Well it looks like we may have another DSLR coming that may be able to fill that role. Canon will likely announce a 5Dmk3 soon, but in the meantime, they announced the 1D X.
According to Canon Rumors, it looks like the camera has dual DIGIC V processors and Canon even mentions “Advanced video capabilities”.
Camera will arrive in March….
Here. We. Go.
More details to come as they become available (the real details)!
Inspired by the other large shootout of high end expensive cameras, my buddy Kyle Bush and I decided it was time to do some real world head-to-head with cameras from the streets.
We grabbed cameras we had access to and took them out. We attempted to be as scientific as possible, but there are quirks. Lots of quirks. For example:
The GoPro has no manual exposure. Or Focus. Or White Balance. Or a monitoring screen (sans lcd bacpac) It just…shoots. So…. it has almost nothing in common with the other cameras other than it shoots in 1080 (and at 30fps at that!) In all honesty, we just wanted to throw it in the test
The EX1R does not have a removable lens
The sensors are all different sizes
Picture Profiles were wildly varied (and also N/A…GoPro…)
The “science” of this test is a long shot. So we chucked it. We kept the exposure, frame rates, composition, and focus as similar as possible and threw out the rest. This is the real world, we wanted to see the real results in real time. For real.
We wanted to test:
Resolution
Color/Skintone
Dynamic Range
Noise
Aliasing
Some tech details on the cameras:
Canon 5D Mark ii
Codec: h.264 44Mbit/s
Resolution: 1920×1080 24
Lenses: Canon 17-40mmL, 28-135mmL
Picture Profile: Neutral, 0 Sharpness, 0 Contrast, -2 Saturation, 0 Color Tone
White Balance: 5200k
Canon 7D
Codec: h.264 44Mbit/s
Resolution: 1920×1080 24
Lenses: Canon 17-40mmL, 28-135mmL
Picture Profile: Neutral, 0 Sharpness, 0 Contrast, -2 Saturation, 0 Color Tone
White Balance: 5200k
Canon T2i
Codec: h.264 44Mbit/s
Resolution: 1920×1080 24
Lenses: Canon 17-40mmL, 28-135mmL
Picture Profile: Neutral, 0 Sharpness, 0 Contrast, -2 Saturation, 0 Color Tone
Shot over 2 months, I forced myself to occaisionally break away from the busy daily schedules and find inspiration in the incredible morphing shapes above.
Variation of wind speed, color, types of clouds, altitude, weather, and time of day make shooting clouds, a seemingly flat subject, fascinating. On the tech side, choosing the proper speed, anticipating cloud movement, and finding the perfect vantage point complicate what seems to be a simple shoot.
The video doesn’t quite do justice to the amazing Colorado skies.
Shot on the Sony EX1R
Music: Death Cab for Cutie, Brothers on a Hotel Bed
When Lion roared to the top of the App Store on Wednesday July 20, my skepticism instantly skyrocketed… I had to think about why… Why would a video professional be weary of Apple… what was it again? Wasn’t there something about….Oh right, FCPX.
I’ve adopted deep doubts about Apple’s future with creative video pros. I’ve started considering switching to PC (ugh!), where I know the other big A will continue to support and enhance their production software.
FCPX missed the mark and Apple has made it clear where they will stand. But will Lion force the paid creative crowd to relive the FCPX launch again?!!? Will Walter Murch start editing feature films on the iPad??!?!?!?
It’s no secret by now that Lion is Mac’s intentional design to merge iOS features into a desktop software. As a creative professional, that makes me uneasy…
Assumptions aside, Lion looks ok. Features here and there making it “easier”. Or something. Not worth $30 out of my pocket.
EXCEPT
One feature that makes Lion worth a potential upgrade is the integration of Xsan. Back in the day (a whole 2 days ago), Xsan was a $1000 on top of OS X. Now… it’s integrated.
The downside is you’ll need to invest in a lot of other network components if you don’t already have them.
-Storage
-Fiber/Gigabit Switches
-Servers (I believe you need 2, if not 3)
-Cables
Ok, so $1000 is pretty small in comparison…unless you start adding up the licenses. Previously you needed 1 Xsan license per computer. 20 computers was $20k! Also, there are reports and hardware that suggest you may be able to hook up computers via thunderbolt connections… I’m sure that’s Apple’s direction, and it would give you a multi-terabyte network with simultaneous user read/write. And it’s fast. REALLY fast. Edit 2k/4k over the network speeds!
While you will have to make a fairly sizable investment in a network, it’s becoming cheaper and cheaper. Suddenly a pipeline of 20 graphic artists working on an independent film seems more reasonable… Soon we’ll see these type of systems setup in people’s garages!
Maybe Apple does care somewhere deep down for video pros! Or maybe the large networks are intended to allow families to download HD movies. All of them.
Regardless, integrated Xsan. One viable reason to upgrade.
Speaking for the filmmakers I know, we get tangled into the high-speed information dump all too easily. There are so many aspects to production that it’s easy for it to consume your life fairly quickly (and each category deep enough to immerse yourself in). Every once in a while, I force myself to tear away and discover. I went to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market last weekend on one such venture to find a an explosion of color from around the globe to see what art meant through their eyes… just a few samples below (click on pictures for bigger versions).
These images, while not much of a document for the Folk Art Market, represent things that caught my eye while there.
HDV had its time and place. For documentary work, there’s really no media that gives you the sense of security like tape. You walk off set with real, touchable pieces of plastic knowing that your footage exists in a physical piece of plastic. Solid state cameras remove that reassurance and you instead marvel that your days, weeks, or months of shooting only exist on a hard drive…which could fail or be formatted at a moment’s notice.
However HDV has it’s well-documented flaws. The camera heads have to constantly be cleaned, tape cameras have a (relatively) large number of moving parts which means more potential problems (had tape transport jams twice on a shoot once), and HDV itself was… well, 4:2:0 DV bitrate in HD. Ouch. Still, videographers everywhere made good use of HDV. I remember reading that Planet Earth was utilizing HDV… if it’s good enough for those guys, what do I know??! (granted they were using it for slow moving shots)
I digress. The one piece of the HDV workflow that always bugged me was “capturing”. Several years ago, I worked as a technical assistant at a web/video company. Part of my job was to log and transfer countless hours of DV/HDV tape into the computer. I have no problem with log and transfer. Editors should know their footage well. What bugged me was the play>pause>reverse a few seconds>play>pause>reverse a few frames>play>capture sequence. Once footage was loaded into an NLE, in and out points were easy and instant… but setting 20 in/out points on tape in capture seemed to turn a 60 minute tape into a 90 minute capture. Though I was paid hourly for the work, I often thought to myself… “there has to be a better way”.
Funny enough, when starting my business, I started with an HDV camera. Recently, it came time for an upgrade (aside from the DSLR revolution). Weighing my options carefully, I choose the Sony EX1R as my solid state camera system, which uses the XDCAM codec.
From a workflow perspective the XDCAM codec is great for several reasons:
1) It’s a mere 35mbps in camera, with the option to record 10 bit to an external recording, allowing fairly long recording times on manageable media (16, 32 GB cards) as well as higher end codecs for professional applications.
2) The XDCAM codec is supported by Avid, Adobe, and FCP so it fits into many different types of workflows and can go from Mac to PC easily.
3) The cards are hot swappable in camera so you can constantly dump and shoot.
4) Timelapse work is a breeze with the single-frame interval recording feature
5) Pro audio in, no need to sync second system audio
6) Each time you start/stop recording, a new file is created. A new system of log and transfer.
I’ll often pair the EX1 with a Canon 5D/7D, maintaining the tapeless workflow (though the DSLRs do add complication in post).
My goal with the new tapeless workflow is to keep it simple with as little obstruction as possible.
Time to beat the dead horse for the last time. Every camera that will be released from here on out is just icing on the cake for cinematographers. Read on…
Part One of the 2011 Zacuto Shootout will be posted on Wednesday June 15. After reading this article I came to consciously realize what I’ve subconsciously been thinking for some time: We’ve arrived at cinematic democracy.
Cinematic Democracy: [sin-uh-mat-ik dih-mok-ruh-see] noun Easy access shared by everyone to create filmic looking images.
It’s not the F3, it’s not the AF100 or the FS100, Epic, Alexa, Genesis, F65 that have got us here.
It’s the good ol’ Canon DSLR cameras.
Let’s address the white elephant: there’s a line of thinking on the internet that many subscribe to (I often find myself in this thought process) that videos will look better and better over time and that “as soon as X camera comes out, I’ll REALLY be able to make some quality images”. Not everyone totally buys that idea, but at the same time…we do. We’re constantly striving striving for more bits, more resolution, more latitude, etc. Vincent Laforet had an impressive post that demonstrated what the high-resolution Red Epic-M can do in a single still frame while shooting 96 frames per second.
Cool. Awesome. Additional positive adjectives. If you’re going to be portraying your film on a 72 foot high IMAX screen, by all means, capture in 5K. But the majority of video projects aren’t backed by studios. They’re on your back and mine, with clients, friends, and subscribers waiting for delivery.
The DSLRs aren’t perfect. Any camera forum will quickly orient to aliasing, moire, rolling shutter, and so on.
But here’s the deal….
THE AUDIENCE DOESN’T CARE!
Hundreds of my likes on Vimeo are films shot on DSLR.
Who can forget the first time they watched “Reverie?”
Gale Tattersall created a huge stir when he used the 5Dmk2 on the finale of House.
Shane Hurlbut just recently sold “Act of Valor” for a minimum distribution deal of $13 million. Shot. On. DSLR.
A huge vault of films that are good, engaging, and impactful have been shot in totality on DSLR. And the number is growing.
If you control your images, the cameras look amazing. You can get in for $800. The DSLRs may be a “transition” camera, but if the audience doesn’t know….
Back when I shot Play Her Song on the 5D, people were blown away at the beauty of the image projected in a theater. In some ways, I think it looked better on the big screen blown up than it did on my 13″ laptop screen.
Don’t wait for the next greatest. The next greatest camera isn’t going to bring your vision to life any more than the tools you have now.
‘Good enough’ is never, and will never be acceptable at James Drake Films. In that line of thinking, I purchased the Sony PMW-EX1R, adding it to the collection of available cameras.
The EX1R is the first camcorder to be included in the famous CineAlta by Sony (cameras like the F35 and F900 are in that group!).
Additionally, the EX1R has an HD-SDI output meaning if you need to shoot content that must meet international broadcast requirements, I can get an external recorder and surpass the standards that BBC and Discovery currently have.
Let’s talk prosumer large sensor cameras for a moment.
The Sony NEXFS100 is a tremendously tempting camera for the HDSLR generation (or it should be, anyway). Price-wise, the Sony F3 is probably a camera to rent with nice glass and a Gemini recorder, but the FS100 seems like a reasonable buy for the HDSLR shooters considering the features and quality.
However, while the FS100 offers a load of great features, I’m waiting for the Canon 5D Mark iii. Heres why:
1. I’ve dropped cash on a rig.
Over the past year and a half, most of my “production fund” has been geared toward making my 5D Mark ii a comfortable camera to shoot with. It took some time and it’s still no perfect. Rails, matte box, ND, counterweights, monitors, lenses, audio recorders just to name a few. At NAB one of the selling points that a Sony rep was pitching me was the idea that the FS100 is ready to go out of box, whereas you’d have to “spend a lot of money to get your DSLR ready for video”. He’s right, but I’ve already spent that money!
2. Image Quality
Though we currently know little about the 5D Mark iii’s feature set, the worst case scenario is that it’s as good as the 5D Mark ii video with better low light performance. But let’s be realistic here, Canon released the 5Dmkii in 2009. With a single Digic IV processor, the camera absolutely rocks. Shortly thereafter they released the 7D with DUAL Digic IV processors, enabling 720 60p. Then they stuck that same single Digic IV in the 5D into their Powershot line, some of which are less than $300. It’s now 2011. The RED Epic is the size of a Hasselblad recording 5K at 120 fps. Sony released the F3 (and soon the FS100) that shoot very clean at 30dB (ISO 6400). And all the while, Canon watches and waits.
I’m really hoping for a clean video signal from the new 5D. I was amazed at the response with my call to action post a few weeks ago. The biggest common feature request was clean video, and I couldn’t agree more! Venturing into the vastly hypothetical for a moment… imagine the 5D mark iii DOES have clean video 1080/24 out…. and you pair that with a $2000 Kipro mini (which also has pro audio in) recording Prores…. Did we just create an Alexa for around $5000? Quite possibly!! Obviously missing some features from the Alexa, but you get the idea.
3. Form Factor
A sometimes forgotten benefit of the DSLR is that they are small enough to sneak in almost anywhere and they provide you amazing stills AND amazing video… how can you beat that? Having traveled with larger production kits in the past, let me reitterate… I LOVE travelling with my DSLR over any other system. Period. In a world where small counts, the DSLR wins big points here.
4. Easier editing in the future
In a month or so, Apple will release Final Cut X to the world. At the world premier, Apple mentioned the ability for FCP to analyze AND sync your audio on import based on waveform. (I hope Apple is somehow helping the guys at Singular Software) Suddenly XLR inputs on the camera aren’t quite as important. Sure, it would be great to have an I/O module to hook up to the 5D. But I’ve gotten fairly used to recording second system.
5. Price
Need I say more? I guess I can’t really speak to price since the 5D mk3 has no price yet, but I can’t imagine Canon is going to hike the price multiple thousands for a camera with the same name in the same line. The original 5D was around $3000, the much more powerful, better 5D Mark ii was originally $2699 . Seems to me the price will be in the same avenue. Assuming a $3000 body-only price tag, I could pickup a few batteries AND a nice L series lens for the price of the FS100 and still have my rig that makes the DSLR a working professional setup. Or, ditch the lens and batteries and buy the AJA Kipro (if we get clean video out) and start recording prores from the camera.
Sorry Sony, but the Canon 5D Mark iii is still worth waiting for. Dear Canon, please continue to be revolutionary. We will buy your lenses.
The new picture profile, Cinestyle, developed by Technicolor for Canon is pretty fantastic. Below are a few quick tests. Ungraded JPG images straight out of the Canon 5D mk2. You’ll notice a huge difference.
The new Cinestyle steps away from the limited REC709 space and closer to a logarithmic color space, much like some of my favorite cameras, the RED and Alexa.
I compared some of the “flat” settings I’ve used in the past. First up is the built-in Canon neutral setting, followed by Marvel’s Cine 3, Cinegray, and finally the new Techincolor Cinestyle. (Click on the pictures for bigger versions)
But first, a video test. I shoot a lot of interviews, so I shot this last night with the intention of having a lot of empty space to study the noise structure on the ugly wall behind my subject (thanks Dan!). I went really extreme with the grading to see what kind of contrast I could achieve, still holding detail. The SAME color correction was applied to each. Very interesting results….
Canon Neutral Picture Profile
Marvels Cine 3 Picture Profile
CineGray Picture Profile
Technicolor's Cinestyle Picture Profile
Tons more information in the Technicolor, yea??? Get it now for your Canon DSLR! Click here to download The level of info is a big increase. Technicolor has also provided a S-Curve LUT table to help unflatten the image (available for download along with the picture profile).
Have you ever found yourself wishing your Canon DSLR had a few extra features on the video setting? Probably, video on DSLR is far from perfect. Now is your chance to voice your opinion and change the future of filmmaking with DSLRs as we know it, again.
There’s a quote in here that should put every single cinematographer that’s ever used a Canon HDSLR into immediate action:
“Customers who are interested in [digital cinematography] should be thinking about two things, 1) if they haven’t told [Canon] what they’re looking for, by all means let us know and 2) they should be aware that we are very responsive and we’re going to do our best to make sure they’re happy.”
-Chuck Westfall, at 4:18 on http://vimeo.com/22594205
Holy. Cow. Canon wants to make us cinematographers happy. Doesn’t your heart beat a little faster?
Visit Canon’s 5D support page to send an email with your feature requests. They will automatically route your email to the “appropriate party” from there. Email them, they’re listening.
*Update: Thanks to Pablo from HD Cam Team for letting me know that you can email your feature requests directly to canon at carecenter@cits.canon.com
This isn’t the first call to action! In fact, remember back about a year ago when the Canon 5D DIDN’T have 24p? People had to use the Magic Lantern firmware to get 24. The online community spoke up. Names like Vincent Laforet posted blogs with droves of people requesting 24p. Sure enough, Canon listened and 24p arrived. Not only on the 5Dmk2, but the 7D, 1Dsmk4, T2i, 60D, and now the T3i.
The downside is that we may not hear anything on the 5D mk3 until Q4 2011 or LATER. However, this is our opportunity, the online filmmaking community, to send our requests in to Canon by the thousands.
No doubt they’ve received many emails already. We finally arrive at the title of this post: why the 5D Mark III could revolutionize everything again. This is my biggest feature request:
Clean Video Out, 10 bit 4:2:2 or better.
Add a $2000 AJA KiPro Mini to a 5D Mark III with clean video out and you’ve got an unbelievable setup. Especially if you combine the new technicolor preset into the equation. The KiPro is broadcast quality. It records readily-editable prores AND has XLR in with great preamps. Your audio is synced and you’re instantly ready to edit (on the incredibly new fast FCP X). For me, that makes the whole system: 1080p log 10 bit 4:2:2 Prores WITH great audio with a full frame sensor. SAY WHAT??!!! That easily encroaches on the F3 which costs north of $20k (no glass).
The revolution is self-explanatory. The DSLR video market already exists, so those of us with working setups would only have a small transition. PLUS, the 5D mark ii (or other) still makes a great B cam with perfectly matching picture profiles. How’s that for a win-win?
