A round with the 5D

After a while unpublished, back again, this time with news about the camera more minds lately videographic circles: the usual Canon 5D MarkII.

It seems that as this camera is being tested by different professionals and amateurs, is ceasing to be a mystery and we can already draw some conclusions about their suitability as a film camera.

We collect information from two sources that lead to these conclusions. First publication in the Spanish site of Cameraman we describe in detail the workflow that the director Javier Fesser used in commercials for Groupama Insurance, played by Iker Casillas. This interesting article details the advantages and disadvantages over the processes of preproduction, shooting and postproduction.

In addition to the forum Cinema5D you can find extensive information on all aspects of this camera applied to films, produced from the experience of users as well as examples of production carried with it.

Making a brief summary we can draw the following basic conclusions:

PROS

• Fullframe Sensor
• Possibility of using high-end photographic lenses much more affordable than the optical film.
• Excellent low-light response.
• Small size, light weight and price.
• The longed depth of field, and as emotional as film.
• It also takes photos

CONS

(Latest information in this post )

• Only logged in automatically. Can not control and diaphragm, or exhibition, or ISO while recording video. Which obviously is not practical and we must resort to "tricks" to "fool" the camera and be able to modify at least some of these parameters.
• Only records 30fps. A nuisance for lovers of 24fps and the rest of us who live in PAL region, domain of 25fps. And some say, no problem, the framerate is converted in post. It is possible, but the solution is not saved from inconvenience. In panoramic camera movements in general, the "jumping" of the conversion are clear and there is no elegant way to solve this. Not to mention the flashing or "flickeo" that will produce artificial lights in PAL regions.
• Records in H264, an aggressive compression format, not suitable for critical post-production, low dynamic range and suffers from fairly obvious compression artifacts.
• Has HDMI output But if you thought you could record this signal directly to a hard drive to save the compression, you're wrong. For the HDMI port launches a signal "capada" resolution much lower than the 1080p is able to give this camera, which only serves to preview and little else.
• It is possible to use both manual and automatic focus, but we must bear in mind that no longer the focus of a "camera" that is thought to take a picture and do not follow trasfocos or other wonders that we can think of to do with that beautiful depth of field that allows the camera. Fortunately when the need tightening, people move faster and longer on the market devices that mimic the controls of an outbreak of film cameras and other accessories for tuning this camera. Here is an example of the most sophisticated: ZacutoStore.

SOLUTIONS

• Using Nikon lenses that have the adjustable iris lens itself.
• Make dark measurements and then use high-density filters to balance the diaphragm.
• High compression and defects of frame rate conversion to make Downconversion offset is defined as using the HD 1080p for a final product in SD format. Or what is the same scale of 1920 × 1080 to 720 × 576 (for PAL), which device, noise and other go unnoticed.

These findings, although basic, we can provide guidance for when choosing whether or not this camera for our productions.