Nice seeing my Prague film up in the middle of the hall...

Day one was the press/ VIP preview of the once every five years Canon Expo. Basically everything Canon makes and what lies ahead. All photos apart from the fish eye were taken on the iphone 4 so I could blog as I went along…

Lots of cools things to see but nothing really new DSLR wise unfortunately, no 1DSmkiV yet…the 60D was on display and looks good. I like the flip out screen, what they all need really and the build quality was sturdy. It felt well made. Do I need one? Not really, but it’s a really nice camera and certainly a better bet than the T2i, but not the 7D…

One of the most interesting things was the Canon 4k concept camera and 4k monitor! It’s only 2/3rd inch but it’s still interesting and a sign of where they are going? I must emphasise this camera will never come out. It’s a concept camera showing the technology. Are they planning to take on RED? No idea but it will be interesting to see where this path will take us…it’s no Epic that is for sure…which is real and being tested out in the field…how long though before Canon bring something like this out for real? Ideally for me in an APS-C minimum sized chip but I talk more about this further down the post. The 4K monitor was great as you can imagine, 32″ and sharp as hell. It’s one of those things of course that you need to see in person…

I was actually the first one in...

I REALLY like the XF 105. It’s tiny and has amazing specs. 422 50mbs hd sdi and genlock. The XF 100 is the same but without the SDI/ Genlock. Both record onto CF cards. I guess it is a direct competitor to the JVC 100. Size wise it looks identical, almost…but spec wise it is simply really impressive. It’s the first camcorder in recent memory that I have actually wanted. It has all the facial tracking auto focus that the Vixia has but in a much much better cameras.

XF 105 3D rig

As you can see, it's tiny.

This is the Canon 4K concept camera.It was actually working and was crisp as hell…This concept camera had  a fixed 2/3″ 20x Zoom lens as the chip itself is 2/3″. I am not sure what the idea of it is, they mentioned something about medical something or other. It’s obviously not a cinema concept camera due to the fixed lens. The image out of it was actually really really nice. As I have said and I and am sure you all want to,  is to see an APS-C chip in camera like this and use all the current Canon glass or PL lenses…but Canon have a different marketing strategy to someone like RED. RED announce their road map and make it very public. Canon keep things close to their chest. If there is a cinema camera coming out or a new improved DSLR for video there is no way they would show a concept camera of it and show the competition what they have up their sleeve. Canon do not give much away and of course that is probably from a business stand point the best thing to do. That is why this camera really is to show what they are capable of more than anything, not what they plan to do…I would put money down that we won’t know until pretty close to release of any big developments with regards to video in DSLR or the next evolution of that.

There was also no word of any firmware or other lenses, they were all announced last week. I expect the much rumoured and much expected 1DSmkiV will make it’s debut at Photokina in Cologne later this month. I will be watching this very closely as it MAY have improved video functions, again, pure speculation but I can be positive and hope can’t i?

Sam Nicholson, ASC. Owner of Stargate studios who do astonishing work DSLRs...

The huge sensor is also very cool. Check out the image below which shows two monitors. Image on right represents what human eye can see. Image on left is image from the huge sensor.

The F*** off sensor next to the 5DmkII sensor!!

if you look closely on monitor on the right you can just about make the woman out...

Also on display is the stabilised broadcast lenses. Something which we currently don’t have. A nice feature that we are very used to on cheap cameras and on IS lenses. Finally some 2/3″ broadcast lenses get this much needed feature. Their display was cool as it showed with and without with the cameras mounted on a car bouncing up and down.

They also had a lens for an 8K camera…a BEAST…

Don’t get excited by this DSLR body. Out of context it’s like WOW…what is this…it is simply the prototype for the 7D on display…

Prototype 7D

The multi band camera is impressive, it literally can see more than the human eye can…am not talking latitude, but detail and colours that we simply cannot make out…impressive but needs to be seen in person, much like most things here.

One of my favourite things there was the new 8-14mm F2.8L . Circular fish eye at the wide end, it’s enormous fun. Its not out yet and no idea of pricing but both myself and Vincent LaForet below fell in love with it. It’s a special effect lens and certainly should not be on anyone’s list of priority lenses to buy. It’s so bloody wide I seriously had to suck it in so as not to get my belly in shot on the 8mm. WTF!? You can just about make it out and my feet in the circular shot…!

I am here with Lucasfilm’s Rick McCallum who it seems is rather light fingered as you can see below! A bit of fun!! Pics of Rick by Sam Nicholson.

The Canon 60D was on display too…as mentioned, it felt way better than i expected. Image wise I have no clue as not shot with it!

If you are in town I will be there tomorrow too…hope to see you! Hopefully this blog gave you a taste of what there is there. It’s so massive I barely scratched the surface but I have focused on the stuff that interested me the most and I hope you…

This is a once every five years epic event, almost like an NAB just for Canon products. We are talking more than cameras here, printers, photocopiers, broadcast products etc..of course it’s the cameras why I am going. Will there be big new announcements? A 5Dmk4? A 3DMkII? New firmware? A Flip competitor with a full frame chip in it? I haven’t a clue, but I will be at the show at the preview day on the 1st September and on the 2nd. As long as I am allowed to I will be doing mini posts on my TUMBLR blog throughout the day. I haven’t used it for over a year but it’s perfect for this and I don’t want to clog up my blog with loads of mini posts…

It’s on this Tumblr blog that I will also be posting interesting stuff about the trip, where I am, what I am doing. A lot of it purely for fun. I am doing a workshop in Santa Monica the weekend after next (there are some places left) and I am also shooting the new season of “Critics”…

So keep up to date and bookmark the TUMBLR blog!

I haven’t seen it, played with it, touched it, shot with it or done anything to or with it! So I all I can do is regurgitate the press release and talk a little about how you should approach it. I can’t tell you what I think of it truly until I have used it.

Canon have confirmed what we kind of already knew. The 60D, the 50D replacement is coming out at the end of the September for just under $1,100 body only. It’s a consumer model that sits between the T2i and the professional 7D.

The best thing for me is the articulating screen. The press release offers us no clues as to whether the video mode has been improved. I guess we will find out soon…but it has all the frame rates of the 7D and T2i/550D and manual audio like the 5DmkII.

Stills wise it has a fun feature that can let you do special effects like fake tilt shift and toy camera look. I wonder if you can do them in video mode? Again, time will tell if this is useful or a gimmick…Most likely the latter but could still be a bit of fun!

Read the press release by clicking here.

Couple of videos here to take a look at on DPreview.com. Here and here.
If you are about to get a T2i then save up and get this, the extra features make it worthwhile. About to buy a 7D? That’s tougher. I don’t know how it stands up to the 7D in picture or build quality. It will be inferior in many ways I am sure otherwise it would not be cheaper but just what those are I am not sure yet…Certainly the build quality of the 7D is totally Pro Line and that is going to be a major difference I am sure.

That is all the info I have. No word on any other features. I guess we will find out soon! Nice preview on DPreview here…

One last thing…some of the comments perplex me and some of the attitudes are pretty poor. Why are people pissed off? This is a much expected replacement for the 50D, yes it’s better than the T2i…it’s more money. Yes it has features the 7D does not have…and personally Canon need to urgently bring firmware to the 7D, 1DmkiV and T2i to give them manual audio…but your 7D or other camera is now not suddenly obsolete and as one comment says, a doorstop. That’s nonsense. It shot great video for you yesterday so why today is it a doorstop? Just because they bring out cool features on a lower camera does not make your current camera a pile of junk!

Yes…Canon do need to make improvements with many things, like the codec, moire, aliasing, rolling shutter and let’s hope the next professional line camera that comes along does do this for us as it is almost 2 years since the 5DmkII came along but I have absolutely zero problem with them updating old cameras and giving them the current video capability. I am all for it and certainly won’t complain. I just hope we see the big improvements to picture quality soon!

Not a lot of info here but I wanted to pass it on…I just had a little twitter exchange with Greg Yaitanes, the EP and Director of some episodes of the FOX show “House” with whom I did a long interview with back in April about their season finale that they shot entirely on 3 5DmkII. Well, Greg has told me that they are “being used in a big way in every episode and seamlessly intercutting with film”.

That’s great news to hear and encouraging for all us Canon DLSR users out there. Everyone who saw the finale will attest that it was a brilliant episode and the 5DmkII use enhanced the storytelling with it’s ability to be more intimate for the filming in the claustrophobic sets. It’s great to hear that it was not just a one of experiment or that their experience with them has not put them off using them again! I will be in Santa Monica for a couple of weeks next month, hopefully I will get a chance to see for myself first hand. I know DP Gale Tattersall loves the full frame sensor so no surprise he is still using them! It’s still my preference for cameras out of all of them due that unique look…

You can buy the 720p HD version from your itunes store, it’s worth it…or if you want the full HD version the Bluray box set is coming soon, but that means buying the whole lot…I have the itunes version and it looks great.

You can listen to my original interview with Greg below.

Greg Yaitanes

Interview with Greg Yaitanes about Season Finale of House by PhilipBloom

You can download the full interview in .m4a format by right clicking and “save as” here

Transcription of interview can be found by clicking here, thanks to Oli Lewington

Photo of the camera being used on the finale below…

This has become THE number one question asked to me. “I have xxx amount of dollars or I have xxx camera, which lenses should I buy”? It’s a question that is very difficult to answer, not least because it gets asked 20 times a day. Hopefully this will cut down on those emails! Try not to ask which lenses to buy in the comments. This blog gives you all the information you need. Read it, decide what is important to you and go from there!

What follows is not the definitive list of lenses to buy. It’s my opinion. Please treat it like that. Many will disagree and may well be quite right too! All I can do is base this post on my own experience, with the plethora of lenses I own and have used.

I want to cover other makes of cameras with this evolving blog post but for now it will be purely for Canon lenses. I will cover the GH1, Nikon, Sony at some point later. My most experience is with Canon Lenses.

First let us cover the fundamentals of what you need to know about sensor sizes and how your camera will affect which lenses you buy.

Currently there is just one solitary Canon that has a full frame sensor for Video and that is the 5DmkII. The 1dMkiv is an APS-H sensor and a 1.3x crop. All the others are a 1.6x crop called an APS-C. The full frame sensor is massive compared to the APS-C. It’s easy to forget just how much bigger it is. Look at this image below and you will see what I mean.

So the above image is shot with a 14mm L series lens. Designed for full frame and is as wide as you can get without going all fisheye on the Canons. It’s an amazing lens and one of my favourites…problem it is expensive and as you can see only wide when used on the 5Dmkii, on the other sensors it is cropped, making it not so wide. It’s still a 14mm on any camera, it’s just the equivalent field of view (EFOV) that has changed. On the APS-C sensor it has the EFOV of 14mm x 1.6 which equals 22.4mm, still wide-ish but as you can see above, nothing like the spectacular wideness of the lens on a full frame body.

This is the most important factor you need to think about when buying lenses. Is it worth spending over $2000 on a wide angle lens that is no longer wide for your crop sensor camera? Personally I think no. For full frame users, there is nothing like it, it’s amazing. But for the rest, don’t get this lens unless you are planning to upgrade to a full frame sensor very soon.

That is the biggest issue really. Do you buy lenses designed especially for your 1.6x crop (called EF-S by Canon) or do you get lenses which are future proof if you decide to move up to a full frame camera (called EF by Canon)? All the EF lenses are compatible with all the Canon cameras. It does not work the other way around. Some lenses by third party manufactures will work on the 5Dmkii despite being designed for the crop but will vignette heavily, unless they are zooms so you can zoom in slightly to avoid this…more on that later.

Canon’s premiere line of lenses are the L series. They are magnificent, expensive but worth the price. Build quality is almost uniformly excellent and the range of glass they have is enormous. These lenses are completely compatible across the whole range of cameras….There is one caveat. These lenses are getting sharper and sharper. I have the above mentioned 14mm II and the new 70-200mm F2.8II and they are actually too sharp in my opinion for video, for stills they are amazing, but in video they can accentuate some of the main issues we have with the camera, mainly moire and aliasing. I recently shot a project in Italy. A lot of it with the 14mm and the new 70-200 and I have had more moire issues than I have experienced before and I am certain it is down to them being simply tack sharp and this means all the detail can be seen and that is when we have moire issues. I am not saying don’t buy these lenses. If you do, make sure that your sharpness is turned all the way off (as it should be all the time) and look out for it. Below is a section of a shot where you can see the issues on the water…

Am i bothered? Yes and no. I can easily use a filter to knock back the sharpness of the 70-200mm version 2 (not on the 14mm though and it wont take filters). My old 70-200 was more forgiving, but these lenses are investments for me and I know that Canon will improve these cameras. It shows you just how incredible these lenses are for the money, their sharpness is almost too good for the video function of the cameras!…and this guys is the key thing you need to know when buying lenses.

It is the glass that is your investment, NOT the camera.

Your lenses should last you for years, through many bodies, so always take that into account when buying lenses.

Zooms or Primes?

Tough one this…prime lenses are generally of higher optical quality and are generally faster (as in can let in more light so better in low light and better for shallow depth of field) but are of course a fixed focal length so it’s harder to shoot with them. Zooms are great flexible lenses but PLEASE avoid those kit lenses. A zoom must have a constant aperture to be useful in video. Constant aperture means it maintains it’s F-Stop no matter how much you zoom in or out. Without this the iris stops down making the shot unusable. Of course constant aperture lenses cost more, but like everything in life, you get what you pay for. Canon’s L series of zooms are amazing. Although some like the 24-70mm could really do with updating to give them IS. IS is image stabilisation and I believe is absolutely essential for video work as it reduces the rolling shutter artefacts that we can get. Canon also do a very nice zoom for the EF-s with IS, it’s the 17-55mm F2.8 IS. Great lens, the crop sensor equivalent of the 24-70 but with IS, not an L series though. No EF-S lenses are L series. One of my favourite L series zoom lenses is the 24-105 f4 IS. Nice range and IS although a little on the slow side. It’s one of my favourite interview lenses.

So Zooms are easier to shoot with as you can vary your focal length, are not as good in low light and the good ones cost money! There are some third party zooms out there which are very good. I haven’t used most of them but Sigma and Tamron make good lenses and the Tokina 11-16mm is easily my favourite crop wide angle lens. An absolutely essential purchase for 7D and T2i users. Yes, if you are a T2i user expect to spend a lot more than your camera on lenses and accessories. The downside of owning a dirt cheap camera!

Right…let’s get down to what to buy and why. We can cover more of the type of stuff above as we go along. First off I am going to break it down into type of sensors assuming money is not an issue and then after that into budget.

Zeiss lenses

I love the Zeiss ZE (The ZF’s are Nikon mount). They have excellent image quality, amazing build quality. Have hard focus stops unlike the Canon lenses and lovely long focus rotation for more accurate rack focusing. In a way I prefer the ZF lenses as they have manual apertures which can be modified to make them cine lens smooth but they focus in the opposite direction to Canon lenses so it may do your head in!

The Zeiss lenses are probably the best there are for video. They don’t have the bells and whistles that the L series have…no auto focus, no IS but they do have amazing metal build quality, incredible optics and wonderful focus control. Not ideal for stills though as they don’t have that amazing L series autofocus. It’s a shame the longest non macro they do is 85mm…I would love to see a 135mm F2 from them. The 100mm macro is good but focus, like any macro is tough and worse still the barrel moves in and out as you focus, it does not have internal focusing, no using with a matte box is tough, using a follow focus is practically impossible. I prefer the Canon one over this due it’s closer focus and the excellent IS.

Zeiss also has the CP.2 PL lens (positive lock) lenses for all the Canons. These are essentially re-housed ZE lenses. They have the same filter size and length and have pinpoint accurate focus marks. Great it you have the budget…They also have EF switchable mounts for these lenses so nice and flexible. PL mounts are always permanent mods to your cameras so do this only if you have no plans to ever use stills glass again…

Lenses for full frame cameras

Well the 14mm F2.8 II is the most amazing wide angle lens I have ever seen. Yes it is super sharp and can cause the moire to be visible especially on deep DOF shots but it really is in a class of it’s own.

Alternatively look at the 16-35mm F2.8L. A constant aperture zoom lens with a nice range and nice and wide, although quite distorted at the wide end and a little soft.

Next up would be either the 24mm F1.4 or the 35mm F1.4, although the 35mm is due an update and is not as sharp as I would like. The 24mm F1.4 is stunning and your best wide angle low light lens out there. An essential purchase. The Zeiss ZE is a lovely 35mm lens but slower at F2

From here we go to the Canon 50mm F1.4 or even better if you can afford it the F1.2. The F1.2 is an L lens and one of my favourite lenses. Amazing for stills and video. Is it worth the price difference. If you can afford it yes, otherwise get the F1.4.

I am not a fan of the 85mm F1.2. I hate the focus ring on it, too loose and too inaccurate. I much prefer the Zeiss 85mm F1.4. An amazing lens.

If you have the cash I adore the Canon 100mm Macro F2.8 IS. Make sure it is the L series version. Amazing lens, great IS and wonderful image. I just think the build quality is not quite as good as some of the other L series lenses. Feels plasticky. But I never travel without it…below is a short film shot with a lot of the 100mm macro!

Clock from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Next up is the other essential lens for your collection…the 70-200mm IS. MAKE SURE IT HAS IS…long lenses need it. You have two options here. The much cheaper and much lighter F4 version of the more expensive and very sharp F2.8 II. If you want one with more low light capability then go with the F2.8. If you are shooting daylight mostly get the F4. It’s much much lighter and a heck of a lot cheaper. For more flexibility get the F2.8.

Well those are the essential lenses for the full frame camera!

Lenses for crop cameras

First and foremost get the Tokina 11-16mm, it’s better than the Canon 10-22mm as it’s constant aperture even though the range on the Canon is better. Get it. This one of the only EF-S lenses I recommend getting. It is the best wide angle for the 1Dmkiv too, zoom in slightly to lose the vignetter and it’s the widest lens you can get for that camera. Same trick works for 5dmkII but only at the full zoom…16mm making the zoom part of it and for me the lens too, pointless for this camera. Save up and buy the 16-35mm much more use…BUT, $700 for a 16mm F2.8 prime ain’t bad! See…am full of contradictions!

Next up is your 50mm equivalent for the crop…Take a look at the Sigma 30mm F1.4 (EF-S) only or the Canon 35mm F1.4 (universal). The Sigma is WAY cheaper and I hear good things, although never shot with it myself…Just remember, it won’t work on a 5DmkII!

The 17-55mm F2.8 IS is a great flexible zoom…worth the cash, trust me!

Then I would look at the Canon 50mm F1.4 or the F1.2…you 85mm equivalent…

The Macro 100mm will be great here too…especially as it becomes an EFOV of 160mm!

Then the same as the full frame…the 70-200…

I recommend getting as few EF-S lenses as possible, make yourself future proof!

Nikon lenses

I am on a real budget!

Well if you are REALLY on a tight budget then get one lens. You can shoot everything you want with a standard lens. That’s a 50mm on a full frame, 3omm on the crop sensor. So if you have a T2i, 7D get the Sigma, it’s a great price and has great image. For the 5Dmkii get a 50mm. The below film was shot entirely on a Zeiss 50mm F1.4 and the music video below was shot on a 50mm F1.2

Sofia’s People: Canon 5dmk2 24p from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Monarchs “Miles away” from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Telephoto lenses are really important too, so on the T2i/ 7D look for an 85mm F1.4 and for those really wide shots the Tokina as mentioned earlier.

Full frame users have to pay more as EF lenses are generally more. So if you are on that budget then it’s Nikon all the way for now!

Canon FD lenses

Avoid the Canon FD lenses. You need an adaptor with glass in it to make it work with the EOS cameras and they simply do not work well. Soft am afraid! A real shame as there are lots of affordable FD lenses out there…

Special effect lenses

Samyang do a nice 8mm fish eye for the crop sensor and it’s pretty cheap if you can source them…

I love the Canon Tilt Shift lenses although these are not cheap. They are designed primarily for architecture photography and you can alter keystone lines so they are straight when looking up at buildings but can also be used to make things look really nice and miniature. Also check out the Lensbaby Composer lens, again, special effect but a lot of fun. Check out the pool shot in the below film shot on the 24mm F2.8 TS lens.

Sky from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

As with all special effect lenses use sparingly. But great fun to use.

This is the end of the first draft of the lens blog. This will be continually updated, so keep an eye on it!

Shooting on the 5DmkII for LUCASFILM

EDIT: Until I get to actually shoot with the Canon 60D I cannot say whether I recommend it or not. The specs look good, it’s just the UK pricing is so close to the 7D I am just unsure…once I get my hands on one I can comment further…

“Which camera should I but?” I get asked this the most. Apart from which lenses should I buy. There is a lot of confusion amongst potential buyers as to which camera to buy. Not just from the Canon line, that is the Rebel T2i/ 55D, 7D, 5DmkII and 1DmkIV but also the GH1 and the Nikon D300S , D3s, D90 and D5000.

It’s almost impossible for me to recommend which model camera to buy because they all have their plusses and minuses and many of those are subjective, down to personal opinion. What may be important to me may not be important to you. Even when context is provided such as they are mostly shooting music videos, events, documentaries, movies etc then I still cannot answer.

We already put these cameras through the big test for Zacuto…but what about actual every day use…?

What I am going to do in this blog post is list what I believe are the pros and cons of each camera.Take that info and then decide for yourself what is the most important for you. For example some people love the look of the 5DmkII over the others whilst others find the shallow depth of field too much…

I am in the fortunate position of owning most of the cameras in this post (apart from two of the Nikons) so I feel quite qualified to give my opinion on this topic!

Here is a sensor chart showing you the different sizes available in the market. I will be referring to this a few times in the blog.

Nikon D3s

First off let us go over the non Canon options as that’s easier.  I have to say unless you have an huge array of G series Nikon lenses (if you have manual aperture Nikon lenses then your lenses will work will the Canons using a simple adaptor like the Fotodiox Pro) then forget the D90, D5000 and D300s as they don’t offer full manual control in video mode making them a huge pain in the backside to shoot with. The only Nikon that offers full manual control is the D3s. To get the full manual mode you need to be in tripod live view mode rather than hand held live view mode.

What do I think of the D3s? It is an incredible stills camera and a so-so video camera. It has a full frame sensor, one of only two cameras in this blog to have that. The thing that made me buy it was the absolutely incredible low light performance as highlighted in the Zacuto Shootout. It was this alone that made me buy it. In my low light test I shot at 25,000 ISO and got incredibly clean pictures due to a brilliant NR chip in there for video. This makes it outperform all the Canon DSLRs by a huge margin in low light. It’s just a shame that it is not as impressive in general use. All the Nikons are 720p 24p only too. That is not a huge dealbreaker but it’s a limitation. As is the old fashioned MJPEG recording format and 5 minute clip length. The HDMI live out seems to be slower than 24p when you hit record.

I bought this camera as a low light tool to supplement my Canon DSLRs, not to shoot whole projects on. For some of my documentary work low light will be extreme and this camera will shine. I will be able to shoot in very low light without having to shoot wide open with crazy shallow DOF. To think I could shoot in candlelight at F4 and it will look gorgeous…That’s epic for me. Shooting wide open is great but sometimes you don’t want that crazy shallow DOF, you want to control it. This camera will give you that option. You can stop right down and with the incredible high ISO you can shoot in not much light and still get exposure!

Sound wise it has a crappy built in mic like most of the cameras here but you can put an external mic in, but there is limited control of the audio with no meters, but the ability to set 4 levels of sensitivity but more importantly no way to monitor it.

So that’s the Nikon D3s. A great stills camera with a killer low light video ability. Shame the rest is not great.

PROS: Full frame, INCREDIBLE low light in video

CONS: Expensive, 720p only, 24p only, 5 minute clips, MJPEG recording format, poor monitor out, no audio control.

Nikon D3100

Just announced, not out yet. Nikon finally release a camera with manual controls (maybe) and full HD, albeit at 24p only. For other frame rates you need to shoot 720p. I haven’t used this camera or seen one but the specs and price are impressive. It shoot AVCHD H264 and has continuous autofocus in video mode. I am not an autofocus guy but it can be useful, especially on steadicams. Shame there is no articulating screen but for $699 with a stock lens it’s a great starter cam. Moire, jello etc still unknown…It’s APS-C of course at this price.

For me the lack of 1080p 25p is a downer but great to see Nikon step up to the mark…albeit at the low end of the market. Let’s see what they do next. Pros and Cons once I have used one.

Pansonic GH1

The Panasonic GH1 I have had since April last year and I still love it. It’s not a DSLR as it has no mirror but is often bunched up in the term Video DSLRs as it is a still camera with a video function too. We really should not get hung up on names for these cameras.

What do I think of the GH1? Well I love the small size. Love the EVF, moveable LCD, ability to take so many different types of lenses due to the lack of mirror and of course the price. Downside is the 1080p bit rate if a bit stingy meaning it breaks ups quite easily when trying to grade it. The 720p mode seems to hold up better but it’s such a shame that the 1080p is lacking. The 720p mode is 50p or 60p depending on where you buy the camera.

The camera comes in different flavours depending on where you buy it. In the EU it is 25p in 1080p mode (embedded in a 1080i stream) and 50p in 720p mode, so great for slow motion. Record time is limited to 29.59 minutes for EU tax reasons. If it could record 30 minutes or more it would be classified as a video camera and therefore have higher tax. Other PAL countries get this camera also in 25p but with the record time limitation. The US gets it in 24p (again embedded in a 60i stream) and 60p in 720p mode with no record time limitations. All the Canon cameras shoot in either 24p, 25p or 30p. They are non regional specific. A big downer on these cameras.

It has the best built in mic on all of the cameras and it’s stereo, although again we have no headphone jack. NONE of the cameras in this test have a headphone jack! If you plug in a monitor it switches off when you hit record. A big downer really! That needs to be fixed in the GH2.

Negatives aside. It’s a great little camera. The stock lens has the most impressive auto focus I have ever seen on a video camera as it tracks people’s faces and with a large sensor like in this camera (four thirds) it makes a huge difference. This makes it ideal for steadicam work as you can let the focus do it’s thing. Normally I say DO NOT USE AUTO FOCUS on any video camera. Manual will always be the way to operate a camera for me until it can read my mind and know what I want to be in focus! The image out of the camera is also pretty damn good. Of course what I want is a GH2 with better bit rate and proper monitor out, a headphone jack and controllable audio levels. A lot of this camera is already very good, it just needs a bump up in specs…

Low light is not brilliant. I find 1600 ISO way too noisy.

PROS: Cheap, light, small, 50p/60p mode in 720p, full HD, nice stereo mic, EVF, articulated LCD, great lens mount, some Panasonic lenses have amazing auto focus ability. No overheating

CONS: Weak AVCHD code, no HDMI out when recording, low light average performance, poor audio options again, recording limitations in EU,  geographically locked recording formats, 24p and 24p wrapped in 60i and 50i.

EDIT: With the third party hacked firmware by Tester 13 we can get native 24p and 25p and motion jpeg full hd in very high bit rate and much improved AVCHD. It’s a massive leap up but it’s still 3rd party and not officially supported. Read more about it here…The major issue is all new GH1s CANNOT be hacked as they have the latest firmware which is not hacked. SO BE CAREFUL if you go this route.

Canon Rebel T2i/ 550d

The new kid on the block and a damn impressive one too. I have left the 500D/ T1i out of this. Even though I own it, but due to the odd 20FPS 1080p mode, 720p 30p only mode but mainly (and this is reason why 3 Nikons aren’t reviewed) the lack of manual control. This baby ups the game and is the first consumer DSLR that Canon have made with full HD and full manual control. It’s killer. With an image of almost comparable quality to the pro 7D it has taken the market by storm and rightly so.

With an APS-C chip in it which is a 1.6x crop of a full frame it has a bigger sensor than the GH1 but smaller than the D3s. It takes all the EF lenses designed for full frame cameras as well as the special EF-S lenses which are designed for this sized chip. These lenses are generally cheaper than their full frame versions so you can save money that way. Only downside is EF-S lenses cannot be used on full frame camera if you come to upgrade cameras at some point. The major investment with any of these camera is the glass, not the body. So always keep that in mind when buying lenses.

It has the same crappy audio options, as in no control and no headphone jack. But does have the full range of recording options. 24p, 25p and 30p in full HD and 50p and 60p in 720p mode. Meaning you get shoot great slow motion with this baby.

I am a big fan of this camera as it has brought the power of DSLR filmmaking to the mass market. Some people see this as a bad thing, in that by making the cameras so affordable there will a flood of people on the market selling themselves as cameramen. It’s only a tool, like any camera. What we will have is people discovering or even re-discovering a love of video due to this large sensor.

Things I don’t like about this camera? Well it’s a consumer camera and is therefore missing a lot of what I love in the PRO bodies. It uses SDHC cards, they are cheap are small but I hate their flimsiness. I much prefer CF cards, but that’s just me! I miss the top LCD. We have no display on this camera other than the main LCD. Not a deal breaker but a shame not to have it. Also missing is the second dial on the back of the body which means aperture and shutter speed are controlled by the same dial, via pressing a button in at the same time. I don’t like this at all. The build quality is pretty good, but when compared to the pro line, in particular the 7D it comes across as bit cheap, but then again it is! It uses different batteries to the 7D and 5Dmkii, but they are cheaper…HDMI out sucks too….it’s 1080i letterboxed image live out which drops to 480p when you hit record. You do get full 16×9 playback though.

Like all the Canon cameras the most you can record at a time is about 12 minutes. If you point at something that does not move much you can get it up to 14 minutes or so. The LCD is surprisingly the best of the bunch of all the Canon DSLRs. Highest resolution.

There is much debate over how good the video is of this camera compared to the 7D. Very damn close. I haven’t seen any specific side by sides, only that in my limited use of the T2i it just seems to be not quite as good as the 7D and am not sure why…it’s close. But just not quite as good…I would love someone to show me what it is that is different!

PROS: Cracking image in video mode, very cheap, smaller than the pro line, full list of video modes to record in, nice big APS-C sensor, great LCD screen

CONS: Not weatherproofed like the pro line, missing top LCD screen, missing second dial, poor HDMI out, no audio control, no headphone jack, no intermediate ISOs, no ability to dial in your white balance like the pro line, 12 minute record limit.

Canon 7D

The first Canon camera to embrace the video feature as it has a switch to set it in video mode or stills mode!

It’s got the same sized chip in it as the 550D/ T2i albeit in a MUCH more robust package. The 7D is a beast. It’s completely weathersealed. I have left this camera outside for 4 days in snow and rain doing timelapses and it has come through without a glitch. This is for me what sets it apart from it’s cheaper brother. The build quality is simply superb.

Video feature wise it’s the same…24p, 25p, 30p in 1080p mode and 50p 60p in 720p mode. It can also rattle off about 8 or 9 pictures a second in stills mode. Very impressive. It has the same audio limitations that we run into again and again. No manual audio controls and no headphone jack.

The image out of it is superb. It’s sensor is almost the same sized as the sensor in 35mm movie cameras meaning with a mod or two it can take proper cinema lenses. A massive plus in the indie movie world and of course in the big movie world! I have used it with Cinema lenses three times now and it’s simply incredible!

The live HDMI out is the best of the cameras so far. Still letterboxed 1080i but it stays like this even when you hit record. This is a big deal and something you must consider when looking at the different cameras to buy. Getting critical focus when the image drops to SD when you hit record is very very hard!

Some people say it overheats a lot, something people say happens with their 550D too. But I have not experienced this much. Although I do live in a bloody cold country! I did experience it when I was doing very long interviews for 2 hours or so of non stop recording, but even then it was just a warning light. It never switched off.

Low light ability seems to be about the same as the T2i but not a patch on the D3s

PROS: Superb weatherproofing, stunning image, good in low light, switch for video mode, HD monitoring even when recording, Nice LCD screen, great price.

CONS: Not as good as the other pro Canon line in low light, not full frame, crappy audio options AGAIN, 12 minute record limit

Canon 5DmkII

This was the one that started it all and is still for me the camera with the nicest image. That comes down to it’s full frame goodness and full HD. The 5DmkII is absolutely unique in the video world as it is the only video camera in the world, currently, that shoots video in full HD with a sensor as big as this. The sensor is 864mmNow this does cause us some issues. Some people find that the full frame sensor makes it harder to get focus, as the larger the sensor the more shallow the depth of field. For me, I always say if it’s too shallow then stop down! It has great low light, better than the 7d but nowhere near as good as the D3s, so you can easily stop down and up the ISO to compensate…It’s aesthetically unique and that is what attracts so many filmmakers to it, including me, there is nothing else out there like this. The 7D has better options…the 5Dmkii has no 720p mode, has the same crappy hit record and drop to SD mode HDMI out, no dedicated video button. It does have manual audio levels which have been pointlessly hidden away in a menu that you can only set before you hit record and give you no audio levels on the LCD at all so there is still no way of knowing if you have are recording sound or not.

It’s highly unlikely we will ever see this camera get 50p and 60p. I simply think it cannot take it…It would overheat too much…talking of overheating, this camera has no warning light telling you it is overheating. What can happen, and I stress CAN, is the image can degrade the more heated up it gets. Then it will just switch off.

PROS: My favourite image out of them all, full frame beauty, manual audio levels, very good in low light, great build quality, you can get this camera for not that much more than the 7D if you shop around, did I say incredible full frame image godliness?

CONS: HDMI live out sucks, manual audio buried away in menus, no 720p mode, no overheating warning, DOF too shallow for some (although as I say just stop down!), 12 minute record limit, not as good weatherproofing as other pro Canon cameras, probably the most susceptible to rolling shutter issues of the pro Canons.

Canon 1DmkIV

The big daddy of the Canon line. This is first and foremost a stills sports shooters camera. The video is hidden away and is obviously secondary BUT must not be overlooked as it betters the other Canon cameras in it’s low light ability. It has a strange sized APS-H chip which is a 1.3x crop. This is a bit annoying for wide angles as there are no lenses made for this chip size so you will lose some length on the wide end.

The low light as I said is very powerful, again, not a patch on the DS3 but very impressive anyway. 3200 ISO is pretty clean, 6400 ISO is usable with a bit of post cleaning up.

It has the same video options as the 7D so we do have 720p 50p and 60p and we also have the same HD monitoring out even when recording. Audio of course still sucks with no manual audio level and of course no headphone jack.

The camera is built like a tank. It makes the build quality of the 7D look like the T2i and that is saying something. This is one camera that can probably take some serious knocks and keep on going. It takes both CF cards and those flimsy SDHC cards. It also takes it’s own special batteries which make it last a lot longer in video mode. The batteries in the 7D and 5DmkII get eaten up very fast!

PROS: Incredible build quality, beautiful image, superb low light, great long life batteries, probably the best of the bunch for least rolling shutter issues.

CONS: Awkward 1.3x crop, heavy, expensive, crappy audio, 12 minute time limit.

In conclusion…

Is that helpful? I hope so. As I said, there is no one clear favourite…I prefer the full frame image out of the 5DmkII for sure, but the HDMI out is killing me, on a professional set it is just a big problem. Also it doesn’t have the 720p mode that all the other Canon cameras have. Although the 720p mode is not great due to the hideous aliasing and moire that it can bring up if not careful.

The 7D is probably the best all rounder. Has all the video rates your want, HDMI HD monitoring and is a great price. Many prefer the aesthetics of the 7D over the 5DmkII, me I don’t but it simply comes down to personal preference. It has best build quality for the money, great image…but I just prefer the 5DmkII image…it probably ticks more boxes than the rest. Please don’t put weatherproofing as not that important. Being from the video world where nothing is weatherproofed, it’s so exciting to use these cameras in appalling conditions and not worry about them!

Of course one thing that also holds people back is the worry that a replacement will come out for one of these making their camera obsolete. Well, that is a danger with everything in life! That is why your main investment is in the glass, not the body. Your lenses will last 20 years! For pro users your bodies will change every 2/3 years. That’s the market!

Sony will soon jump on the bandwagon with the Alpha range. Be very interested to see what they are bringing to the table. I have heard a couple of interesting rumours. I wonder if they are true? The Sony NEX 5 and 3 are coming out soon and are very cute but lack manual controls in video mode and are only 30p…

Whichever camera you chose, don’t forget…it’s only a tool! The most important thing is what you do with it!

Next blog up is lenses…

Here are some pieces of work I have done with each camera:

NIKON D3S

Watch on iphone/ ipad

GH1

Watch on iphone/ ipad

55D/ T2i

Watch on iphone/ ipad

5DmkII

Watch on iphone/ipad

7D

Watch on iphone/ ipad

1D MKIV

Watch on iphone/ ipad

pic by TJ Jeffrey

I have done loads of meet ups, mostly across the pond, but FINALLY I did one in London yesterday and I hesitate to say it but I think it was the best yet. Certainly the biggest. We had at least 200 people there despite atrocious weather just before it started and we stayed shooting till dark then went for some grub, then I gave a lift to Victoria Station to some the more far flung people from Galway, Paris and Oxford via Haarlem!

I had a lovely time meeting everyone. Really sorry if I didn’t speak to everyone. I tried to!

Whilst there I did a number of test timelapses using the 1DmkiV, 17mm TS, my Vinten fibertec legs, Revoultion head,  and the amazing “Smartlapse” BETA software on the Oracle from Kessler Crane. The concept is simple, with the Oracle you can program any realtime move over the three memory presets. With it you can do anything you want, you have total control with the joystick over the 2 axis and then save them in memory to played back remotely without you touching the controller. This is great for video but the cool thing about “Smartlapse” is you can tell it to do that same move about a set period of time. The software I had is in BETA so all the bells and whistles were not there but it worked just great as you can see from the little video below. I mapped out the shot I wanted live then played it back over an hour or so for each shot. Varying the pan and tilt and the speed. Shame I had the last one in AV mode and not manual as the very bright advertising board kinda screwed it up… but its a lot of fun and is going to make timelapsing with both the Revolution head and my pocket dolly/ Cineslider a lot easier as I can put in speed changes which is going to be awesome. Kessler Crane will add it to the Oracle to a few weeks when they have perfected the software. These are far from perfect moves. My first time trying this…I am sure the moves will be a lot simpler for “real shot”…this was just seeing what it can do so the moves are a bit crazy but that is what experimenting is about, right?

The first shot I did by simply moving the camera 90 degrees on the head so instead of titling normally it made the camera spin on it’s axis. Very cool.

London Meet-up with Kessler Crane “Smartlapse” from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

So don’t forget the competition for best film of the day. There is a vimeo group up. So add your film to it of the day only and you have a chance of winning a $500 Kessler Crane voucher for their shop! You have until Saturday to submit.

Here are some of the films made so far: Great stuff…very inventive

My journey to London meet up (Philip Bloom) from Filippo Chiesa on Vimeo.

Filmed on GoPro HD (great, cheap, little waterproof camera).

London Meet-up with Philip Bloom from James Miller on Vimeo.

The Philip Bloom london meet up Timelapse from VJ Cookie / Kevin K on Vimeo.

Shot this timelapse during The London Meet up at Piccadilly Circus London, 14 Augustus 2010.

I used Lightroom for the (minimal) colour correction.
Editing done on my good old white macbook with FCP.

The camera i used is an Canon EOS 550D with an Tokina 11 16 lens and an standard 18 55 lens for the tele shots.

The music is from Minus, from the free music archive.

freemusicarchive.org/search/?quicksearch=minus

Kevin Koekkoek.

The boom pole used for the excellent Gopro film

Home made viewfinders!

shooting 9x16

Taken by Samuel Ryan

Pic by Adam Webb

Pic by Adam Webb

Pic by Adam Webb

Pic by Adam Webb

Pic by Adam Webb

Pic by Adam Webb

"Does it shoot video?"

Doooood...

Changing focus mid timelapse

Pic by Samuel Ryan

Pic by Zainab Adam

Pic by Daniele Cuccia

Pic by Andrew Howe

Pic by Andrew Hower

Pic by Waggamama waitress for Ruben Lammerink

Pic by @rumblegum

Pic by @rumblegum

This cost 5 quid!

DSLRs have changed filmmaking for so many and when I say so many I mean an enormous amount. It’s insane just how many people are buying these cameras to shoot video on. It has taken everyone by surprise, including the manufacturers. Canon are of course at the top of the tree and the others are playing catch up. They have to, the market is just too damn big to ignore.

With the release of cameras like the T2i/ 550D it has opened up the market to everyone pretty much. So much so that I say to kids who email me asking about film school “have you considered getting together with a couple of mates, buying a T2i and a lens or two and shooting a movie every weekend?”. Best way to learn in my opinion. In my day film school was something I wanted to do (but didn’t in the end as I got a job as a runner at Sky) because I could not get my hands on gear. Too expensive. That has now changed…yes lenses, monitors etc cost money if you want the best. But you can EASILY shoot a movie with a T2i, an old Nikon 35mm F1.4 lens, a tripod and a cheap sound recorder with a shotgun. That’s around $1000 give or take…

Now we also know these cameras have some massive limitations. Sound recording in cameras sucks more than Telly Savalas sucked on his lolly. Moire and aliasing give me night sweats. Rolling shutter makes me nauseous. Crappy HDMI connections have driven me to hard drugs (joking!). H264 will make me go postal one day!! There are more issues but no point going over all of them, we know them, we live with them, we work around them. That is life. Always has been and always will be.

Will these limitations go away?  Sure. Mostly. I think. I hope so. Certainly we will get massive improvements, but I can tell you now…we won’t get everything we want for various reasons. First off we are NEVER satisfied. I know I never am. Give me 100mbs and I say gimme an HD Viewfinder, gimme an HD Viewfinder and I will say gimme a built in Nespresso coffee maker etc…Secondly, cost. THESE ARE STILL CAMERAS. We will not in the foreseeable future get for example XLR inputs and BNCs on DSLRs. In fact, I doubt we will ever see them on these cameras…why? Because THESE ARE STILL CAMERAS!

A lot of people forget this basic fact. That is most people who buy, for example a 5DmkII, buy it for stills. They don’t want video, don’t care about video and certainly don’t want the cost of their cameras to go up because of that damn video function. HD-SDI BNC, XLR etc would add a lot of cost and of course bulk. Photographers do not want this. That is why when the Canon 5DmkIII does come out at some point, who knows when, may not be for a year for all I know, then I expect it to be a refined version of the mkII. Less moire, less rolling shutter, clean HDMI out maybe…better audio? Not sure. Different codec? Maybe, but it won’t be a video camera. It will be a stills camera with a video function.

Of course that moves us onto the next evolution. Video cameras with these sensors in them. DO I WANT THIS?! YES PLEASE! I will be first in the queue. Panasonic and Sony have already announced video cameras with respectively a micro four thirds sensor and an APS sensor in them. Canon have been quiet so far but surely must have something to announce soon with the competition snapping at their heels. These cameras will most likely have HD-SDI BNCs, 4:2:2 hopefully, WAY better codecs, XLRs, no moire or aliasing etc…and of course much more. Downside? Cost. They won’t cost $800 that’s for sure. Yes, Sony have a $2000 camcorder coming out soon but it has none of the cool features we want, it is in fact simply an NEX-5 with a better body and a mic in.

The Panasonic camera should be pretty affordable, way under $10,o00. I hear whispers of $6000. That would be great! it looks terrific and that sensor, if made more video friendly would be great news. There is a small chance I may be able to get to test this soon too….keep your fingers crossed!

Panasonic AG-AF100

I know very little of the more expensive Sony camera, but it will be exciting for sure. I have shot Sony all my pro life. My first home camcorder was a Sony. I shot Betacam for 17 years. I own 2 full size Sony camcorders and an EX3. I love Sony. They have to come out with something great surely?

Canon I expect will answer this soon. APS-C is expected, they need to make these cameras PL lens friendly, like the Panasonic is. Stick a full frame sensor in it and say “hello vignette!” when you stick a PL lens on it. That’s why APS-C is the sensible thing to do. I am going to the Canon Expo in September. I hope something is announced then. After all I have a huge collection of lenses now, a massive investment. I can’t move to something else now. Unless these other cameras bring out EF mounts. Price wise? No idea, but going by the cost of their camcorders it won’t be cheap. But, we will get the bells and whistles we so desperately need. Hopefully.

Oh, and don’t expect a nice long reach ENG style lens for these cameras. Those sensors are big, not like the puny 1/3″ chips we currently have. To make a proper video lens for a large sensor will be very expensive and very heavy. A high quality zoom lens for my EX3 would cost me around $15,000 and that’s for a tiny 1/2″ sensor! It does make me chuckle when I see the photos of the Panasonic and the Sony cameras with Cooke lenses etc on them…99% of people buying these cameras will not be shooting with Cooke’s or other PLs for sure…still lenses will be choice of the majority.

Where does this leave video DSLRs? Is this fad over? NO CHANCE. Video DSLRs will be with us for a hell of a long time to come. Students, indie filmmakers, event videographers and so many more simply won’t be able to afford these new cameras. The tech will improve and some of the issues will go away. Some will be here for a long time to come though. But of course we are working with these limitations right now and incredible work is being done by so many despite them. This will continue for many years. Also, take this job I am on now. I am shooting lots of timelapses as well as video. I can easily put 3 or 4 bodies in my carry on luggage and it takes up no space and is less that the cost of, probably, one of these new video cameras with large sensors. The small size is a massive plus for me. I can also see the day soon when I travel with a new large sensor video camera and still bring a couple of DSLRs with me, second and third angles etc…it simply makes sense.

The gear am using on this Lucsasfilm shoot (one of the bodies belongs to me assistant)

So when you hear people say, “is this the end of that DSLR fad then?”, tell them no. This “fad” is only just beginning. It’s just going to get better and better. Yes, I cannot see “House” or other major players choosing to shoot on DSLRs if affordable ($10K is affordable to pro companies) cameras are out there that do the job much better. But for the rest of us, DSLRs will be our main cameras for many years to come.

OH and one quick last thing…there is the Scarlet coming out at some point too…but that will be more in the price range of the video cameras I talked about…

Chatter about improved video functions such as moire reduction are all unconfirmed but hey, wouldn’t it be awesome if it did! Articulating screen looks likely from the sneaky photos shown below…I am certain we will hear more soon…especially with big events like the Canon Expo in New York coming up (which I will be at, hope to see you there!) and Photokina.

The Canon Expo is entry by request only click on the above link and register. It’s purely down to numbers so register now! Great speakers as you can see below!

We are hearing all sorts of rumours about the 1Ds mkiV. RAW recoding being the big one (some of you may remember my April 1st blog!)...again, let us see what happens! The market is moving fast…Nikon and Sony are coming out with better DSLRs with video and of course there are video cameras coming out with large sensors too.

Exciting times!

Behind The Scenes: Kessler Crane Key West Shoot from Cristina Valdivieso + Jon Connor on Vimeo.

It’s taken me a while to finish this piece, a lot longer than usual, mainly down to my crazy schedule here in the states. I am currently in Lewiston, Idaho shooting a documentary on the 7D, 5Dmkii and 1Dmkiv. It’s going to be really good I hope, I can’t say much more until it is edited then I will do a blog on it. Been great fun shooting and big thanks to Preston Kanak my intern. He has been amazing…more from him soon as he has a great project at the moment, making a 3 minute film every day of this year!

I shot this about 2 weeks or so ago down in Key West. I was down with my good friend Eric Kessler of Kessler Crane. We were testing out gear, some of it very new. Amongst the gear we tested were the excellent “Pocket Jib”, the Oracle system and the new Philip Bloom signature edition Pocket Dolly, yes you are reading that correctly. I love the Cineslider and I love the PD V2 so Eric said “why don’t I simply make a special one to your specs” and he did. It’s awesome, I have the traveller 2 foot length but there will be a 3 foot one too. It has the drag control of the Cineslider and the different gearing and crank of the Cineslider too. Love it…it will be out for sale in September hopefully. Price TBA. It’s a perfect slider for me. Am very happy with it! It works with all the motor stuff and Oracle too and does the vertical moves as demonstrated by Eric using the V2 3 foot pocket dolly at the bottom of this post. The normal V2 one is still great, this will just have more features but it will cost more for sure. It will be $995 including the outrigger feet which cost $150 normally, a special case to carry it in, gearing taking from the Cineslider as well as the crank mechanism and the drag control from the Cineslider.  This is not a replacement for the V2, simply a higher spec version made to my requirements.

Shooting Lewiston Documentary using "Philip Bloom" Pocket Dolly

The Pocket Jib is simply awesome. Very easy to set up and smooth as anything. We got a permit to film in Mallory Square for 2 evenings in Key West, no way we could have gone guerilla with this! I had some help. Eric was there as were CanonFilmmakers.com’s Jon Connor and Cristina Valdivieso filming BTS and training videos. The jib ads SO much to your shots, admittedly it is a bit overused in the below shoot but as the short was to show of the toys it made sense to use it a lot! Normally one MAYBE two shots in a piece like this would be enough. The jib costs just $1200 , amazing quality for this price!

With the jib we had the K-Pod tripod system which is a joy for this as it has wheels. You can use your own 100mm bowl tripod but make sure it can take the weight! We got the balance weights from a local sports shop…flying with them is daft and expensive!

2 nights in Mallory Square from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.