Cannon EOS 5D MKII

mrp2049

mrp2049

Senior Member
So this is one scary bit of kit...

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera - Canon UK

all the tech blurb.

But most importantly we are talking about a DSLR that can film in full HD, it seems to be some next level ****.

I love the idea, it seems to have freedom and application to blow most things out of the water, lense choice, filters etc. Such an amazing idea and applications to motion graphics, where sound is not your highest priority seem amazing!

But with a price tag that won't be under £2000 for a while, is it worht it yet?

If you spent £1000 on a DLSR and HD video camera at the moment surely you would have some frighteningly good equipment.
 
Personally I see a dslr as a still camera, the video stuff is being bolted on as an extra now which is just not why I'd buy a dslr, besides I prefer nikon :p.

If I wanted a hd camcorder then I'd spend the money on a nice sony or canon dedicated for the purpose as it makes more sense or if its still going and I have canon gear (I don't) I would look at their vid cam that uses canon lenses.
 
It is an awesome camera which more and more DPs are using for film/motion (Dixon Baxi used it for their Five USA idents). Canon already make excellent video equipment so they've already invested plenty in video R&D. The beauty with this is the lenses that can be used; yes they aint cheap but they are much cheaper than shooting with film lenses. It's also considerably smaller than comparable video cameras.

Another bonus is that it encodes video as .H264 on its flash card which you can simply drag and drop onto your HDD and view the rushes in glorious 1080p immediately. I shot something on Panasonic's P2 not so long ago and that encodes the video in some whacky Panasonic-only format which means you can't view anything before you re-encode all your rushes. This adds hours (if not a day) before you can start cutting and adds a couple of extra steps to your workflow (you do, of course, need to re-encode your .H264s from the Canon to ProRes or something before you start cutting, but at least you can view your rushes and make selects first). The only real downside is that it only shoots at 30fps (even set in PAL mode).

Having said all this, the brand new 7D is probably a better camera if your work leans more to the video side. It has a few extra video bits over the 5D such as as proper 25fps PAL recording and 60fps (NTSC) or 50fps (PAL) options for slow motion at 720p. Unfortunately it does sacrifice a few stills options as a result, but I understand it's still an excellent camera. And at a few hundred quid cheaper than the 5D it seems a no-brainer to me.
 
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