Canon announced that in June they will release a firmware update for the 5D MKII DSLR that includes full manual control of shutter, aperture and ISO when shooting HD video. It is scheduled to be released on June 2, and will allow the following functions:

Full aperture selection
ISO speed: Auto, 100 – 6400 and H1
Shutter speed: 1/30th – 1/4000th second

This is an unprecedented response from Canon, who in the past has only offered firmware updates for their hardware that fixed issues (like the 5D black dot fix), I don’t think they’ve ever added new functionality in an update. Not only that, this response is 100% based on the reaction of the video community, I am heartened to see a major camera manufacturer listening to it’s customer base and responding quickly and efficiently. I believe that with this move, Canon will put major market pressure on companies like Nikon and Red. The barriers for shooting with DSLR’s like the 5D MKII are dropping, and this camera that has already been flying off the shelves is likely to be backordered for quite some time.

Stu “24fps” Maschwitz still says the 5D is useless to DV Rebels due to lack of a 24p mode (there’s apparently no good way to convert from 24p from 30p). I guess if you are buying the camera specifically for making a 24p film, I would agree with him. But let’s be real here, how many people will be doing a filmout from the 5D? Come on, be honest. Most of this stuff will go straight to the web. And most of what constitutes a “film look” isn’t encapsulated in a few fewer frames per second, it is in the cinematography, the performances, and the grading. I don’t see the 5D’s 30p as a barrier for the vast majority of people who will be using the camera to make actual money in their video production business. Speaking personally, exactly ZERO of my clients want or need 24p. I am glad that Canon brought out a firmware update NOW with manual controls…that’s far more valuable to the production community than waiting even longer for them to figure out 24p. If they offer 24p or 30p options on the camera, GREAT! But it’s certainly not a dealbreaker for me, and based on my conversations with shooters it’s not an issue for most.

(Hat tip to Tyler Ginter)

Living in HD has been giving away a new Panasonic digital camera or camcorder each day throughout the month of May. Entry is as simple as registering, and then visiting the page daily to choose your preferred prize. Winners are randomly chosen. It’s a nice promotion, you’ve got decent chances to pick up some nice Panasonic digital swag. Check it out.

So close. Mike Wong is releasing an app for the iPhone that enables remote control of Canon DSLR cameras. This app is like the $930 Canon WFT-E4A Wireless File Transmitter & Vertical Grip, only better and a lot cheaper. In fact, it does just about everything…except control the video functions of the Canon 5D MKII. However, Mike says that video support is in the works, and to expect it in a forthecoming update (as well as a version for Nikon users). Over at PVC, I posted why I think videographers should jump on this app now, instead of waiting for the video update.

CrumplePop has a few free plugins on their site for Final Cut Pro users. The first is a text effect/lower-third plugin that automagically creates text overlays that look like the kind used at Vimeo. The second free plugin is a polaroid picture effect for photos. You can watch example videos and snag a copy of both plugins here. While you are there, check out their $49 hand-drawn text effects package.

Studio Daily has posted an excellent video tutorial by Ross Shain that shows how to use mocha for FCP to track a blank business card held by talent and replace it with a logo. He even shows how to garbage matte around the talent’s fingers on the card, and quickly apply tracking data to that filter in FCP to make the logo replacement even more convincing. If you aren’t sure what mocha for FCP can do, or would like to get up and running quickly with the $199 software package, this video is a great start. Watch below.

Red shooter Richard Darge has posted 150MB of footage from an informal test of the new Red Digital Cinema Pro Prime lenses for the RED and PL-mount cameras. A lot of folks have shown interest in this sub-$20K set of 5 lenses, and it’s good to see footage of them in action.

“Lenses are more than solid. Smooth as butter focus/iris rings. Very sharp. They produce nice flares too! I shot the sun a lot as you will see from the video… My favorite lens was the 35mm. Everything POPS & is quite 3D looking with that lens. Least favorite was the 50 & 85mm to my eye. I favored the contrast in the 25 & 35mm more. Don’t know if that’s something that can be improved upon in this state or if it was a change in haze/lighting conditions. I need to do more testing with that..”

“I brought my Canon K-35 24mm PL Superspeed with me to contrast/compare. The K-35s are almost identical in look to the Zeiss Superspeeds, Canon’s being just a few hairs sharper fully open.”

Hit that link to download the QT mov of the test and check out the ensuing discussion. Personally, my impressions are that Red has benefitted from their Oakley optics roots, and created a solid set of lenses at an incredibly affordable price-point.

Here’s an interesting app that allows you to control playback of FCP using an iPhone or iPod Touch.

The independent film Colin is a zombie movie that turns the genre on it’s braaaiins, err, head. Told from the perspective of a zombie trying to understand what has happened to him, the film was made by director Marc Price and his friends and family for virtually nothing over the course of 18 months.

“It cost us about £45, which was spent on a crowbar and some tapes,” Price said. “We wanted to focus on story and character, and rely on that to hook the audience.”

The film has attracted the attention of several Japanese distributors, to the pleasant surprise of the filmmakers behind the project.

“It’s a bit weird to be at Cannes,” Price said. “It’s just a movie shot on a camcorder and I have no delusions that’s all it is, but it’s nice people watch it and it’s nice to see it play with an audience.”

We’ve been talking a lot about the $2,700 Canon 5D MKII lately, as it’s been making waves since Vincent Laforet posted his little short online. The latest camera making the news in indie circles is the soon-to-ship Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GH1, a stills/video camera hybrid that in many ways offers an upgrade over the 5D, but is unfortunately plagued by a low-bitrate AVCHD codec implementation. In light of the recent trend towards DSLR video, I thought it would be worth reminding FreshDV readers about a few non-DSLR camcorders from Canon that still hold up to scrutiny, and deliver excellent results…particularly when paired with your 35mm lens adapter of choice.

First on my lips would be the 24p capable Canon HV20 (discontinued), HV30, and forthcoming HV40. Each successive model has improved incrementally on the previous, and despite some CMOS wobble/skew (if you aren’t careful), these cameras deliver excellent color rendition and are surprisingly sharp. This entire series of camera can be found for under $1000 in most cases, and I’ve seen used HV20′s go for as low as $300. The HV30 currently has an 8.1 out of 10 rating over at TestFreaks. If you can deal with (or prefer) tape and HDV, these are a good affordable good camera for the indie-minded individual. I know several shooters who pair them with the fullsize Canon XHA1 as backup or 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cameras for events and stage productions.

Another camera we’ve been remiss to talk about much here at FreshDV is the solid-state Canon HF11. As the name would suggest, this camera is an upgrade to the HF10 camera (used when filming Crank 2, by the way). It has no tape mechanism, Canon opted for 32Gb internal flash memory instead. It can also record to cheap SDHC media, and offers 24p as well. Instead of the HV-series HDV codec, the HF11 records full-raster 1920×1080 video in AVCHD, and was (to my knowledge) the first small camcorder to utilize AVCHD’s max bitrate of 24Mbps (unlike most cameras like the GH1 which seem to top out in the sickly 16-17Mbps range). The HF11 currently sits in the ~$800 price range at most online outlets, which makes it an affordable and effective entry into solid-state recording.

So there you have it. A few affordable options for indies that don’t require you to carry around a DSLR camera. But regardless of the tool you choose, use ‘em early and often. Don’t let equipment envy be the barrier to your goals as a filmmaker or videographer. Happy shooting!

Here’s a great tutorial on the subject of editing and grading Canon 5D footage using Final Cut Studio. I would particularly recommend this tutorial to anyone just getting off the ground with Apple Color, this video covers the essential basics quickly and efficiently.

Mike Mihalik on Hard Disk Backups and Reliability [ 44:30 ] Download

With the advent of affordable solid-state flash media and high-quality HD cameras, production companies small and large are taking another look at their backup processes. Without an original video tape or film stock to go back to, disk storage and backups are more important than ever before. Now in addition to storing project files and media assets used in productions, disk storage IS the original backup media. What is your backup strategy? How are you protecting yourself and your business from the myriad number of ways a hard disk can fail?

To offer a little perspective on the subject of hard disk reliability and backups, we spoke at length with Mike Mihalik, Product Manager at LaCie. I had initially heard Mike mention a few quick thoughts on disk backups on an episode of the Digital Production Buzz with Larry Jordan. Part of the reason for our conversation was to clarify those comments, and part was to also delve a little deeper into Mike’s recommendations for backup processes and best practices.

If you’ve not yet experienced a catastrophic hard disk failure, this podcast may unsettle you a bit. And I’m glad if it does…all too often we hear the horror stories of hard disk crashes where the user has no backup. It only takes one such crash for most people to learn their lesson. Mike speaks at length about the many different ways you can lose hard drive data, and hopefully you’ll come away with a little more concern for your own backup processes, and take time to protect yourself properly in the event of a disk failure.

Subscribe to FreshDV’s free podcast feed to listen in iTunes or on your portable music player.

An enterprising individual has managed to make the first hack to the 5D MK2 firmware, making a change that affects the audio chip. It’s more of a proof-of-concept announcement at this point, but shows that it’s entirely possible to change functions. He also noted that it’s possible to read audio levels live, so theoretically possible to enable audio meters onscreen. So now we wait to see what this guy (and/or others) come up with, and if they’ll beat Canon to the punch for full manual control of the DSLR with video.

(Via 5tu)

Those that follow me on Twitter may have noted a link this week to a shaky behind the scenes clip from a concert rehearsal in which a Steadicam operator pulls off a really cool Segway-to-stage transition, frantically dashing camera assistant in tow. Rumor is, the op is Karsten Jacobsen. It looks amazing behind the scenes, and I could only imagine what the finished performance shot would look like. I had to know, so I dug around for a bit and finally found it. So here you go, the behind the scenes footage, followed by the actual performance shot.

IMAX is a film format and projection standard originally created by the IMAX Corporation in Canada. It utilizes a massive 65mm or 70mm film negative and 70mm film print to capture and project significantly higher resolution images than traditional 35mm film systems. It’s there in the name…IMAX stands for Image MAXimum. Standard IMAX screens are 72′ wide and 53′ high, and there are well over 300 theaters worldwide that are so-equipped. This unique aspect ratio has the tendency to change the way a film is composed and shot…tight closeups and macro shots are generally avoided when shooting in the format, as they can be visually overwhelming on the big screen. Instead, the high resolution and projected size enables high-detail wide shots. It truly is a unique experience. Well, it was…until recently.

The IMAX Corporation has always shown an interest in branching out and trying new ideas. Over the years they’ve retrofitted the standard to accommodate domed screens with OmniMAX, IMAX 3D, and at one point even created the so-called IMAX HD 48fps variant that never caught on commercially due to cost. The latest expansion of the IMAX brand is called IMAX Digital. IMAX Digital is a projection standard that encompasses 3D content in DCI or IMAX digital format, all on a 28′ x 58′ screen size that fits into the standard theater multiplex. The cost advantages are obvious…theaters don’t have to retrofit or build taller buildings to accommodate the normal IMAX 53′ screen height, and the digital format dispenses with the expensive reels upon reels of film print. The system uses two 2K Christie projectors in tandem, projecting over each other to produce an image that reportedly offers slightly better than 2K resolution.

However, and this is important…IMAX Digital is not the IMAX experience that has been sold to consumers for years. First, it’s a significantly smaller screen size and much lower resolution. Films made for IMAX digital are not necessarily shot for IMAX. The aspect ratio is 1:1.9, as opposed to IMAX’s typical 1:1.44 projected aspect. Boing Boing has a post about the topic here, specifically about Star Trek’s IMAX Digital release. Roger Ebert also blogged about IMAX Digital recently. The issue that most seem to have with IMAX Digital is that it is being sold as straight-up IMAX. There is no marketing distinction to consumers that IMAX Digital is any different from the original monstrous-screen IMAX version. This is troubling, as the only real technical item shared by the two is the IMAX 6-channel digital sound requirement. Beyond that, IMAX Digital simply offers about 20% larger screen size for the same format film you’d see in a regular theater, and generally at a $5 price increase. Caveat Emptor.

Interview with film editor Keith Reamer [ 42:38 ] Download

Amreeka is a 16mm film about a Palestinian woman who wins immigration to the U.S. from Palestine. Directed by Cherien Dabis, the film follows her family and their new life in the US. Shot on Super 16mm (framed for 2:35) in Canada and the West Bank, Amreeka was edited by NYC-based Keith Reamer.

We spoke at length with Keith about his involvement in the production, and the unique challenges of editing a film in which about half includes arabic dialogue. In this 45-min audio podcast, Keith offers his perspective on the creative process, and talks about how they achieved the post-production process.

Subscribe to our podcast feed to listen in iTunes or on your portable music player.

To get in touch with Keith, check out his website at www.keithreamer.com. You can learn more about Amreeka at www.amreeka.com.