On December 4, 2009 over a hundred people descended on Bethesda Lane startling shoppers with a surprise performance in celebration of Strathmores upcoming world premiere performances of Take Joy! A new holiday show, Take Joy! reminds us that amid the hurry and hassles of the holidays we can find light and joy with each other.

I filmed the above video with the Canon 5D mark II with a 24-70mm F/2.8 lens on a Cavision Shoulder Mount. My job was to rush around capturing people’s expressions of the surprise event and edit it together with some footage of a stabilized camera mounted above the event (shame that wasn’t a Canon 5D mkII!). It was a lot of fun and a great number of people were certainly surprised!

It was a tough place to film with people bumping into you, freezing temperatures (adding more camera shake), constantly changing focus as your moving, but we wanted to give the viewer the impression they were wandering around the crowd and I think we managed that quite well.

Last night Nikon announced the Nikon D3s, a camera that had been rumored for a while with more solid details emerging last week. The rumors were pretty much correct with the amazing new high ISO/low noise sensor (up to 102400!) clocking in at 12.1mp, 720/24p D-Movie mode, and some other updates and improvements over the original D3 that arrived back in August 2007. One rumor/wish that was missed, and this really surprised me, was the lack of a 1080p video mode, ala Canon 5D mkII, and 7D. With the Canon 1Ds mark IV being announced next week that will no doubt feature a HD video mode, Nikon’s announcement got me wondering why 1080p is not present.

Video in DSLR’s is still in it’s infancy in reality. Granted, Canon really blew the doors wide open with the 5D mkII, but mistakes were made, such as leaving off manual control and 24/25p. We’ll never know the real reason, but maybe Canon weren’t expecting it to be in such demand. Maybe they ran out of time? It’s tough to say, but I imagine they were surprised to see how well adopted it was. I also believe they can partially thank Vincent LaForet and the buzz he created. It’s interesting to think back that Nikon were the first camera manufacturer to place a HD movie mode in a DSLR, yet the real hype came from the Canon camera that did the same, just a little better. It’s been a year since Video DSLR’s have entered the hands of professionals and hobbyists and the results have been staggering. That’s why it surprises me that the Nikon D3s does not have the same features to match Canon’s line up. Why is this? This is my random musing on the matter.

Whose pushing it

Canon are doing a fine job of promoting and pushing the use of HD video in their DSLR’s. From the moment “Reverie” (which in all honesty, isn’t a great film, but a great example of what could be achieved) went viral, Canon knew they had perfectly hit the right market. And most of them are already shooting with high end DSLR’s. This camera opened up opportunities for Journalists out in the field, such as Danfung Dennis who used his 5D mkII to cover the Afghanistan war that has been broadcasting on PBS, Documentary film makers such as Dan Chung, Indie film makers like myself, wildlife photographers and even Wedding photographers who have added this option to their services. In reality, the possibilities are endless. For example, right now I am shooting a short video for a bar using a glidecam rig with my 5D mkII that will be transformed into a flash intro for their website. There are tons of examples of still photographers embracing this technology for their own work or their own creativity and has really proven, in my opinion, that video in DSLR’s is really worth the investment.

Should everyone be pushing it?

The real kicker here is that Canon in all fairness has a lot of money to spend on research and development. Their product spectrum as a brand is much bigger than Nikon and ultimately, in my opinion, more focused than Sony. Canon have developed fantastic video cameras for years, giving an advantage over Nikon. But, putting that in the corner for a moment, should other manufacturers be as focused on bringing these opportunities to their users? Sony themselves said:

“The video implementation of SLRs today do not deliver the video experience people expect from Sony…. we believe that mainstream SLR customers…may not have a camera with the existing technology fill their expectations…delivering an excellent user experience…is an obligation that we have that we don’t necessarily see being taken quite so seriously when we see video implementations that don’t follow focus…or exposure…we understand that has a value…we can imagine that HD video without focus and exposure…can be tough for people to get a good experience out of…but it has to be better…not just possible, but better.”

CNET

These are very valid points. Using a DSLR for purely video is tough. It is in no way shape or form designed to be a video camera! Money has to be invested into making it more like a video camera, such as using Zacuto rigs or  RedRock Mirco rigs (created a nice niche for those guys though). I have also heard that Sony have also said that they don’t see a market for professional use for DSLR’s ( I can’t find the link unfortunately), but are they missing out on the users than Canon have excited with the 5D mkII? The photojournalists, indie film makers, etc who make amazing work out of these camera that have ultimately not been designed for such use. Look at this great list of videos at planet5d for example.

Do Nikon feel the same way then? They are unable to deliver a ‘proper’ video recording experience, so why push it? Why invest their time? Even Moose Petterson speaks along these lines:

To me, it makes no sense and diverts engineers from giving us really cool things that still photographers could really run with…

720/24p looks really great especially from the D300s, but this can be limited for it’s “professional” use. Sure this is perfect for the web, but it is not future proof in my opinion. For example Indie film makers want 1080p (or more if they have the budget for a RED) and full manual control. Everyone saw the up-roar when the 5D mkII didn’t have manual control. Surely this was a big hint to what the user wants? Has the Nikon brand and user base not had that “Reverie” moment that really sold them on this technology? I don’t really think that’s true, as I have read on many forums today that people were hoping for that 1080p on a FX sensor based on what they have used with the  D300s or the D90. Of course people argue back that it’s unnecessary and if you want to shoot video, buy a dedicated rig. But why should we? Consumers have reacted very positively to this convergence. And you just cannot buy the same quality video camera for the price of a 7D or a full framed 5DmkII. Especially with the range of lenses.

I am just very surprised that they did not spend time on upping the resolution to 1080p. The thing is, they have some beautiful examples on the Nikon D3s site that shows how amazing the footage caught on these cameras are – What’s stopping them going for 1080p.

Maybe it is technology based? Maybe 1080p causes the sensor to overheat to quickly, maybe the “jello effect” gets worse at a higher resolution because the processor can’t keep up, or maybe they haven’t had time to change the application-specific integrated circuit’s that they have used for their video, which seems limited to 720p.

The Future?

I don’t see Nikon users jumping ship however – why should they, they have an amazing camera range. But I have seen some Nikon users purchase a 5D mkII (such as Zack Arias) and some even mount their Nikon lenses on them, like the early adopters who wanted manual control over their exposures. It just seems strange that one of their Flagship model’s, that doesn’t get updated often, does not carry this option that so many artists have raved about.

Have Nikon been rushed? The Canon 1D mark IV is set to be announced next week and of course it will feature a video mode that will no doubt trump the 7D’s resolution options as well as keep all the same manual controls we get on the 7d and the 5D mkII. Canon’s flagship model, that we assume is set to ship before the Winter Olympics, will probably tell us a little more of where Canon is heading with their market and I know Nikon will be watching. Should Nikon have waited?

So what do you all think? Is it something as hobbyist you want in your DSLR? Something as Pro’s who want to add to their services? Is it a fad that will fade away?

Going for a drive – Canon 5D mark II with TS-E 45mm F/2.8 Tilt-Shift Lens

Originally uploaded by tony.eckersley

Well, it seems if Canon are going to continue to keep their mouths shut regarding the future of any full manual control in video mode for the Canon 5D mark II, the internet will not.

Cinema5D user Hudson states:

“As an early goal, I have disabled the AGC for on the AK4646 audio chip that the 5D uses by overriding the sound_dev_task() at 0xFF856E60 to call audio_set_alc_off() at 0xFF856B14. The level is much too hot due to the wrong levels selected (it defaults to max gain?) but there is no shift in quiet scenes anymore. This is an easy first step that provides a proof-of-concept modification for the 1.0.7 firmware.

I can also log the audio levels as they are being sampled, which will make it possible to do on-screen level meters at some point in the future. My next step is figuring out how to add menus for the AGC disabling, then tackling the MVR_start_record() and LVAE_* functions.

Canon, we are tired of waiting for you to act. So, without you, we will first fix the obvious problems, then we’ll make it better. We’ll probably help you sell more cameras, too.”

Hudson makes a great point. As I have stated before, Canon is doing themselves NO favors by being ‘hush-hush’ on this topic. We are seeing a massive increase in professional use for this camera and I continue to see many niche’s for pro photographers to use this is the field. It just needs more control.

It’s great that users like Hudson are making such great progress, and I hope to see more very soon. It’s all very exciting!

Still from movie shot with Canon 5D mark II, originally uploaded by tony.eckersley.

I’m not a cinematographer. That’s what I got out of my movie shoot this weekend.

That being said, it’s worth noting that the Canon 5D mark II is just a brilliant camera, one capable of creating some incredible images and movies – in the tools of the right person. The transition between photographer and cinematographer is pretty huge – which looking back, is quite an obvious statement.

Regardless, back on track here. My wife (excellent writer) wrote a short screen play for a friend who hired her for a personal project. I sensed this would be a great opportunity to try out the Canon 5D mark II and it’s high definition video feature so I elected myself as “the guy shooting the movie.” This actually happened just before I received the camera back in December 08 and had not had the chance to play with it at all and was going off what Vincent Laforet had created with Reverie. I had also assumed back then that you could at least easily manipulate the camera into having some sort of manual control to ultimately make a cinematic masterpiece. Of course we now know it is not quite that easy.

So let’s talk movie making for moment. We had some great actors from George Mason University who had volunteered their time for this project, and let me tell you, having good professional actors is a great experience and a lot of fun to work with. They understood that the process with the camera was a little experimental (to say the least) but they were incredibly patient and I am very thankful of that. This post is going to be about my experiences shooting with this camera.

Sound

I had purchased a Rode Stereo VideoMic from B&H Photo ready for this shoot. I went with this option as I was on a strict budget (personally funded and the economy is kicking everyone’s ass right now) and it had been highly recommend to me by a few people. Plus, for $200 it’s actually quite a bargain. I had also planned to record directly into the camera as I felt that would be the best option for us. I had done a fair bit of testing prior to the first day of shooting and had some great results with some minor noise, but nothing applications like audacity couldn’t fix. I felt ready.

The first day of shooting (5am on a Saturday) was in the studio I work in (which my boss Matthew Langley had very kindly let us do). It’s a quiet studio with very little background noise from the outside and our computers are actually quite quiet, so it seemed perfect. We started setting up the first shots with the mic on a light stand with a hot shoe bracket to sit on that was facing the actors. We went ahead and shot some test shots and took the card with the first shots to a computer and loaded them up to have a quick look. Video – perfect, looked beautiful as expected. The sound… not so much.

As the room was so quiet, the Canon 5D mark II had upped it’s gain to the maximum setting meaning the dialogue was practically drained out by white noise and ‘esses’ and hums. If you are shooting audio in a very quiet environment with an external mic, take it from me – you must record it to a separate track. It’s a necessity. For this shoot we are using a MacBook Pro and Soundtrack Pro, part of the Final Cut Studio 2 package (thank you film students) and it was so much better having the mic plugged into the in-built audio input and then being able to monitor it with headphones. It is very important to change the recording frame rate to 30 fps as by default it is set as 29.7 fps.

Stability

During design meetings and story boarding sessions we had opted for a documentary filming approach to the cinematography, which was ideal for me as the Canon 5D mark II has no inbuilt image stability and relies on lenses for their IS, so it would be fairly shaky anyway. However, it’s hard not to be obnoxiously shaky with this camera. Anyone who has tried shooting without an IS lens will tell you immediately it cannot really be hand held for shots – think Cloverfield, but much worse. A heavy lens (24-70mm F/2.8L I am looking at you) is practically impossible to keep still. My friend who runs Planet5D.com recently had a good write up on shaky shots and how that can be combated during shooting. There are some great ideas there, such as using the strap round your neck and pulling the camera far away from you to create tension and some stability, and this surprisingly works pretty well, however it does get a little uncomfortable after a while and your neck will hurt after an hours worth of shooting.

For this shoot, I used tripods, monopods and a modified video tripod to be like a steadycam rig, allowing me to hold the stem of the tripod with my left hand and the control arm on the tripod head to stabilize and guide the camera with my right hand. It worked really well for any motion/follow shots. I also worked with my wife at times where she would adjust the focus as I moved the camera around – just like in the real world. I avoided any zooming in however as it is very hard to stop any jerkiness from the zoom. For any stable still shots where a little sway in camera movement was noticeable, which was our desired effect, I used a monopod and that worked just fine.

Like I said before – hand held was out of the question, and for shooting this weekend, I went ahead and rented Redrock’s Micro shoulder mount from lensrentals.com. I will have a full write up on that once I have used it. Also check out Canon5Dtips.com for some tests on stability.

Video

As many have said before me, and the samples you have seen around the web, the video quality is simply stunning. Regardless of light conditions, it exceeded my expectations every time. We really pushed the low light limits quite far and as long as I underexposed the shot, the noise level was very manageable. It is advised to keep the aperture as low as possible however. The lowest I was going to was F/1.8 with my 50mm, but I would have loved the 85mm F/1.2L!

The director of the movie had made specific requests after I had showed him some footage from various sources, and that was very shallow Depth of Field. I fully agreed as this is one of the big advantages of using this camera for video and taking advantage of those big aperture lenses. However, without manual control of aperture, you are extremely limited to what can be created unfortunately. Out of 100 shots in one scene, I never once let the camera choose my aperture. It was never right for the desired look and feel. Zero out of 100. It was a pain for me to compose the shot, roll the film, cover the lenses, press the AE lock button, uncover the lenses, press the AE lock button again to get a big aperture. On a shot I may re shoot several times, I do not want to do that every time – what a hassle.

So of course I used the lens twist method. It was so much easier. Would have been even easier with the manual Nikon lenses. On shots outside I had no choice but to do this, or else shoot at an aperture of F22 which gave an ugly home movie look and feel, something everyone wanted to avoid. The shot below is an example of the desired effect using the lens twist method on the 100mm F/2.8 Macro lens. Apparently it was rolling at 1/1000 at F/2.8 ISO 100 for this shot.

Still from movie shot with Canon 5D mark II, originally uploaded by tony.eckersley.

At the end of the day, if people want to use this camera for any short film making, they need some sort of manual control. And I am going to be pretty angry if it doesn’t come as a firmware update.

Focusing I found fun. I have become a fan of manual focus especially when getting creative, and the clips we have where the focus shifts between two people talking, or someone walking away from the camera looks really great. I do not see “no auto focus” as a disadvantage. Great and accurate results can be achieved with manual focusing. However, it can be tough moving and focusing at the same time – I recommend having an assistant to focus for you.

Results?

Not yet. I am still editing and shooting the film of course! It was fun to shoot with this camera for this 30/40 minute film and a massive challenge at the same time. As someone used to taking photographs it was a tough transition for motion personally as I had to become much more aware of consistanies between shots, hair is the right place, transitions, moving and focusing etc etc, but I learned a lot about the process and everyone so far is very happy with the results.

Unfortunately, I just don’t see people really taking it seriously to make films longer than 6-7 minutes for short documentaries with this camera in it’s current state. The lack of manual controls is just killing me. I know there have been some amazing videos out there without the use of manual controls on this camera, but the one thing they mainly have in common? They are all shot in dark settings where the aperture is large giving that excellent DOF people like. More to come as we finish up shooting this weekend