EOS 5D Mark II and movie exposure

How many readers have the EOS 5D Mark II?
Of you, how many have tried the movie modes and have figured out the way to accurate exposure?

You essentially have two controls over exposure on the camera. Firstly, there is the AE Lock button. Just like in still shooting, the AE lock button will hold the exposure at whatever value is currently set when you press the button. The one thing to remember is that you don't need to keep the button pressed. Just press it once and leave it alone. The exposure then won't change unless you press the button again... or use the second exposure control: The quick command dial.

The quick command dial acts like exposure compensation in still shooting. Essentially it makes the scene brighter or darker and that is about as much information as it gives you.

Clearly there are a couple of different ways of getting the right exposure then - you can either point at a dark area, let the camera open up the exposure, use AE lock and then use the command dial to make it darker again, or you can start pointing at a light area, use AE lock and then open up the exposure. Both will work, but it is worth experimenting as you only have +/- 2stops of compensation available so you need to make sure it's within the range of adjustment.

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Filming, tripods, long lenses and IS

We're all aware that IS is a wonderful invention whether you're shooting stills or video. However, there is one caveat to that - when using a tripod.
Most of the recent IS lenses don't require you to turn off the IS when you mount the camera on the tripod, however in our experience, if you're pretty certain the setup is stable, then turn it off otherwise you'll end up with slightly blurry images as the shutter speed drops.
For filming, you don't end up with blurry images. From our experience, we've seen that with longer lenses when filming from a tripod, you don't so much get blurry images, as motion in the images - in other words the image seems to drift back and forth as the IS spins but there is nothing to correct. Essentially the IS elements that move to counteract are creating a movement that isn't there. To avoid this, simply turn the IS off when you put a big lens on a tripod and plan to do some filming.
Look out for a post early next week where I'll put up two video clips, one with IS on and one with IS off to show the effect...

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5D II Movies

For some, this may seem obvious. For others, it'll be a confusion then a hassle if they get it wrong. Which group do you fit in?

When you're shooting movies and stills with the EOS 5D Mark II, there is something you really need to remember. It's obvious once you've been told, but easily forgotten in the heat of the moment. 

So there you are at a wedding. You're shooting a lovely portrait shot of the bride walking down the aisle. Mmmm you think, a bit of movie would be nice for the DVD. You enter Live View mode. You start shooting movie. You grab the odd still image as well. All's going great. 

You get home and download the images and movies. You start sorting out the movie clips and...... bugger ........ yep, you shot the movies in portrait mode and now you need to turn your screen on it's side .... or bin the file. 

Yep, that's it folks, if you're shooting movies remember that turning an HDTV on it's edge is really not conducive to the health of your back or your tv so make sure you only shoot in a landscape format or you'll be throwing away footage left, right and centre. 

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Depth of field in movies

One of the best things about the EOS 5D Mark II movie function is that it shoots on the full-frame sensor and therefore you get really shallow depth of field. Great.....except when you want lots in focus.
As far as I can tell, photography is all about problem solving and so it was the other day. I was trying to take a short movie clip of myself (yes, I am that vain) and needed to make sure I was in focus. I had a couple of attempts and it wasn't working out as the depth of field was just too shallow - any time I moved, I moved out of the plane of focus and it was ruined. So how to get around it?
With no control over aperture, there is not much you can do, but one thing will help - your knowledge of depth of field in relation to focus distance.
Initially I was using a EF35mm f/1.4L USM lens and DofF was very shallow. I switched lenses to the EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM and moved the camera and tripod further back. This had two effects:
1. The lens only has an f/4 maximum aperture so instantly more depth of field as the lens couldn't open as wide
2. By increasing my camera to subject distance, I increased the depth of field

Bingo! Enough depth of field for me to move around while staying in the plane of focus.

It's that second one that people forget. While everyone is busy using aperture to control depth of field, they forget that actually the most over-riding function of depth of field is the focus distance, or camera to subject distance.
Get further away from your subject and wham! more depth of field. Conversely, if you want less depth of field, get closer in to your subject and suddenly you're in blur city.

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Daylight video?

It seems that for quite a while now we've been seeing lots of movies shot with the EOS 5D Mark II in low light. Certainly the low light helps keep the depth of field shallow, but we were beginning to wonder if it had only been bought by vampires who couldn't take it out during the day. It seems our fears were, rather unsurprisingly, unfounded. 

I just came across this video on SugMug and had to share it. It is not only shot in daylight, but is also one of the best edited videos I've seen from the EOS 5D Mark II yet. Not only that, the music is great and it's very well filmed too. It was made by Bob Davis, a photojournalist in the USA. 

Hit the comments with your thoughts and also feel free to pass on any links to videos you've seen shot on the EOS 5D Mark II.

In other news on videos and the EOS 5D Mark II, check out this website: TheEOScars.com if that's not an inspired name for a website and a cunning play on words, then I don't know what is! It is essentially a location for all the better videos shot on the EOS 5D Mark II where viewers can rate them. If you're looking for decent videos to convince you to buy one of these cameras, this site will save you having to sit through pages of youtube clips where people have posted their '5D test of my dog eating dinner' or similar....


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Hold still, it's an EOS 5D Mark II movie tip

There's been several movies on this site that have been shot with the fantastic EOS 5D Mark II. One of the key points many movie makers stress is the need to hold the camera still. In fact many of the movie makers have resorted to the old film makers trick - put the camera on a tripod.

What if you don't like tripods, or have no possibility to use one in your shoots? Picked up from the experts one alternative to getting steady shots and pans involves no more equipment than Canon put in the camera box.

Put the camera neck strap on the camera in the usual way then adjust it - usually shorten - so that with the camera held in your out stretched hands you pull the strap tight around the back of your neck. Now you have braced the camera against you and pretty much locked it's position. A bit of a twist of your whole body from the waist and you can even do reasonable pans too. 

This is a top tip dispensed by Canon Ambassador Jeff Ascough in a seminar at the SWPP show that's been in London this weekend. 

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EOS 5D Mark II - music video

It seems hardly a day goes by without another EOS 5D Mark II movie being uploaded. This one, a pop video is the creation of Birmingham, UK, based Paul Ward, who lists himself as photographer / artist / designer.

"Tell me you want me" by Forte - HD version from Paul Ward on Vimeo.

You may think that models playing pool in lingerie is the stuff of pop videos, and you may not like the song, but this video shows how classic movie making techniques with an absence of zooming during each clip looks so stylish. To get the best from the movie feature set of the EOS 5D Mark II takes rather more than just a good photographer. Video making is more like a team sport such as football, as opposed to the one man sports such as javelin throwing.

Paul used the somewhat ordinary EF 17-40mm f/4L and the 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom lenses to make this movie, proving that maybe you don't need the entire collection of Canon fast primes to make EOS 5D Mark II movies. Paul has shot other pop videos so the genre is not new to him, maybe he needs to add videographer to his description?

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EOS 5D Mark II on a helicopter

Well, we knew it would only be a matter of time before videos from the EOS 5D  II started to surface. this though, is much sooner than we thought we'd se something like it! That is a brave man...or rich! I have tried to fly radio controlled helis and while I had some success, it take a LOT of practice to be good enough to willingly strap an expensive camera to the bottom. The possibilities are endless though - how many cool shots and different angles can you achieve now?!

 

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