Steve Weinrebe's Mode Studio

Canon has made a headlong move towards the convergence of still and video with the new 5D Mk II. The full (35mm) frame DSLR will use its Live View mode to shoot HD video at 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) at 30 fps. The camera also features an HDMI output (though the port-out is USB 2.0 rather than Firewire). The videos can be shot in 4 GB chunks, which the company states is, on average, 12 minutes at HD. A Standard Video (640 x 480) option is provided.

What makes this especially interesting is the ability to simply press the shutter to take full quality stills at any point in video capture. This would seem to lend itself not only to the expected avenues of reportage, but to the emerging technology that allows high quality stills to dramatically enhance video quality. (See here for earlier post re: this technology.)

Canon makes good publicity of the fact that photographers can shoot HD quality video with a camera that can support interchangeable, high quality, lenses. This makes the 5D Mk II a compelling package for photographers that want to shoot HD video as well, and of course not own or lug expensive and heavy additional gear. Videographers will take note as well, since the ability to add 35mm lenses onto a video camera is an expensive and much sought after option.

Kudos to Canon for using the H.264 codec for video compression. H.264 is an Apple standard and is much higher quality than Nikon’s current DSLR/video offering, the D90, which features Motion JPEG.

Link here for information about the camera, and here for the specifications including video specs. Note that this site, a Canon Global site, offers a little more information about the video specs than the Canon USA site.

Posted by Steve Weinrebe