEG-4, AVC with H.264 codec. And that again is fairly efficient and also a fairly well known one. And the frame rate is fixed at 30fps.

 

Q: Is that a true 30fps or 29.97?

A: It is a true 30fps.

 

Q: And in still mode?

A: It’s 21 Megapixel. 5616 x 3744 pixels.

 

Q: And what is the lens mount type?

A: We call it the Canon EF lens mount.

 

Q: Tell me a little about the on-camear sound capability?

A: There is a built in monaural mic. And there’s also a speaker. But in addition to those two components there’s also a 3.5mm mini-plug jack that’s designed for use with an external stereo microphone. The basic specs are PCM encoding with no compression, 16 bit sampling at 44.1kHz for each channel. The in-camera settings for audio levels and wind-filter settings are all automatically controlled. There is no manual override in the camera for those two things.

 

Q: What about timecode?

A: Not on this generation.

 

Q: What about the form factor?

A: Well, for us, the 5D Mark II is primarily a still camera and the form factor reflects that priority. The HD movie function does break new ground in the areas we’ve discussed like depth of field control, low light performance and the access to a wide range of lenses, but we recognize that the camera does not have the same levels of functionality in terms of auto-focus, exposure adjustment and audio control as most HD video cameras. Certainly from the ergonomics there’s some issues to overccome.

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Did you ask him if they are planning a firmware update, and if it will at the least offer 24P shooting rather than 30P?

Posted by Tom Frisch  on  10/31  at  11:56 AM

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I don’t think there are any immediate plans, since the camera hasn’t even been released yet, but Canon’s no rookie in the broadcast HD domain, so I’m sure that they understand what motion video/film people want. But, this is a STILL camera first, with HD functionality second.

Ans as Stephan noted in his post, the 30fps goes more to people using it to make video for the web than it does for people using it for indie films or broadcast.

Hopefully, they’ll move the technology from the sensor into some other video/motion production packages.

Posted by Steve Hullfish  on  10/31  at  12:03 PM

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It’s an EF lens Mount.

Posted by ThomasKoch  on  11/01  at  09:45 PM

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Thanks for the heads up Thomas. I knew I should have fact-checked that one when I transcribed it…

It’s been fixed.

Posted by Steve Hullfish  on  11/02  at  12:55 AM

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One thing not mentioned here is that you can only shoot for 5 minutes at a time. This is due to sensor heating and not file size limitations. It would also seem that the images would get noisier the closer to the 5 minute limit you get. I have also been told that you only have to stop recording for a minute or two to allow the sensor to cool then you can go back it. The camera has many limitations but it could be an interesting camera within those limits. I can’t wait to get my hands on one.

Posted by RC Fisher  on  11/02  at  11:54 AM

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good post!—

i have heard that the 5 minute limit is imposed by some other countries taxing video and still cameras at different rates, so they limit it to 5 minutes to get around this…
i don’t know if that is true or not…

hopefully we can get our hands on one and see what the limitations are—

but the low light performance seems to be unmatched by any motion camera—bar none!
and the interchangable lenses is my biggest buying reason—

Posted by billS  on  11/02  at  07:43 PM

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I think a lot of this talk about time limitations may be speculative - or even trolling.

The Canon reps - who obviously have their own agenda - assured me that there is no overheating issue and specifically said that the shooting time for each scene - depending on subject matter - was close to 12 minutes, not five.

If “RC Fischer” or “bill S” have any real experience with the camera, I’d love to know about it. Otherwise, I’d take either comment about time limitations with a grain of salt. I’d believe the Canon reps first, because if they are not telling the truth, there’s a lot more repercussion than the word of two people who’ve never touched the camera before.

Also, I interviewed Vincent Laforet and he never mentioned a time limit, overheating or noise issues.

I have no direct experience with the camera myself, so I cannot state that “the truth” myself.
Plus, it may depend on the CF media, maybe…

Posted by Steve Hullfish  on  11/02  at  08:47 PM

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Wow it looks like I poked a soft spot!

Well Steve I got the info from a good source but things can change. The biggest problem with still camera design is sensor heating, all still cameras have this problem. The longer the sensor is activated the hotter it gets and the more noise it generates. Canon has had great success in solving this in their still cameras but a sensor that’s making movies is another matter. If you have been following the progress of the Red camera early on they had lots of problems with sensor heating. The issue has since been resolved but not with out a lot of redesign work to keep the sensor cool enough to operate properly. Heat is the big killer because heat=resistance=image noise. Canon is really good about not telling you anything about their cameras. I recently tried to get info, from Canon, about their shutter release system. Not about anything propietary just the shutter release, several hours and numerous calls and not a word. Better secrecy than the Manhatten Project! Well lets get back on track, it remains to be seen if there are issues with the sensor but we will find out soon enough.

Posted by RC Fisher  on  11/03  at  11:11 AM

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