First Look—HD Video from

Canon EOS 5D MkII

I've been shooting with my Canon EOS 5D MKII almost exclusively since the beginning of 2009, and I am extremely pleased with the quality of images the camera records on its 21 meg sensor, the astounding ability to shoot high ISOs (up to 6400 with 1600 excellent quality and 3200 quite useable), and (almost all of) its overall handling. 

It’s taken me a bit to get comfortable with the controls, because the EOS 1Ds I will shooting before has a very difference approach to “how should one change a setting?”  On the 1Ds, to change any significant camera setting (ISO, shutter delay...) required holding down two separate buttons and then turning a wheel or other control.  On the 5DII, those same settings can be changed with a single button press and control movement; it is fast, but it also allows settings to change inadvertently if a control is bumped in handling.  I have found myself getting frustrated when an f-stop setting would move itself away from where I had set it, only to discover that the 5DII was now shooting in auto mode, not in aperture priority, where I thought I had left it.  But it’s feeling much more natural now, after ~300o shots.

One feature that I have just begun working with is the build-in video ability of the 5DII.  Canon added the capability to shoot HD video at 1920x1080 resolution.  This has the potential to be a serious “game changing” feature, if it permits a photographer to carry just one camera (and set of lenses) and shoot both professional-quality stills and high-quality video.

I have only just begun learning what the video “half” of the 5DII can do, shooting a few short clips while “on location.”  So far, I am quite impressed.  Here’s a snip from the North Shore of Lake Superior:

While this is hardly Oscar material, I note that it was taken early in the morning on an very dark and overcast day, handheld with no attempt to optimize the settings.  I just pushed the LiveView button (to activate the back-panel LCD as a viewfinder) and hit the “record” key.

The clip above is (of course) greatly reduced and compressed for the Web, so you don’t get a fair impression of the surprising clarity and fine detail that are in the original digital capture.  It’s full 1080i video, just over 37 megs for eight second of motion. 

I think it is the ease of shifting back and forth between still and video that is likely to turn the added capability of the 5DII into an indispensable feature.  I’ve started thinking about how I can add the video component into my photo skills teaching, and enhance my students’ experiences in the field, as well as bringing back a greater sense of the Wild that I see on photo trips.

Now I just have to remember not to try to shoot video in portrait orientation - although even the cropped image from a “wrong-way” shot isn’t too bad!