Question for Roger about Canon 5d

[mattiasstahre]

Hi!

First off I'm new to this forum and so it's great to be here and be able to take part of this great forum! I am of course a great fan of Mr. Deakins and admire his work highly.

Now to my first post:

So, I've been shooting with the Canon 5d for some two years now and I've come to like it quite a lot for shooting documentary and some shorts. Lately though I've been progressing in my career and started shooting 2nd unit on a feature film and some commercials on both the Alexa (My favorite HD Cinecam) and the Red One.

To Mr. Deakins though I have the question whether you have shoot anything with the Canon 5d and if so what you think of that cameras picture purely esthetically?


Best regards,
Mattias Stahre
Stockholm, Sweden

[lukearmstrong]

As a professional I'm sort of anti this camera, purely because it lacks the usual features you'd want from a cinema quality camera - 10bit log, at least 2k resolution, uncompressed recording in RAW etc. Its also become something of a cult among the low budget crowd - not a valid reason to hate it though.

As a shooter I do have a lot of respect for it however - it does look great and this goes to show what it can do: http://www.photographybay.com/2011/08/0 ... ica-movie/

I know that they were also used quite extensively on Red Tails. With the right kit you can record virtually uncompressed giving you a 1080p image in 8bit, which does actually hold up quite nicely on a 2k projector. Canon make some fantastic lenses too.

Act of Valor was shot primarilly on the 5D http://news.doddleme.com/equipment/act- ... llets-too/

Just my 2cents!

[David Mullen ASC]

Some of "Act of Valor" was shot in Super-35, it's a mix. And most of "Red Tails" was shot on a Sony F35.

[lukearmstrong]

What are your feelings towards the 5D David?

[David Mullen ASC]

A director that I've shot 6 features for, Michael Polish, has recently shot two features by himself on a 5D and the first was sold thru iTunes, "For Lovers Only" -- it looks quite good. Personally, though, DSLR-video's main attraction is the cost, I don't feel a stripped-down Epic is much larger or bulkier... and it's a lot more friendly for shooting dramas on. I'd even prefer using a Sony F3 or Canon C300 or now C500... But that's speaking as a cinematographer, not a director/cameraman/editor who is going to make a whole feature by himself on his own dime and cut it on FCP.

In my world, using a still camera to shoot HD video is more likely to happen as some sort of crash-camera, or some other situation where you have a tiny space or want to sneak a camera into some place like a subway, etc. -- not as the A-camera on a feature. But if wanted to make a feature on my own dime and spend under $10,000 total on the camera package, then I might look at DSLR's (though to be honest, I'd be more likely to borrow something...)

We are all aware by now of the artifacts of a compressed 8-bit 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 h.264 recording, the aliasing and jello-cam issues, the dynamic range limitations, etc. But certainly some nice work has been done with these cameras despite these limitations. But personally, I'd rather shoot with something that is at least 10-bit Log 4:4:4.

[lukearmstrong]

I'm looking forward to seeing what the new Black Magic Design camera will perform like. I'm sure that in future if it holds up to its promise it will be used more frequently as a cheap option for doing just what they did on the Avengers with the 5D - given that the BMD camera can record in 10 Bit Log with 13 stops of dynamic range, it looks promising - especially given the price tag: under $3000 USD.

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/produc ... emacamera/