Main limitations of 5dII as video cam

B

bluekayak

Member
Hi


Am weighing up options and the 5dII looks good for obvious reasons

This would be used mainly for video and from what I've read I gather it has some limitations, e.g. limited length of shots, 24p, overheating(Not sure if I got any or all of those right)

An example of where I could see probs is this would be used for some lengthy interviews and am wondering how practical it is to be turning camera on and off during interview

I also recall reading something about problem with 24p - maybe that's resolved?

Any input appreciated


Thanks much
 
Honestly the whole overheating issue I have never had a problem with. I used it all day shooting a music videos and some times I would have to leave the camera recording 8 minutes at a time for multiple shots and not once did it overheat.

Yes it is true you can't record over something like 11 minute clips but not ever in the 12 years of filmmaking have I ever recorded a clip over 12 minutes long, and If I did then I know it wouldn't have been an issue if I just stopped recording for a split second and pressing record the next second later.
 
Thanks for that

11 minutes should be plenty long

Not that it matters but I'm curious what the technical reason is for that limitation

Recently I rented a pro video cam and in one situation had a group of people lining up for interview - in that case I just left it running until I was finished, but that was a tape-based camera so it mattered less
 
The techical reason is accumulating heat. I will also say that I've never had a problem with overheating. 24p is native frame rate, so there is no problem with it. The initial release of the camera had it only doing 30p, but that has since been fixed through firmware updates.

The 5D MkII is really a tool for people who have a deep technical understanding of photography and have a specific creative vision in mind. It is definitely not a replacement for any old video camera. It makes great looking images, but it doesn't do that automatically - you have to understand what you're doing. It has many more opportunities to make mistakes than a regular video camera. Reminds me of an old quote about the 3D app "Maya" - "if you don't know exactly why you need Maya, you don't need Maya".
 
Actually, the 12 minute limitation has to due with the data rate and FAT formatting. When you format a CF card as FAT, it makes it readable by multiple platforms, but for whatever reason they came up with years and years ago, it has a 4GB file size limitation.

So at 1080p on a 5D, 4GB of video comes to roughly 12 minutes. It has nothing to do with heat. It has more to due with Canon not allowing the 5D to span 12+ minute clips like upper level camcorders do...like the HVX200. The P2 media the HVX uses also is formatted to FAT, but when the camera reaches the 4GB limit, it just spans the two (or more) clips in the software so your NLE sees one big clip.
 
Havent had the 5d for too long but it works very well. Better than I expected actually. Apart from the 12 minute record times I would say jello bothers me from time to time, but usually workable with a different approach to a shot. I imagine people who have had it for any length of time would know where that might arise and never come across it as they have evolved to avoid it.

Im about to get a Red One but will def. be keeping the 5d. One thing Id say about the 5d is its a hell of a lot of fun to shoot with, so find myself grabbing it a lot to shoot just about anything in my down time.
 
I don't think the 5Dmkii ever had any overheating issues... it was more of a problem with the 7D and the T2i.
 
the main limitation of DSLR is not really the camera it is the ability of the crew to handle it - particularly focus

the image limitation that gets me is moiree

the footage is also limited in its flexibility to manipulate in post

The 5 has a specific limitation over the 7 in that the output to monitor is lower res and more clunky going black for longer when changing viewing modes

S
 
bluekayak said:
Jello is ... ?
Click to expand...

Jello is the distortion caused from several camera axis's moving at the same time combined with a scan rate from the sensor which cannot capture the whole frame quickly enough. So for instance horizontally panning while at the same time handholding the camera (introducing vertical movements) results in a jello-like wobble, as the camera is scanning from top to bottom of a sensor at too slow a rate for the scene being captured.

There are other factors of course, but this is the basic idea.

A higher price cam often scans at faster rates and thus often has less jello.
 
Good catch

Good catch

Thanks for that. - The heat thing was something I had seen repeated in a few places, and when I had a T2i, it definitely got really hot, so I assumed they were the same issue.

awelgraven said:
Actually, the 12 minute limitation has to due with the data rate and FAT formatting. When you format a CF card as FAT, it makes it readable by multiple platforms, but for whatever reason they came up with years and years ago, it has a 4GB file size limitation.

So at 1080p on a 5D, 4GB of video comes to roughly 12 minutes. It has nothing to do with heat. It has more to due with Canon not allowing the 5D to span 12+ minute clips like upper level camcorders do...like the HVX200. The P2 media the HVX uses also is formatted to FAT, but when the camera reaches the 4GB limit, it just spans the two (or more) clips in the software so your NLE sees one big clip.
Click to expand...
 
I first read about the heat problem in an article in a video mag about making a feature with the 5dII - the filmmaker just said the cameras get hot, have to turn them off frequently

Maybe the problem is resolved?
 
The 7D and T2i suffer from overheating to be sure. The 5D... I'm sure it's happened before... but not to the vast majority of users.
 
On overheating, I shot a blank wall outside, card after card until the batteries were dead, just testing record times operation etc. Didnt overheat at all.
 
I've shot in a relativly small conference room with 5 actors, 4 crew including myself, two 500w light panels, 2 700w lowel totas to balance out the sun from the windows. We shot for a good half day and no overheating issue. The only thing that gets slightly warm is the LCD. I feel like the overheating issue has been recognized as being mistaken for the 4GB fat32 lmitation very early in the 5D IIs life.

Anyway I think the limitations of the 5D are the moire, jello, 4GB limitation. Those are the only things that can't be fully avioded with this camera without sacrificng something else. Sound, focus, weight, shallow DOF can all be handled well with proper planning.
 
I think what bothers people most is the lower effective resolution caused by line skipping and the moire or antialiasing, caused by not having an optical LP filter at HD resolution.

In other words, if you extract a still image from video taken of a resolution chart, the maximum resolution is just above 720P. So neither the 7D or 5D are truly capable of 1080P video.

That's why everyone's so excited about the GH-1 Mod, because it's delivering higher resolution. When you see 1080P stills from the video it seems to be higher res.
 
steventimothy said:
In other words, if you extract a still image from video taken of a resolution chart, the maximum resolution is just above 720P. So neither the 7D or 5D are truly capable of 1080P video.
Click to expand...

I think the GH13 has set some new standards, however, if you look at XLH1 resolution compared to the 5D II, even with line skipping the 5D is definitely sharper. Every camera has some sort of interpolation at the pixel level which is going to cause a 100% frame grab to look a little soft. Even when you shoot a 21MP still if you view it at 100% you are going to see bayer interpolation which doesn't allow for a perfectly sharp image.

Does the 5D ressolve below 1080?...yes. Does almost every other 1080P camera do the same?...yes. By the same token 720P cameras resolve less thatn 720.
 
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