So this past weekend I spent an incredible amount of hours filming interviews with folks from around the world.
I went out to Phoenix for Food for the Hungry’s Summit Conference. It was an incredible event, but I also used it to test out the video capability of the Canon 5d Mark II.
I was unsure how the camera would react to shooting in video mode from 8am to 6pm every single day for 3-4 days.
I had heard rumors of “overheating” and things like that, so I was slighty concerned, but here’s what I found.
First – here’s what I took with me -
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-70mm f2.8
Canon 16-35mm f2.8
Battery Grip for Mark II – they included the tray that holds (6) AA batteries instead of 2 Canon batteries
(1) Canon Battery for Mark II
Sennheiser wireless Microphone
3 point light kit and backdrop for interviews
Bogen 501 fluid head tripod with sticks
(2) 8GB cards and (1) 16GB card
Hard Drives – 2TB’s (one for backup) – video ate 24 GB/hour of 1080p
(I also took a backup Sony HDR-FX1 incase the Canon died on me)
I started out shooting in the FH offices in Phoenix – the camera easily fit on my 501 head mount – I slipped the sennheiser wireless pack onto the strap of the Mark II and plugged it into the side of the camera. I had each person say and spell their name before I went any further and played that back to be sure I had good audio. (There’s a speaker on the back of the camera with volume control but no headphone jack)
I put the camera in video mode and noticed it immediately decided what exposure it wanted, which is not what I wanted since my background was lighter – it chose a f5.6 – I wanted an f 2.8 – I aimed it at the floor (which was darker) so the camera would open up more – as soon as it did I pushed the * button which locks the exposure – then I aimed it back at my subject. I started rolling the dial on the back which allows you to compensate the exposure by +/- 2 stops of ISO, not aperture or shutter speed. I was finally properly exposing the shot, tighted up a bit and started to focus when the camera went back to a f5.6 all of the sudden. Seriously? Apparently the exposure lock only holds about 30 seconds, then drops out. I figured out though that if you drop into record, it will hold longer. The way I’ve been told to do this now is – 1. Aim at your subject, focus and set your shot. 2. Aim at the floor, get the 2.8 exposure, hit record, lock the exposure, then aim back at your subject and use exposure compensation to adjust it.
Anyone else thinking this is kind of dumb? Everyone I interviewed wondered why I kept aiming the camera at the floor.
So I start recording my first person – I’m having them talk to me and not look in the camera. I’m occasionally glancing off to the side at the camera to be sure it’s still recording and all is well. About 15mins in I realize it’s not recording anymore. Apparently the thing drops out every 12 minutes. Yes, 12 minute max file size. I learned after that I have to cut it on and off between each question.
Other video camera thoughts – The camera does have several white balance options including “custom” – you take a still photo of a white paper in your lighting and can set the white to that image – it works great -
Batteries – yikes. I had the battery grip for it that included a tray inside that holds 6 AA batteries. I went by Costco before I left and bought (2) 48 packs of batteries. Yeah, sounded like overkill to me too, but I had no idea how fast they’d go and I needed some for my wireless mic too for 4 days of filming. Are you ready for this? 45 minutes to an hour at the most is what I got out of my 6 batteries. It was stupid. By the way, there’s no power supply for that camera – you can’t plug it into the wall – I understand why, I’m not complaining about that, but I’m letting you know – you have to have batteries. Let’s talk about alternatives – I had one Canon battery for it – that thing was much better – it lasted closer to 2 hours (so it seemed) in video mode. Side note: these times are for VIDEO only, not shooting still images.
So, If I wasn’t changing a card out, or re-exposing my shot by shooting the floor first in between takes, I was changing the batteries. It was ridiculous. I went though all 48 of my one pack and half of the other by the end of it all.
Note – I never had a single issue with heat – the camera got slightly warm, but not even really noticeable, and definitely didn’t have any issues with the picture quality over time.
Let’s talk about this camera replacing your video camera? It won’t. Believe me, I wish it would. This is not a hand held video camera. If you’re used to panning and pulling out your shot, don’t plan on it here. It’s incredibly hard to balance the camera and my lenses weren’t smooth to zoom out while I tried to do the shot. Let’s also mention that the auto focus on this camera is basically non-existent so you can’t push in on any shots with a zoom – I have used this camera on a tripod and dolly with incredible results though. If you’re a wedding videographer thinking you’ll pull off the same moves you’re used to doing with a Sony FX1/Z1U or a Panasonic 100/200, etc, you just can’t do it without a tripod – I don’t know about you, but I never use a tripod when shooting weddings except for the ceremony. With a 12 minute file limit, you’re not going to shoot a ceremony without gaps in it either.
Does it shoot beautiful video? – yes, absolutely – Does it make you work really hard for it – absolutely. If you’re used to film cameras, this camera is right up your alley – if you’re used to DV Video cameras, this is going to be tricky.
To sum up – it takes beautiful pictures and video – it eats AA batteries too fast unless you have the Canon batts which are expensive -
Benefits -
1. Incredible depth of field with gorgeous Canon lenses
2. Rich color, just an overall beautiful picture.
3. Shoots on Compact Flash cards which were around $30 for 8GB cards (holds 24mins of HD video at 1080p) – I like not having to capture hour long tapes – flying info off the card may take less than 10 minutes.
4. I found my interviewees were less intimidated by the camera – they thought it was a still camera and I didn’t have them talking straight into the camera – I was slightly off axis and they spoke straight to me – they were a lot more relaxed without having a huge camera sitting there.
5. It takes beautiful still shots – While on my trip we went out all over the place and was able to switch between video and still mode incredibly quickly
6. Throw your .mov files straight into Final Cut and start editing. If you have an older, slower chip, it may stutter. My 2.167 Intel MacBook Pro handles it pretty well with some jitter, but my other machine that’s slightly faster has no problems.
Draw backs:
1. Exposure Control – Incase you don’t know the Mark II goes into “auto” in video mode so you can’t really control the exposure. The way to do it is aim it at something darker (typically the ground), get the “auto” to open up the lens to your max aperture (in my case 2.8) then hit the * button which is the “exposure lock”. This only holds for 30 seconds, unless you’re recording, then it will stay on. It will then give you a display on the screen showing you “exposure compensation” of + or – 2 stops basically so you can properly expose your shot. Be aware that when you stop recording, it will go back to auto exposure, in my case, back to a 5.6 aperture. This is a major pain when you refer to #2 here, because every time you stop and restart so you don’t run out of your 12 minute time limit, your exposure goes back to auto and is rarely close to what you set it up to be.
2. 12 min file limit – while you can fit 48 minutes of HD on a 16GB card, it will drop out of record after 12 minutes – I shot interviews all weekend and really had to watch this – if someone’s telling a story and gets long-winded it’s hard to tell when your 12 minutes is up – be careful and drop out of record and back in as often as you can.
3. Time remaining on card – The counter is located on the top of camera only, so when you’re recording, unless you look at the top of the camera you don’t know when you’re running out of card space. If you are stopping recording often, it will display how many “pictures” you have left to take on the card – it reads “999″ on it when I put in a 16GB card, but when it says “263″ on it on the back, I don’t know how many minutes that relates to? Just keep an eye on it so you don’t run out.
4. Audio – I ran a wireless Sennheiser mic into the side. It has a 1/8″ stereo input – (for some reason I only got the left side) but there’s no way to monitor the audio or see any level meters. I know Beechtek is coming out with an XLR adapter with a headphone jack on it – this would be a must – what good is a great picture with distorted audio?
5. If you’re a photographer, as of right now, Aperture 2 doesn’t support the Mark II’s RAW still images – I was bummed about this.
I hope this helps some of you out there considering this.
I rented most of this stuff from borrowlenses.com and it was awesome working with them! – check them out.
