I struggled with the form-factor of the camera, trying to find a way to hold it that would produce controlled cinematic motion. I suspect that with the proper gear I could have mounted it in a Fig Rig and gotten the control I was looking for. Now, if you're willing to go to a 3rd party for accessories, companies like Redrock Micro, who are most known for their 35mm lens adapters, and Zacuto have now made video rigs for these the new video enabled DSLRs. I did not have the opportunity to test the EOS 5D Mark II with a DSLR support system, but they certainly look versatile and appear to compensate for the camera form factor. A DSLR rig will run from about $450 up to $2000. (Redrock’s DSLR packages can be found here and Zacuto’s DSLR packages can be found here. )
Having the viewing LCD directly on the back of the camera, rather than out to the side, was another usability issue. I guess with still cameras, photographers don’t change the settings during a shot. They set the shot up, and then press the “go” button. With video cameras, the hands are quite often changing settings. And so, having the LCD screen display only the setting or only the framing of the image is a usability problem. There was no “overlay” mode where you could operate the menu while viewing the framing.
Also, I am accustomed to looking above the LCD panel to see the real scene, and to compare what I see with my eyes with what the camera sees. This is difficult with the SLR form factor, because my hands were always in the way or holding the lens and obstructing the view of the scene. I gained a new appreciation for the shape and layout of buttons on video cameras because of this experience. A DSLR rig would have helped keep my hands out of the way.
The question with most video cameras is “How much of the automatic features can be disabled to provide creative control?” With the EOS 5D Mark II the question is how much can you learn about the technology behind the features so that you know which to disable and when. The camera has options on it that are appropriate to still camera image controls, and these options can be set in video mode.
On the one hand, there are probably few cameras with so many options and features that can be controlled. On the other hand, it misses some of the production features for video.
The HD recording capability will record about 12 minutes of 1920x1080 Full HD 30 fps on a 4GB CF card.
The manual warns that using the camera for video recording for an extended period of time will result in the camera becoming hot enough to burn the skin on the users hands. And that the camera sensor, as the heat increases, will degrade the resolution of the image. So that it is not really recording in full 1920x1080, but rather an interpreted resolution when the sensor is too hot to produce full HD resolution.
Fortunately, I did not experience anything like that. I recorded a full card on the camera and it never was even warm to the touch. And I recorded an image of a resolution card for 10 minutes and compared the starting and ending resolution and saw no quality degradation.
