Tyler Ginter has posted a fantastic video called “Why We Fight,” it’s a documentary short that focuses on the Afghanistan Special Forces called Strike Force Lion, on why they are fighting for their own freedom and way of life in Afghanistan. It was shot on the Canon 5D MKII.

Jim posted a framegrab from the forthcoming Red Epic, shot 5k 2:1 Redcode 28 @ ISO 800 on the Red Pro Prime 300mm lens. See it here.

One of the benefits of DSLR filmmaking is the incredibly small physical package an HDSLR and lens represents. But start adding professional accessories to simplify certain aspects of shooting, and something odd happens. Your rig can grow to be quite a medusa with wires and cables and arms all over the place. Case in point…the following behind the scenes photos from a music video shoot directed by indie-legend Robert Rodriguez. The Canon 7D rig they shot with is a good example of the need for a good support system once you begin to add pro accessories.

You can see more of these behind the scenes images in this blog post over at Zacuto (that’s a Zacuto support system underneath what looks like about 700 cable ties). There’s also a further explanation from the DP on the rig and it’s myriad cables. Cool to see Robert shooting on these new cameras, but is anyone really surprised? He always seems to embrace new formats.

If you’ve not been following Shane Hurlbut’s blog on his and the Bandito Brothers use of Canon DSLRs for video, well you should be. They’ve been pushing the limits of DSLR filmmaking, applying their professional tools and knowledge to these very imperfect, but oh-so-tasty visual tools.

In Shane’s latest post, he talks about why he doesn’t like to add gyro stabilizers to his handheld HDSLR rigs. If you’ve never shot with a gyro before, it’s a small grenade shaped device that attaches to your rods and restricts jiggles and fast movement. They come in larger sizes as well. It can be an issue for whip pans, and Shane makes the case that it’s simply not necessary on these type of rigs (unless you are filming from a helicopter, etc).

This is not to slam gryos…they have their place in filmmaking. I’ve used gyros before for air-to-air shooting, and they are an invaluable tool in that application. They are also pretty reasonable to rent…around $150/day for a small camcorder gyro at places like Abel Cine.

The Canon 5D MKII 24p update was just announced, and people are flipping out. Now, many people have been using the 5D for video at 30fps (and conforming it to 29.97), and others have been using Twixtor (check the comments) and other tools to conform it to 24p. It’s an incredibly powerful tool at either framerate, but this post is about why you might choose the latter.

Stu Maschwitz did an interview with MacVideo recently, and in Part 2 he spends a solid 10min expounding on why he believes 24p is the optimum framerate for filmmaking. It’s an insightful commentary on the topic, and as always Stu’s points are well-considered and convincing. I highly recommend you check this interview series out.

Finally, just wanted to say that I’m glad to see the 24p update for the MKII, but myself and others I know will continue to use the camera at 29.97 for certain projects, for compatibility’s sake with other footage sources and corporate delivery requirements. It’s going to be awesome having options though.

FYI, the 5D Mark II camera body is now priced at $2499 and ships with a roomy Lowepro Nova 170 AW Shoulder Bag and (2) SanDisk 8GB Extreme CompactFlash Memory Cards. The Sandisk cards rock, and that bag is capable of holding up to 3 lenses and the body. That’s a really solid deal, and B&H purchases via that link help support FreshDV.

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past few weeks, you are probably aware of the following two news items. So this update is for those rock-dwellers. Apologies to everyone else, carry on with your tweeting and such.

First, Canon announced a BETA availability date for their EOS Log & Transfer plugin for Final Cut Pro. Well, not a specific date, but sometime in March. This software product will be made freely available for DSLR video users and enables simple and straightforward acquisition of footage from CF cards via Log and Transfer, just like you would with P2, XDCAM, Red, etc. It’s a fantastic standardized workflow for FCP users, and kudos to Canon for making this available free of charge. If you were thinking that this software is eerily close in featureset to the Glue Tools product we demo’d at Cine Gear, well you’d be correct. That’s because it is. Missed that Glue Tools demo? No worries, I’ve embedded the video at the bottom of this post.

The second bit of news came in the past week, first in the form of that Canon 5D MKII firmware rumor we posted, followed by official news from Canon that the new MKII 2.0.3 firmware would be available worldwide March 17, 2010. New features confirmed in this firmware update include:

* 1080p 24, 25 and 29.97fps recording options. (24p is actually 23.976fps, and 25fps requires the camera first be set to PAL mode).
* 640×480 30 (29.97) and 25fps (25fps requires camera first be set to PAL mode).
* Video histogram display (Canon notes on this only show brightness histogram, but an earlier rumor presentation slide indicated RGB hist as well).
* Manual audio level control (with meters!).
* Audio sample rate changed from 44.1KHz to 48KHz.
* Aperture (Av) and Shutter Priority (Tv) in Video Mode.

This is an incredibly useful update for filmmakers, fixes several workarounds we’ve had to deal with, and GIVES US PROPER EXPOSURE TOOLS! The video histogram should prove to be incredibly useful. There are some limitations of course. For instance, the histogram cannot be viewed while recording, only before hitting record. If you’d like to see the framerate menu and audio meters in action, take a look at this behind-the-scenes Canon promo video And you can see these menus and other details in Canon’s posted notes on this firmware update.

Here is the Glue Tools Log & Transfer plugin demo from Cine Gear 2009:

We mentioned this excellent article on Canon 5D Post-Production when it was first published, and then Oliver had to pull it for a few weeks. Well it’s back online now, and I encourage you to check it out!

Canon Rumors has a post that claims the Canon UK site temporarily shared Canon 5D MKII firmware update information, before pulling the web page. CR says the info posted was:

Features
Live Histogram for Video
Sound Level Control
24p/25p

The release date was marked as March 17, 2010. So we’ll soon officially know if these features make it into the final firmware release.

UPDATE: Apparently there was a presentation today in Poland where Canon 5D MKII new firmware features were discussed. In picture from the presentation, there is a list of features that will be included (assumedly in the next firmware update). They include:

NTSC Modes:
1920×1080 @ 30fps
1920×1080 @ 24fps
640×480 @ 30fps

PAL Modes:
1920×1080 @ 25fps
1920×1080 @ 24fps

Adds manual sound recording functions (64 levels) with audio meter.

Adds histogram display (brightness or RGB).

Adds shutter-priority (Tv) and aperture-priority (Av) exposure modes.

Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.

Michael Ballhaus has posted an under-exposure/over-exposure video test of several popular digital cameras, the Canon 5D Mark II, Sony XDCAM PMW-EX3, RED One, Sony F35, and Arri D21. If you are looking for side-by-side comparisons of how each camera and format handles challenging exposure situations, look no further. Video embedded below.

Michael Ballhaus : HMS Kameratest - Testmaterial from zoom magazin on Vimeo.

Were you hoping that Canon would release an APS-C sensor equipped camcorder, a VDSLR wrapped in a proper camcorder body? I was. I was wrong. Oh so wrong. Why? To put it in nautical terms, Canon is a Battleship, and Red is a Destroyer.

Oh, and if you can’t be on-site to watch the SuperMeet in person, they are posting a live stream of the event here at 6:45pm (I assume that would be US Pacific Time).

Over at Ryan Walters blog, he’s penned a few words of warning for indie filmmakers about the impending release of Red Scarlet. Most people agree that they want Scarlet’s RAW image acquisition, but Walters says, in essence, be careful what you wish for. Here’s an excerpt:

“The next revolution in filmmaking is upon us, however, I fear and it is my prediction that a lot of small indi-productions are about to get burned. Now, do not get me wrong- I really enjoy shooting with the Red. Shooting RAW has changed my life and I do not want to go back - ever. But that is not to say that it has been a smooth transition, nor is it as friendly or easy as it may appear from the outside looking in.”

So it’s been just about a year since Ikonoskop initially suggested they’d be shipping the A-cam dII digital cinema camera. So far they’ve managed a few blog updates and posted some footage from a single beta tester. We’ll they’ve just announced another camera system that you can’t yet purchase, a stereoscopic configuration of the as-yet-unshipped A-cam dII, dubbed the A-Cam3D. At least this little teaser doesn’t appear to be a render, so maybe they are already prototyping the thing.

Maybe we’ll see one of these cameras on production some day. At this rate, Scarlet will ship first. I’m sure glad I didn’t postpone a camera upgrade waiting for Scarlet or the dII to ship. Did you?

Canon has announced a new MPEG-2 4:2:2 codec with a 50 Mbps datarate and standard MXF support. It will be used for their forthcoming line of 1920×1080 tapeless HD camcorders. In conjunction with this announcement, Canon will be showing a new tapeless HD camcorder at the 9th Annual SF SuperMeet.

Dear Canon, please put this codec on my DSLR, kthxbai.

Jem Schofield has posted a few greenscreen footage examples at The C47 that were shot with the Canon 5D Mark 2 and Canon 7D. I’ve not personally seen a lot of keyed footage from these VDSLRs, so this is good stuff. Not surprisingly, he recommends turning camera sharpening settings way down for best results. You can watch his video entry below, but if you have any interest at all in the topic you should definitely go read his blog entry for technical details and some full-resolution framegrabs.

Here’s an interesting Canon 5D MKII and Canon 7D ISO video noise comparison test. It’s split-screen sequential ride on both cameras through ISO settings from 100-12,800, looking at the same high-contrast, high detail scene (wide exposure range, moving leaves, fine details). For this test, the user has stated that Auto Lighting Optimizer and Highlight Tone Priority modes were turned off.

“Every 5 seconds in this video the ISO will shift from 100, 200, 400, 640, 1000, 1600, 3200, 4000, 5000, 6400, 12800. The camera’s were both set on Manual and after increasing the ISO I then adjusted the aperture to bring the exposure meter back to the middle. I kept the shutter speed at 1/60th since I was recording at 30fps. On the very last ISO setting (12,800) I had to bump the 5D’s shutter speed up to 1/125th to get the exposure centered since I couldn’t bring the aperture beyond f/22. With regard to noise, they both seem to be equally matched until about ISO 4000, where it looks like the 5DMKII pulls further ahead as the ISO increases beyond that point.”

I downloaded the original AVC Quicktime from Vimeo, and to my eye, the 5D appears visibly sharper and exhibits a touch less noise at every setting above ISO 200. Which is not at all surprising, given the difference in sensor size between the two cameras.

Split-Screen ISO Comparison: EOS 5DMK II vs. EOS 7D from Ron Risman on Vimeo.

For a sightly less-compressed comparison, log in to Vimeo and download the 266MB quicktime source file for this video.