Is the 5D Mark II a 30 fps still camera?
So are you dreaming of shooting sports at 30 frames per second at 1/4000th shutter speeds? Well now you can with the Canon 5D Mark II and the updated firmware 1.1.0 which allows for manual exposure control in video mode. The tough part will be finding the balance between using a high enough shutter speed to freeze the action and trying to keep your video smooth which is accomplished at the slower shutter speeds. But what if you don’t care about the video and only want to frame grab? Might be good cases for that. Like maybe the backswing of a golfer? Tennis? Baseball (at the plate)?
What else might this be good for? You can’t count on the auto focus tracking a subject while shooting in video mode, so I wouldn’t expect football, soccer or basketball to work well.
Ah, but it’s cheating, you say? I say no. It’s using a tool. If a Mark III could shoot 30 frames per second, I’m betting no one would complain.
I shot a little test video of my pigeons being released in my backyard using two 5D Mark II’s shot at slow and fast shutter speeds. Hopefully you can see the difference in the video quality: The higher shutter speed producing jumpy, flickery video and the slower shutter speed providing a smoother look.
Canon 5D Mark II frame grabs at high shutter speeds from David Stephenson on Vimeo.
You can download the frame grabs to see the difference up close. They were captured in Final Cut Pro.
Frame grab from video shot at 1/2000th of a second. The resulting file size is 1920px by 1080px, about 6Mb.
Frame grab from video shot at 1/30th of a second. The resulting file size is 1920px by 1080px, about 6Mb.
Here is a test frame from Rob Carr of the AP. He says he plans to test it out more during a tournament in the coming weeks. That's a very publishable image there (remember what we used to get with the Nikon D1?).
Immersion Wrap Up
It was, officially speaking, a bad-ass week.
I just got home from six days of the 2009 Multimedia Immersion and NPPA Convergence held in Las Vegas. It was exhausting, exhilarating, inspirational and humbling.
We coached 45 students from around the country on how to produce multimedia storytelling. We used gear from our sponsors, Canon, Think Tank Photo and Roberts Imaging, and along the way we tried to instruct and inspire the students so they could go home and spread the multimedia goodness to their friends and coworkers.
20-something iPhone photos stitched together
And we ate a lot of noodles.
At some point, all of the handouts that the coaches provided will be available as downloads on the Multimedia Immersion website. I made up a tip sheet for the 5D Mark II, as more than 15 of the students used that as their only video camera. And on Thursday at the NPPA Convergence, I gave a presentation on Photoblogging geared to the beginners. Both of those can be dowloaded from my blog.
Make sure to check in with the Immersion website to see when the participant’s videos are posted – there is some bad-ass work in there!
Canon 5D Mark II tip sheet
I prepared this document ahead of the 2009 NPPA Multimedia Immersion program held in Las Vegas in June.
In it you will find tips and do’s and don’ts based on my experience with the Canon 5D Mark II. It is current with the most recent firmware upgrade, 1.1.0.
Click the image to download the pdf
Included is:
Pros/Cons of the camera
Exposure control
Working with Audio
Focusing
Accessories
Shooting workflow
Final Cut Pro workflow and export settings
Photo Blogging 101
I gave a presentation on photo blogging at the NPPA Convergence 09 in Las Vegas in June. I am posting a pdf of that keynote here, along with a list of links and resources that I mentioned in the talk.
An outline of the presentation includes:
A discussion of what a photo blog is or can be.
Questions to ask yourself if you are thinking about a photo blog
CMS – Content Management Systems
Wordpress.com vs. Wordpress.org: Whats the diff?
Installing Wordpress
Finding good themes for photo blogs or photo portfolio sites, both free and premium
How you won’t make money, and how you can make money
Wordpress plugins, themes, SEO
Download the PDF
I refer to the following in the presentation:
Blogs/Sites:
project dateline
Jonathan Palmer
bellcoveclub
Scott Strazzante
heraldleaderphoto
mophojo
ishootiphone
Strobist
Noah Devereaux
Daniel Houghton
Denverpost.com: Captured
Boston.com: Big Picture
msnbc Photo Blog
Steve McCurry
Zach Brake
Other resources and themes:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/29/ultimate-guide-to-using-wordpress-for-a-portfolio/
http://www.wordpress.com
http://www.wordpress.org
http://www.blogger.com
Multimediashooter.com video tutorial on installing Wordpress
Free themes
http://webrevolutionary.com/sharpfolio/
http://redworks.sk/wp-themes/linquist/
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/monotone
http://demo.wordspop.com/fotofolio/
http://labs.paulicio.us/viewport/
Premium themes
http://frozr.com/photopro/
http://graphpaperpress.com/
http://www.studiopress.com
Testing the manual exposure controls for Canon 5D Mark II firmware update
Canon released a major firmware update 1.1.0 for the 5D Mark II on June 1, 2009, which will finally allow users to have manual exposure control while recording video.
I tested out the new controls and have found them to be easy to use and very functional. One interesting surprise is the increase in available shutter speeds. Previously, the camera limited shutter speeds from 1/30th to 1/125th. Now, shutter speeds up to 1/4000th can be used in manual exposure mode. It’s unclear where the shutter speeds will top out when in one of the automatic modes since you can’t see your exposure settings in those modes.
Shutter speed appears on the left, then aperture.
To use the manual exposure while recording video, you must have the camera set in Manual (hello Mr. Obvious). I use the top control dial to change the shutter speed and the rear control wheel to change my aperture. You can see your exposure changes on the LCD screen and you can see your shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings as well.
If you have your ISO set to AUTO, though, then the camera reverts back to a kind of automatic exposure setting even if you are in Manual exposure mode. What happens is this: if you are setting your aperture and shutter speed and you have ISO set to auto, then the camera automatically adjusts the ISO up and down to give you a correct exposure. This will not allow you to over- or under-expose your image until you max out the range of the ISO. And you won’t be able to use exposure compensation, either. So I would advise NOT using the ISO AUTO setting while in manual exposure mode – kind of defeats the purpose.
Here are some other tips I have found to be true with this firmware update:
- If you use the shutter or aperture priority modes, the camera will go into a modified auto exposure mode – you won’t really be giving priority to the shutter speed or aperture. It appears that it reverts to the old way of auto-exposing but it’s hard to verify that.
- If you set the ISO to “AUTO” and are in manual exposure mode, you can see the ISO numbers on the LCD by pressing the AE lock button (asterisk) or tapping the shutter button. By default, it appears that the display will show ISO AUTO until you press one of those buttons.
- When using manual exposure mode, AE lock and exposure compensation cannot be set (’cause, well, your manual settings are doing that for you).
- If you set the ISO to “AUTO” when shooting movies in manual exposure mode it is possible to set the aperture and shutter speed and the ISO will adjust for the exposure. So this amounts to having combo Aperture/Shutter Priority mode.
- When ISO is set to “AUTO” the range will be 100-6400 even if the ISO expansion is set.
- When manually setting the ISO and enabling ISO expansion range will include H1 (ISO 12800).
- Shutter speed range will be 1/30 – 1/4000 sec. The faster the shutter speed the less smooth the subjects movement will appear to be.
- If “screen setting” is set to “stills display” or “exposure simulation” manual exposure for the movie mode will not be possible.
Canon releases firmware update for 5D Mark II allowing manual exposure in Video recording
Canon has now released their firmware update which will finally allow users of their 5D Mark II camera to have manual exposure control when recording video.
Includes a function to enable the manual exposure setting when shooting movies.
*When shooting movies in manual (M) mode, the shutter speed *1, the lens aperture value *2, and the ISO speed *3 can be freely set to allow a greater flexibility.
Notes:
*1 Shutter speed range: 1/30 sec. to 1/4000 sec.
*2 Lens aperture range: Maximum to minimum aperture value of the lens used
*3 ISO speed range:
Auto: ISO 100 to 6400 set automatically
Manual: ISO 100 to 6400, H1
That’s fantastic news for most of us who have had to master the art of trickery and MacGyverism to get the camera to expose the way we want it to.
I’ll be sure to report back after using it.
