
House Season Finale Filmed Entirely with Canon 5D Mark II - Flemlord
http://www.petapixel.com/2010/04/09/house-season-finale-filmed-entirely-with-canon-5d-mark-ii/
======
bprater
For those of you not familiar with what is going on in the DSLR world,
everything shifted when the 5D Mark II came out. We are talking earthquake-
like fault lines. It gave every indy film-maker an insta-hard-on.

It was just another standard hand-held photographer's camera until some gent
got a pre-release version and showed the world its capacity to capture film-
like imagery -- beautiful blacks, shallow depth-of-field, that 24-frames-a-
second look, etc.

Even with high-end prosumer cameras, you couldn't quite nail the cinema-look
without resorting to actual film. But this toy camera came out of nowhere and
was capturing images several times better than anyone could have expected!

So each time we see a news story like this, it is validation of the technology
and that in a very short time, all of us will have the ability to capture the
types of motion images that normally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And as is often the case with technology leveling the playing field, the
winners will be the folks that are daring and creative!

~~~
Keyframe
> all of us will have the ability to capture the types of motion images that
> normally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

well, not really. You see, camera was never the expensive part. Not even Arri.
For example good Cooke S4 lenses cost as much as a fine new Audi. Hell, even
Fischer stand costs like a car, and having a good stand+lens is more important
than camera itself. Not to mention good lighting, without which shot looks
like crap. You can rent RED+S4 kit for about ~600€ per day though - add light,
electricity etc.. and it is more cheaper than ever. But this "we can all do it
a la panavision, without panavision" is BS IMO.

Not trying to be rude or anything, just trying to put some things into
perspective. I do like the trend of cheap good cameras (like RED - which is
borderline great), but camera is only one tiny part of the picture.

~~~
JoelSutherland
Lens production involves high fixed costs and fairly low marginal costs.

Right now you have to build a lens factory so you can sell lenses to
professionals and indie filmmakers.

As soon as everybody and their parents are buying DSLRs instead of video
cameras the price on good lenses will surely fall.

~~~
rantfoil
That's the beauty of the Canon 5D Mk2 -- off-the-shelf easily available Canon
lenses. They're lenses most photographers already have. And no additional work
to make them work for film. A decent L lens is $1000. Not bad at all.

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beagle3
And the 5D becomes _much_ more useful for film making with the much improved,
open source Magic Lantern firmware patch from Trammell Hudson

[http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wi...](http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki)

~~~
timthorn
Didn't he lead the Autopilot GPL autonomous helicopter project ~8 years ago? A
true hacker.

~~~
nmcfarl
Yep - same guy. I was wondering what he'd got himself up to.

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callmeed
I own the 5DmII. The HD video really is amazing–especially with fast lenses
(my favorites are the 35/1.4 and 135/2).

The main problem is that it's hard to handle and focus the camera hand-held.
You really need a good rig and focus ring to get it right. And some of those
from Redrock or Zacuto can cost almost as much as the camera body.

Here's a couple videos I shot with the 5DmII (again, handheld and I'm a
terrible videographer) <http://vimeo.com/10768127> <http://vimeo.com/5253857>

~~~
Flemlord
If you have an auto-focusing lens, will it continually focus while you are
recording video? That's the one thing that's held me back from upgrading. I
badly want to combine my DSLR with my camcorder--I hate having to decide which
one I'm going to carry with me.

~~~
anigbrowl
If you're just getting feet wet, the (~$1000) Canon T2i will do that. but most
of the time you wouldn't want to. Autofocus is horrible on video, even on the
best gear I have used (like a varicam). YMMV may vary of course if you are
trying to shoot sports or certain documentary stuff.

I think you would do far better to get some good used manual lenses and
acquaint yourself with focusing manually.

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10ren
_The last 3 minutes_ , a demo of what the camera can do:

[http://www.petapixel.com/2010/04/09/the-last-3-minutes-
showc...](http://www.petapixel.com/2010/04/09/the-last-3-minutes-showcases-
new-canon-5d-mark-ii-24p-capabilities/)

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blasdel
> In 2008, House was distributed in a total of 66 countries. With an audience
> of over 81.8 million worldwide...

 _There’s only like 6bn people on the globe, right? And that’s including feral
wolf children and fuel-starved hermits living on sun tea in the Chinese
desert. And yet, if aliens did some random sampling of people around Earth,
they’d find that more than one in every hundred of us watches House. “The
Earthlings’ religion is based on weekly silent observances of medicine-man
figure called ‘Dwelling-Place’ in the local tongue. Possessing supernatural
powers of observation and an ability to perform healing miracles, this god
also suffers from hubris and vanity, and he is susceptible to the temptations
of certain potions. Essentially, we are grading Earth’s religious development
somewhere between animist and monotheistic. Not yet adequately prepared for
Operation Helping Hand. Revisit in 1,000 local solar units.”_
[http://modcult.org/read/2010/4/13/this-is-called-sending-
the...](http://modcult.org/read/2010/4/13/this-is-called-sending-the-lede-to-
sleep-with-the-fishes)

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arfrank
The 5DM2 has been getting a lot of attention recently being used as a HD video
camera. Canon even sponsored a short being made entirely with the 5D after the
most recent firmware update: [http://hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2010/04/07/the-
last-3-minutes...](http://hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2010/04/07/the-
last-3-minutes-canon-5d-24p-firmware-shines/)

It was also used in a recent Nissan commercial attached to a mini helicopter:
<http://www.blogmeright.com/?p=1059>

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blhack
See if you can spot any jellocam a la this:

<http://vimeo.com/10796434>

/disgruntled D90 user

~~~
ascuttlefish
The D90 is easily the worst of the VDSLRs... for video. It's still one of the
best mid-range DSLRs out there, if not the best. I have one too; the video is
completely broken. While I have no direct experience with the 5D Mark II,
rumour has it that the rolling shutter problems are considerably less
noticeable.

~~~
blhack
A very close friend of mine has the 5D and she uses it to shoot video. The 5D
is absolutely _fantastic_ as a motion camera. If I didn't already have a stock
of nikon lenses, I absolutely would have gotten the 5D.

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michael_nielsen
On a related note, a few years back the movie "Cold Mountain" was edited
entirely using Apple Final Cut Pro: <http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/murch/>
The editor, Walter Murch, received an Academy Award nomination for his work.

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maxklein
I don't get it. When I look at that Camera on Amazon it looks like a camera
for photographs, not for video. Why would they shoot a movie with this?

~~~
swilliams
It shoots at 1080 with a great sensor, and can mount some very nice lenses for
a relatively low price. Plus the 5DmkII is no slouch in the low-light/high-iso
arena.

Vincent Laforet has been at the forefront of this since the 5DmkII came out.
See this:
[http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct...](http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2326)

It has some warts since it is a still camera shooting video, but is still
capable turning out some truly stunning results.

~~~
maxklein
You seem to know your stuff. So if I get a Nikon D90, what quality of video am
I looking at?

~~~
swilliams
I believe there as an update to the video processing on the D90 which removes
a good amount of the jello-cam that blhack demonstrated. Although as an HD
video camera, the D90 is still a little lacking (no 1080). As a stills camera,
it is excellent.

Disclaimer: I use Nikon cameras (though not for video).

~~~
blhack
Do you mean a firmware update? I hadn't heard anything about that (but would
love to)

Do you have a link? My googling is failing me :(

~~~
swilliams
Yeah, I looked too, I might have misremembered, or been thinking of D3s or
something. Bummer.

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jasongullickson
Doesn't look like he's talking about it at the moment, but Stu over at ProLost
(author of the great indie film manual "The DV Rebel's Guide") covers the
DSLR-for-filmmaking subject a lot and has lots of good technical (and
technique) info if you're into that sort of thing:

<http://prolost.com/>

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Dylanfm
If you're interested in this sort of thing, definitely check out DSLR News
Shooter: <http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com> The blog covers video journalists
using DSLRs for their stories and the articles generally come with some great
advice.

A couple of examples:

\- [http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2010/03/22/johnnie-behiri-
sho...](http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2010/03/22/johnnie-behiri-shoots-
national-geographic-earth-explore-desert-adventure-on-7d/)

\- [http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2010/03/25/into-the-haiti-
ear...](http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2010/03/25/into-the-haiti-earthquake-
zone-khalid-mohtaseb-covers-the-aftermath-on-5dmkii/)

I bought a 7D a few months back. It's fantastic, although I haven't made use
of the video much yet.

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Titanous
The sensor on the 5D is _huge_. Here's a graphic with most of the current
video camera sensor sizes:
<http://rebelsguide.com/dl/sensorSizes_06_cheatSheet.png> A bigger sensor
means that it can operate well at very low light levels.

Also note that at $2500 this is by far the cheapest option for shooting
feature quality films. There are some issues with audio, so you will have to
record it using an external recorder, but with a nice mount, this is an
amazing camera.

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wmf
Interesting. The 5D is smaller and cheaper than RED, but not that much. I
wonder if it was just an experiment for its own sake or if there was some
deciding factor in favor of the 5D.

~~~
pkulak
The millions that Canon likely paid them probably had something to do with it.

~~~
blhack
Or, possibly, like they said in the article, they're doing it because the 5D
is more mobile.

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aspirant
I know nothing about Canon's product release cycles. Is now a good time to
invest in this puppy? Or will the 5D Mark III or some such thing be out soon?

~~~
neilc
The 5D Mark II came out at the end of 2008. The Mark III is widely rumored,
but hasn't been officially announced; most people are guessing it will arrive
toward the end of 2010 or early 2011. canonrumors.com has lots of this kind of
speculation...

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julianz
Plot Written Entirely On iPad. In Starbucks. Does Anyone Actually Watch This
Stupid Show Any More, Didn't It Jump The Shark A Couple Of Series Ago?

~~~
blueben
Did you read the article? They quote the show's stats. 81 million viewers.
Most widely watched show on the globe right now.

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swah
Does it take pictures?

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rapind
Is this why it's taken so long for a new episode? Or is that just my
AppleTV...

