A Tribute to the Californian Wilderness
I’ve been recently testing the video capabilities of the Canon 5D Mark II in the field. It is fascinating to see how a technology can impact your work. Video is my first love (short films) and it’s with a lot of excitement that I’m coming back to it. What I wanted to see here is the feasibility of shooting videos AND stills during the same day. It has been a lot of fun and in the same time a lot of work. I shot this in Full HD (1920*1080) at 30fps and edit it in Final Cut. The music I added is “Vers le Nord” from Bruno Coulais, used in the film “The Traveling Birds” (which I really recommend you if you haven’t already watched it). The lenses I used are the 17-40L, 70-200 f/4L, and the 500 f/4L. Here is some comments/advices on this short but intense experience:
- Shoot in Manual: Shooting in manual is definitely a must with the Mark II. Shooting in one of the automatic mode will more certainly make your footage to looks choppy because the camera is going to compensate on the shutter speed. Getting decent videos requires using a shutter speed of 1/60 or something around this. If you can’t achieve this because the scene is too bright, then use neutral grey filters, this is what real camcorders are using (built in).
- Don’t count on the audio: The audio coming out of the Mark II is quite terrible. Independent audio system is definitely the way to go (Zoom H4n/Rode NTG-2 is a great couple).
- Bring a spare battery: Shooting videos during a whole day completely used my 2 batteries whereas is never happened when I was just shooting stills, even when using Liveview extensively.
- Bring a lot of CF: 5 minutes = 4Gbs. It hurts mommy.
- White balance your shot: The 5D II is not shooting RAW videos (unlike the RED), so you’re not able to correct this afterward. Actually you can correct a colorcast in a Software like Color but this is a lossy correction. So have it right during the shooting by using something like a Grey Card.
- Focus: Focusing 100% right on a static shot is a must. What I do is that I’m usually zooming all the way, making the focus in liveview and zooming back to the focal I want.
- Invaluable IS: Some shots (like on windy days) are just impossible without IS, I found this feature incredibly useful. However, IS being pretty noisy (especially on the 500mm), you may not be able to use it in every situation (if the mic is close).
- Stabilize your shots: On some shots, I wasn’t able to setup the tripod to I tried to shoot without it (example: second crab in the video), but that of course doesn’t work.
- Well…dont’ count on the Mark II itself: Weird but true, at the end of the day, the Mark II went crazy. For some reasons the light meter was giving me non sense exposure. As of today, the problem is not solved and I have no idea how I’m going to shoot my Grand Canyon trip coming next week. Canon got the technology, Nikon got the reliability.
Hey, that was inspiring and a lotta fun, Emmanuel. Good stuff!
Salut Emmanuel,
vraiment magnifique ta vidéo !!!
Les images sont sublimes avec une nettetée epoustouflante !
Je me suis acheté le 5D Mark II il n’y a pas longtemps, je ne soupçonnais pas qu’on pouvait prendre de si jolies images.
Va falloir que je m’entraine
à bientot
Aymeric
Thanks John and Aymeric! The 5D II is more than capable indeed. Get inspired and go out to shoot!, it’s the only thing that matters.
Nice greatest hits compilation of video footage! I have been exploring the video capabilities of my 5DM2 as well via my Sunday Morning Shorts project. I definitely agree that an external microphone is required. Then you need to have the right software and horsepower to do the final video compilation.
Hey Latoga, thanks for your comment.
I’m using the Final Cut Studio Suite and I found it just amazing. I did the grading in Color, this software is invaluable, a kind of Lightroom and Photoshop but for the video. The difference between the graded and non/graded video is huge. However it’s true that with FullHD footage, you need some horsepower.
Bonjour Emmanuel,
Malheureusement notre ordinateur n’est pas capable de lire ton film sans sauter c’est énervant.
Oui, Bruno Coulais écrit de belles musiques mais au CIC qui l’avait comme client, on ne peut pas dire qu’il est été très fair play quand il s’est séparé de sa femme.
Il s’était en situation de faillite (fictive) pour ne rien lui donner ! sans blague….
Voila un post très interessant ! les nouvelles possibilités des boitiers tel le 5D mark II (dont tu es desormais possesseur?) sont boulversantes. J’aprecie ta démarche, je songe à en faire autant dans un futur relativement proche et j’ai hate de te parler de tout çà de vive voix d’ici peu.
En tout cas félicitations !
A très vite,
Bise
P.S. concernant l’ex-femme de Coulais, il faut savoir qu’elle avait dit du mal de la ligue des oiseaux, impardonnable
JY: Dommage pour le film , effectivement. Le portable doit vraiment commencer à dater car le film ne demande pas non plus une machine de la NASA. Tant pis. Pour le reste, cela ne nous reeegarde pas
Jess: On parlera effectivement de tout ça bientot de vive voix. Le 5D II n’est qu’un début. Le fait que Hollywood s’y mette également (Harry Potter, Shane Hurlbut [DP]) montre que c’est autre chose qu’un simple moyen économique de filmer avec une fine profondeur de champs. Ces mecs là peuvent se payer absolument tout, s’ils choisissent parfois le 5D II (et 7D ou 1D IV) c’est que quelque chose se passe.