My first Canon 5d Mk2 footage

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I had mucked around with it briefly , but hadn’t really tried it out properly.
always-returning-whole2

So a couple of days ago I took it out for the afternoon with Ryan Pointer from the Kauai Visitor Information Channel. They had hired me to come out for a week to take a look around with the idea of coming back for a much longer trip.

I did some shots of the Taro fields, a few shots of the river, a few shots of the beach and some high shots…Because some of the clips were long “timelapses” I used up my 32gb pretty fast.

It’s a relatively steep learning curve, especially coming after using the Panasonic Lumix GH1 for a couple of weeks. The video mode of the 5dmk2, as many of you already know, it a bit of a b**** to use! Lack of manual controls, 12 minutes clips, inability to lock exposure between takes…the list goes on. One way around the lack of manual controls to start with is don’t use Canon glass. I used all my Nikon lenses that I normally use with my Letus Ulitmate. My fast Zeiss primes, my f2.8 Nikon zooms and my shift tilt Hartblei. All I used was a £15 EOS to Nikon adaptor from ebay and it worked a treat. Obviously all auto controls for stills are lost with these lenses but for video they are perfect as they have manual aperture so you can stay wide open and the camera compensates with shutter/ ISO (ISO can be locked, as far as I know shutter can’t)

We were out for about 4 hours or so…once I had got my head around how to lock ISO I was really happy with the results I was getting. yes, I had to be careful of the jello vision, but it did perform beautifully and my lenses worked brilliantly. 

Codec wise it kinda sucks to be honest. It records in H264 .mov which is a finishing format, not an acquisition format. So you really have to transcode it before editing it. I used MPEG streamclip, thanks to all my twitter buddies for help and advice there! I converted to XDCAM EX 35mbps 30p. I edit in this codec a lot and it doesn’t create huge files like pro res does.

always-returning-wholeA big thanks to little Reagan above and his dad for being my models. I just asked them on the beach and they said yes. Easy filming in the US!!

So all shot on 5dmk2, apart from very last shot…i had run out of card space so had to use the ex1 for that shot…sorry…i know it’s not pure now!!

Click here to see the short

25 comments

  1. Hey Philip! Hope all is well since The Pitch filming. Been watching your shorts ever since, some magnificent pieces you have made. Also toying with some of my own. I got a 5DMarkII a few months ago working with the cam. Very interested to see the short you’ve made with yours, but clicking the link tells me “You do not have permission to view Drafts”. Is there some special permission required?

    Cheers!
    Jordan

    PS, I’m in Hawaii right now, seems that’s where your short is filmed?

  4. Wow! Excellent display of the cameras capabilities in true Bloom fashion. I am a stills shooter that hoping to get into video soon, 5d mark 2 being the likely candidate for the rig as its still abilities are fantastic! Great work!

  6. Hi Phillip,

    beautiful shots.

    How did you manage to lock the iso?

    I thought the 5d overrides all the manual settings.

    How does your method work? Have you tried to press the photorelease button halfways while filming? Cause if you do so you see what settings the canon is actually using, and as far as I know it just overrides your settings when you hit record.

    I would really be delighted to have a way of fixing the iso.

    Cheers
    Holger

    1. it’s quite simple to lock iso…half press shutter butter till ISO pops up then point at something dark or light till the ISO you want pops up then click exposure lock…

      When using Nikon lenses I have control over ISO and aperture just not shutter…

    1. yeah need something to help the editing process…am hopeing FCP studio 3 will help me.

      Thanks for comment Tom…only had 5dmk2 a few days, just bought the remote cable for it and the battery pack on your advice for doing long timelapses…

  8. Amazing as always. Nice work. P.S this may be my last reply as my password I was just given resembled this : @#%^$*&&^%$v%^&*(N(9000&&^7778 i’ll never remember that !!! haha But amazing stuff!!!

  12. Philip –

    With all the headaches with lack of manual controls and codecs…in your opinion, do you feel the end result is worth the trouble? I’ve enjoyed your footage with the GH1 however there is something about the 5dmk2 footage that’s just special.

  15. Hello Mr. Bloom, beautiful short, love all your work, I’m a design student at RCA London and just got into photography/video. I got myself a 7D due to budget but I guess there’s still a lot to learn. 5DmkII is definitely on the list for the future.

    I had a question about the saturation. I often find my 7D shots are not as colourful as I’d like them to be. I had tried the T1i/500d one summer and the shorts were so rich in colour. Do you crank up the saturation on the camera or in post processing?

    I love the colours you have achieved in this film, contrast is perfect! Please let me know when you get a chance. Thanks

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