Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Followup to Canon 5D Video post

In my last post "Still Photographers & Videographers Intertwining as One" I mentioned the new Canon 5D and its awesome video functions.  I just came across a great example of the new Canon 5D Mark II video feature in action utilizing, of all things, Nikon glass as "filmed" by Dan Chung!  The lenses he used were:
Nikon 17-35 f2.8
Nikon 80-200 f.8
Nikon 85mm f2.8 shift lens
Nikon 16mm f2.8 fisheye
Zeiss/Contax 85mm f1.4

You can see the low resolution here but I encourage you to click on the link to go directly to vimeo and see the HD version!


Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Friday, November 21, 2008

Still Photographers & Videographers Intertwining as One

I videoed my kids singing in the church choir like I have done in the past using the Canon G9 on November 16th. It was an easy task with remarkable results. The camera was light enough to just rest on the pew in front of me. When I was done, I tucked it away in my suit coat pocket. No tripod & no hassle. I use to take both a video camera and a still camera to important events. Now I carry my G9 point and shoot everywhere. Fairmount Presbyterian Church liked the video so much they decided to incorporate it into their website and e-newsletter. The church has used its video footage and has pulled stills from it for its website too!



We are living in an interesting era where Still Photographers and Videographers will begin to be able to accept and deliver jobs with one camera for both applications. The Canon 5D Mark II (available in stores in a week or so) now supports HD Video. The Canon 5D series is one of two camera bodies that Canon makes utilizing its full frame image sensor.

5D Mark II Quick Specs: 21.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with DIGIC 4 Image Processor & Full HD Video capture at 1920 x 1080 resolution for up to 4GB per clip with HDMI output for HD viewing of stills and video. In other words,
video as high as 1920 x 1080 @ 30 fps for up to 12 minutes (Quicktime 1080p H.264; 38.6 Mbits/sec with PCM sound).

Granted it can only record for 12 minutes right now at the highest resolution but it can take advantage of Canon's fast L series lenses to produce a product that many videographers could not produce at such a price point.

Imagine capturing a video with a 50mm f 1.2 lens and then being able to switch over to capturing incredible stills.

I don't think it will necessarily be a situation of Still Photographers or Videographers taking over or dominating each others industry to make the other extinct-- I think it is more likely that both will adapt to the changing technology and the individuals in both industries will continue to flourish. Only time will tell what will really happen.

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)