One of the criticisms of the Canon 5D2 I hear is that you should just get a regular camcorder if you want to make movies.
This overlooks the fact that you can’t get a setup to use long telephoto lenses except without a huge budget. For example the cost of a Red camera body ($17,500), 300mm lens ($5,950),Red LCD ($1,7900)…well you get the picture.
This video uses a 500mm lens with stacked 1.4 and 2X Teleconverters,….1400mm in all. After 10 seconds I did a 50% crop in Sony Vegas, giving an effective 2800mm of lens.
The footage may be a bit soft but it had a lot of air to shoot through and is therefore not unexpected.
This is to me, the strongest point in favor of this camera body, the ability to make movies with a wide assortment of lens, not just telephoto, but wide angle, fish-eye, macro, and tilt/shift.
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I have loved the Canon 5D, and when I saw the specs for the Mark II version, I decided it was the upgrade I was looking for. I was especially interested in the ability to make video, and to use my lens lineup doing so.
The video above is a series of clips from the Canon 5D Mark II. I used Canon 24-70mm and 17-24mm lens. I wanted to try some basic zooms, pans, etc. The lack of smoothness is from the user and the tripod head rather than the camera operation. The initial test shot I took showed the results would have a heavy blue cast, not unexpected with shots of snow. I preset the White Balance at 6000Deg.K and this turned out to be a good choice. I set the exposure at +2/3 by eying it in on Liveview.
Webster’s Falls is Ontario’s second largest waterfall, after Niagara. It is a gem and worth a visit in any season.
Waterfalls can be dangerous places, especially in winter. Be careful!
This video of American Black Ducks is the earliest of my efforts, with the 500mm lens on a tripod with a Sidekick mount. I found that the heavy lens made moving with the subject less smooth than I would like. Hopefully this will improve. I had been concerned about the ease of moving back and forth from video to still, but, once the video had been enabled, it turned out to be a simple manner. After going to Liveview by pressing the otherwise useless Direct Print button, it was just a matter of pressing the Set button to start or stop recording. At any time I could fully press the shutter if I wished to take a still image. I feel the focus needs improving, certainly user error.
The last video is of a pair of Common Goldeneye and was shot with the 500mm and a 1.4 TC. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it stood up. The first of the two clips shows a pair in display and a couple of times another female approaches them. Due to the light conditions, I set the exposure at plus1+ 1/3. The exposure adjustments are easy in Liveview.
The videos come out of camera in the MOV format and had a jerkiness when played that was unacceptable. Happily this disappeared when I converted them to WMV format.
Check back as I will post some impressions on other aspects of the 5D Mark II shortly.
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