5D Mark II Video

[felix.reichardt]

I have to admit I was sceptical about the video function of the 5D Mark II but after the new firmware its really a great feature. Went out with our niece and tried to put some video together. The quality (not talking about the content quality) is stunning on a HD TV unit in full resolution. My upload on Vimeo is a little smaller but it gives an impression. Shot with the 70-200 f/4 L. My tripod head sucks for panning so there is some room for improvement.

Warning: I'm not Steven Spielberg so don't expect to much Make sure to watch it in HD.

Aura @ Dreamland, Bali on Vimeo

Aura @ Dreamland, Bali on Vimeo

[aam1234]

Well done, Felix! This is cool.

Some points, if you don't mind:
- Wish you picked a later time of the day (an hour later, perhaps) because the sun was a little too bright/harsh.

- Impressed with the motion, very steady.

- Lovely niece you have. Tell her she looks better w/o the sunglasses (that's a compliment )

- Nice song

Really well done, Felix

[seab3]

Very nice.
I haven't played around with the video much yet. Did you find the screen was easy to see in the bright light?

You did a nice job with the manual focus (I assume it was manual)

Richard

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by seab3

Very nice.
I haven't played around with the video much yet. Did you find the screen was easy to see in the bright light?

You did a nice job with the manual focus (I assume it was manual)

Richard

Thanks! No all autofocus. At times I could not see anything in the viewfinder. I was blown away back home how sharp the videos turned out. Never expected that. To be honest I was a bit scared of the AF and used rather higher apertures.

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by aam1234

Well done, Felix! This is cool.

Some points, if you don't mind:
- Wish you picked a later time of the day (an hour later, perhaps) because the sun was a little too bright/harsh.

- Impressed with the motion, very steady.

- Lovely niece you have. Tell her she looks better w/o the sunglasses (that's a compliment )

- Nice song

Really well done, Felix

I don't mind at all. My first try ever at such thing. You are right with the time. Problem here in Bali is the sun works like a ceiling light. The morning comes and its on - full power. You just got 2 hours or so from 6-8 am were you have reasonable lighting conditions and we could not schedule it earlier. Next time hopefully.

Thx for looking.

Also, maybe next time i will try to use a better head on the tripod for smoother panning.

[Max@Home]

Originally Posted by felix.reichardt

At times I could not see anything in the viewfinder

...that is because when filming you should use the LCD

Very impressive for a first try , what software did you use to edit the video and make them nice fade-ins and -outs ?

...€0.02...

Kindest regards!

Max@Home

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by Max@Home

...that is because when filming you should use the LCD

Very impressive for a first try , what software did you use to edit the video and make them nice fade-ins and -outs ?

...€0.02...

Kindest regards!

Max@Home

Haha Max! Yes LCD but still could not see anything ... LOL

I tried to use Premiere Pro Trial but it crashes all the time even with quadcore and 8GB RAM. I finally settled for Premiere Elements which runs very stabile on my machine. As long as you are on my level editing I think it does the job well.

Tricky part with video are all those codecs and output formats. At the highest setting I got 900 MB file size for 2.4 minutes ... That would require Blueray for 90 minutes movie.

[400duser]

Shucks, thought you were Speilberg

[JDArt]

Wow, the quality of this is truly amazing!

[transcape5]

Nice job, Felix! Glad to see you warmed up to the video feature. It's one big reason why I drool over this camera. Also, I think the content quality looks pretty good as is the composition.

[felix.reichardt]

Thanks Tom! I have big plans with the video feature but not sure I will be able to realize them.

[garypasz]

Hi Felix well done

i;m just above you in Brunei, its so hard to explain to people how hot the middle of the day is here in South East Asia, you got lucky no clouds for your shoot. I haven't seen blue skies for months (love doing sunset shots) but alas still waiting for a clear day.

I'm going to have to look in to Premiere Elements, using Mac IMovie up to now.

[Ron65]

Very nice video..

I haven't tried mine yet but that inspires me to do so..

Excellent !!

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by garypasz

Hi Felix well done

i;m just above you in Brunei, its so hard to explain to people how hot the middle of the day is here in South East Asia, you got lucky no clouds for your shoot. I haven't seen blue skies for months (love doing sunset shots) but alas still waiting for a clear day.

I'm going to have to look in to Premiere Elements, using Mac IMovie up to now.

Elements is great for video beginner like me, on an apple I would probably also using iMovie or Final Cut. CS4 Premiere is a headache and crashes all the time (just google around).

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by Ron65

Very nice video..

I haven't tried mine yet but that inspires me to do so..

Excellent !!

Thx! Try it out its great fun and the quality on my PC or HDTV is stunning.

[Artforms]

Very impressive video quality coming from an slr and I found it interesting that you used a
70-200 f/4 Canon lens at higher aperatures.
Your niece is cute and she did rather well too.

Now I want one of those. Better start saving my money.

[felix.reichardt]

Thanks artforms! Teh video quality is even more impressive at full HD resolution
More experimenting with other apertures required from my side.

[Artforms]

Originally Posted by felix.reichardt

Thanks artforms! Teh video quality is even more impressive at full HD resolution
More experimenting with other apertures required from my side.

Yes I got to see the HD version of your video on the Vimeo website and after showing it to another photographer, he sent me a video sample that someone did at a fireworks display at night from New York. Needless to say we were both impressed and both would like to get a Canon 5D MKII.
Would like to see more of your video samples when you are able to post them.

http://vimeo.com/5459652" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/5459652

http://vimeo.com/5459652" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/5459652

<Fireworks display

http://vimeo.com/5197385?hd=1" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/5197385?hd=1

http://vimeo.com/5197385?hd=1" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/5197385?hd=1

<Aura @ Dreamland, Bali

[Worm324]

Great work Felix!! I've been fooling around with the video latley as well, but nothing like what you did here. I'm using iMovie and Final Cut Pro at the moment and it's surprisingly easy software to learn. Especially iMovie.

I was really amazed at the focus maintaining when you zoomed in like that. How did you do that with AF? O though manual was the only way to go other wise the camera goes nutz trying to focus? Clearly I'm doing something wrong I have a few here if you wanna look, but again it's nothing special.

I remember seeing those awesome videos that came out early on that some pro video guy did, and I was in awe! I would love to get to that level at some point

Jay

[felix.reichardt]

Jay, Thanks!

The focusing is all the magic of DOF ... hahaha. In one sequence I was using a really shallow DOF and you can see how the focus is lost when she walk away. In most other scenes I was using a much wider DOF (I can't really remember but maybe something around f/8 or higher).