Some questions about this Camera I have not really seen answered

Thanks Matt.

What I like the idea of is that it's just so obviously high quality, for not a lot of money, and the support gear to do it right doesn't cost a lot. I used to have a 32' Cammate Camera Crane with 550 lbs of weight for counterbalance. Thing cost like $15k, $20k + now. I always wanted a steadicam, but it was super expensive for something to support the 500. Everything is SOOOOO expensive if you want quality gear for the 500, but for the Canon? Cheap. It's Light, portable, and still for still it blows the 500 out of the water. Granted, limits, but so superior image wise for 85% of your shooting. And I can put it in a backpack. Geez.
 
Kit & Mcgee,

I'm also using the 500 and have been seriously looking at the 5D. The portability and the relatively low prices for some nice array of lenses has got my attention... I was recently asked to do a shoot out in the boonies, on horseback with an outfitter for a week. I pictured the hassle of lugging all the big gear around on pack horses, and then setting up each time! :undecided I love the idea of one backpack, loaded with the 5D, three lenses - wide, medium, tele- bunch of CF cards, batteries, light tripod... and maybe even throw in the new kessler pocket jib/dolly. Now, thats really got me thinking twice about the 5D... But i would also like to see some of the before mentioned shortcomings fixed! it would make this one bad camera!
 
I don't see why anyone would want to shoot for more than 12 minutes with this camera. I can only think of a few instances. I say that because this really isn't an event camera. That is probably one of its weaknesses. It has a much to shallow DOF and to many manual requirements IMO.


So wait, does leaving the lcd on cause the sensor to overheat? I heard something along those lines... also, what are hot pixels?
 
Entity said:
I don't see why anyone would want to shoot for more than 12 minutes with this camera. I can only think of a few instances. I say that because this really isn't an event camera. That is probably one of its weaknesses. It has a much to shallow DOF and to many manual requirements IMO.


So wait, does leaving the lcd on cause the sensor to overheat? I heard something along those lines... also, what are hot pixels?
Click to expand...


Then you have not done enough shooting, or don't have a broad range of work under your belt. Not trying to be rude, but almost ALL of the things I do are longer than 12 minutes. I'd say at least about 80%. The only things that are shorter than 12 minutes are Scenes from a movie/doc or news. There are obviously ways to adapt and get around that, but if I want to do an interview, it would be easier for myself to have one continuous take and sync it up once in post. Anything live for that matter. Maybe you want to use it to go record your kid in his 4th grade play production at school. Is that 12 minutes long? No, longer, which means that if you wanted to grab the whole thing, you're going to have to cut it at some point. I do some sports, play productions, dance recitals, etc. and it would be nice to be able to use this for something like that. Heck, i just did 9 graduations last week and this would have made a great camera for something like that other than the record times.

As far as the overheating issue, you are the second person to mention that without any backup or substance. Someone posted on the first page that they were using the camera continuously for 3 hours a night for 4 nights and it wasn't a problem. If someone has some sort of "evidence", ie. this happened to you, lets hear about it, but it's pretty unfair to just rattle off "I heard something 12th hand" and not know the full story on it. My 500's will overheat in 100 degree + weather too.
 
As far as the DOF goes, you don't necessarily have to shoot with the iris wide open. Just like there are ways to get shallow DOF, there are ways to not get it as much. The manual requirements are awesome. Pro cameras are pretty much used in manual mode most of the time. So you don't have a zoom rocker, rarely do I ever use auto iris unless I am doing something outdoors when the sun is going down and lights are coming on with multiple cameras. In my world, there's no such thing as auto focus. Pretty used to "manual".

This camera may not be made for the situations I would like to use it for, but I think that it could be made to work. IMO, for the money, you get a great little package that is extremely portable with some of the best image quality I have seen to date. Plus it's a freakin 21MP still camera!

I'm not trying to jump all over you here, Entity, I'm just saying, you made a comment"I don't see why anyone would want to..." Well, I am just one person that does. There are others, many thers.
 
Just back from my shoot and I have a few more things to add and I will post some of the footage for folks to see. As I said in my first post here I did shoot this past week from Monday - Thursday 6:30pm-9:45pm each night. I ran 2 Canon XHA1s tripods in manual exposure with a combination of autofocus and manual focus. I ran the 5D Mk2 on a photo tripod spending most of my time tending to this camera. I would shoot until the camera hit the file size limit, which gave me basically 12 minutes and about 12-15 seconds for each shot. I would shoot until the CF was full and eject it then inserted a blank CF card to continue the shoot. Downloading all the CF card content onto a Macbook Pro. The camera and the CF cards were warm by the end of each night BUT I would not declare either to be HOT, they were on the warmer side of warm. I saw no degradation in image quality when comparing shots from the start of the shoot with shots from the end of the shoot. The room was air conditioned to about 76 degrees (because maintenance came in and adjusted it and I watched so I could note environmental variables).

Comparing running the 5DMk2 to running the Canon XHA1 with firestore drives... hands down this camera requires more personal attention because of the constant switching of CF cards, and the fact that I had to keep things in focus due to a speaker that loved to roam around the stage. However seeing the footage later almost made the extra pains worth it. The 5d Mk2 almost makes the XHA1 footage look unusable (not really, but you understand the need for exaggeration here).

I was not planning to bring this camera on a 2 camera shoot, but it was another great opportunity to learn more about what it can and cannot do in the field.

Some things that I found that made it more challenging, especially for a guy that has only been doing this for 3 years. Shooting wide open made it a challenge to keep the lecturer in focus all the time. I could have closed the aperture a bit to increase the DOF and increase my ISO but this footage is going onto lecture series 4 part DVD so the grainy look is not an option. I was also using a 100-300 Canon lense most of the time with a zoom ring that was not the smoothest so any nice zooms were out of the question. It was not an L series lens, just a standard 100-300mm Canon lense I used with my old 20d. Still the shots were nice. I used the camera to get angle shots, facial expression shots and other close ups in a dark room.

The last night of the shoot was done in an auditorium that was fairly dark and this camera shined in the lower light, even when I was at full zoom. And I noticed that during the shoot I could not go any lower than a shutter speed of 30. But going any low might have given me choppier video, like I said I've only 3 years under my belt so I am by far not a man with all the answers.

Sorry for the lenght but I wanted to be of some help for anyone who has a need for this type info. Let me know if you want to know anymore, or if I left something obvious out. I will post some footage soon.
 
Kit,
I was shooting indoors all 4 nights. M-W in a classroom setting with fluorescent overhead lights. The room was cooled by central air to 76 degrees. The shoot was in NC so very humid outside, thus a little more humid than normal inside... but overall it was comfortable. I would say perfect for cameras.
As far as problems, none that I encountered. The camera operated without flaw within the means in which it was designed to operate. The changing of the CF cards was repetitive BUT it also gave me time to see my footage right away on the Macbook Pro. That was NICE. However that also removed me from tending to the camera and keeping it focused on the speaker. So some of my footage is of a white dry erase board with voice. But having a camera that you KNOW is at a wider angle catching the entire scene makes it workable to take those kind of breaks.

So no issues.

It would be nice to have; autofocus during video (I know this is frowned upon but in this case it would have been productively helpful.), no file size limits, battery meter showing how much battery time you have left. It just shoots until the battery reaches a low point that prompts the display to show a red battery icon... which allows about 5 more minutes of video if memory serves correct. I hear a battery grip with alleviate this issue. Also, shooting to an external hard drive would really, at least for me, allow me to run my business entirely with 2 of these cameras and an Edirol recorder.

Let me know if I can tell you more.
Cheers,
Jason
 
Thanks Jason!

If you could post some footage, that would be really cool.

I do a lot of "stage" shows, meaning dance recitals and the likes. Would be nice to have a camera system that I could carry in on my back. Locking one camera down on a wide shot would be easy and everything will no doubt be in focus. The another camera or 2 getting a zoom shot and maybe one up at the stage on a steadicam or something (it's so nice that you can get away with a nice, inexpensive steadicam for this cam!).

The type of work I do, these cameras will work very nicely. Ideal, no, not even close, but I think given the image quality, it will make for some VERY nice finalized product.
 
Kit,
It is only 12 seconds but you can get a whiff. Tell me if you, or anyone else, would like to see more. Or if you would like to see the same footage from the XHA1 for comparison. I know you won't want to see that Kit as you shoot with HPX500s but someone may.

http://www.vimeo.com/5283237

Cheers,
Jason
 
Just completed my Nikon manual primes set for my 5d.

Now to get some lens gears and try to source some 80mm step up front rings.
 
Some thoughts on file size.
The EU market isn't just France, it's the whole shebang, 24 countries, 700+ million people at the last count, quite a size.
If the Canon had no file limit, either NTFS or linking, so no recording limit, then it would be clased as a Camcorder, with higher import duties.
If it were a camcorder, then Canon couldn't get away with foisting 30 fps on us, or India, or China or..well you know the score, they'd be in breach of several "Fit-For-Purpose" acts.

So limited recording time = not-a-camcorder = lower taxes + don't have to worry about frame rate.

I don't think Canon will be bringing in unlimited recording time, since it suits them mor not to.
Dave
 
Possibly in a later version, as Panny's done. I think the 5DII was rushed out in such a hurry no-one had any time to even think about that, let alone implement it.
Perhaps if we get multiple frame-rates in another update they'll include 25fps, and maybe linked files, but I suspect they won't do anything to harm their sales, and increased duties would do just that.
Remember UK spec GH1's have limited recording time, whereas HK ones (Still PAL) don't
Dave
 
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