Canon EOS 5D Mark II
The sequal to the Canon 5D was recently announced as a 22 megapixel, Full-frame still camera. Why is that important? Utilizing its full frame capability (which allows true 35mm depth of field), the 5D Mark II can also shoot video in 4:4:4 color space with 4k image size, which gives you much more potential for color correction and image acquisition options. Additionally, higher color capture is very helpful for special effects, when the footage is minimally compressed. The 5D uses a form of H.264 compression, which reduces the quality of the footage from its RAW state and may prevent special effects from being significantly improved. With that said, however, the footage it has been shown to acquire is impressive from a filmmaking perspective and could make a lot of microfilmmakers consider shooting a film with it. [Editor's Note: To see exactly how well it performs in real world tests, camera reviewer Tom Stern will be reviewing the 5D Mark II in a future issue of MFM.-JH]
Now, do I think that they will deck out the Mark II to shoot variable frame rates, and give it the technical capabilities of a Red One? Probably not. Currently, you can only shoot at 30 frames per second, and of course the flash cards you would shoot with are relatively small considering the amount of information captured in 4k moving images. However, with all of the excitement surrounding this new camera, I would not be surprised to see an announcement in the near future of a Canon XL-video camera that features a Mark II core...shooting in 4K at a price much closer to the current prosumer HD cameras on the market. With Canon and Sony catching up on this technology, Red will have to raise the bar once again in order to stay competitive in this quickly growing market. Even as I write this article, Red counts down to an announcement of their re-vamped Epic and Scarlet plans.
