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Hollywood Squeeze More Out Of Canon's 5D MkII
Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 5:42PM;)
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DP and Director Sam Nicholson is one of the people you mean when we say 'Hollywood people really like the Canon 5D MkII'. He likes it so much he has direct communication with the engineers in Tokyo and sends them his wish list – recently some of those wishes have come true.
"We do a lot of work with Canon, in fact I’m building a ten camera circle vision rig based on the 5Ds. We’re pushing Canon to give us very high quality outputs out of the camera, wirelessly controlling the lenses and all sorts of cool stuff. We have some very interesting prototypes here that will be another step forward for HD cinematography using the Canon cameras.
"I’ve got ten of them on my desk and using these machine cages where one camera is the master and they all slave to one camera. So you can change the stop on one camera and then other cameras all do the same thing. We’re going to show it at Canon’s Expo and I think it’s be a pretty hot item!
"We use Circle Vision for our Virtual Backlot and for driving plates. You can also configure them to a ‘bullet time’ kind of thing or you can configure them like I’m going to use them on The Walking Dead as witness cameras to do motion encoding with movimento software so we can process prosthetic appliances on actors.
"In that case you have a per unit of cost of everything including lenses of about $10,000 so if you’re doing multiple cameras the Alexa and Sony F35 are too expensive as is the RED. The Canon camera becomes the best camera for that particular application.
“We are getting some remarkable results coming directly off the chip. We’re bypassing the compression to a certain extent. It’s not RAW but its not as compressed. Every cinematographer in the market is saying ‘Give us HD SDI out of this camera!’ and Canon is listening. There’s going to be some really interesting developments over the next 12 months. We’re working directly with the engineers in Tokyo.
“We’re looking to put Bluetooth in the cameras and wirelessly controlling them so we can wirelessly control Canon lenses for follow focus. They have a wireless controller on a Canon camera that follow focuses using a Canon lens like a Preston. So without any external motor on the lens at all, you’re using the internal motor and driving it wirelessly with a controller which is sitting in your hand.
"Canon is very interested because it wants people to use Canon glass on Canon cameras and the reason people are going to Zeiss or Angenieux is you can’t track focus if the barrel of the lens isn’t made for critical focus. All the autofocus lenses are made with the shortest throw possible. All the cinema lenses are made to have the longest!"
Reader Comments (11)
Great article! Very excited to see what Canon puts out.
I'm not sure how the compression was lessened or bypassed but if Canon are using these episodics as test beds, there is sure to be announcements in the pipeline. Perhaps as interesting is Canon's direction for their lenses
These guys are on target - hopefully Canon will listen and make the improvements being asked for, they'd sell a couple cameras here if HD/SDI, better audio, timecode ... like he said, Canon's on the edge - let's hope they do it this time
Love this piece. Very useful.
I'd love to know how they're bypassing the compression.
Great article and great video. The future is exciting...
I really hope Canon respond the overwhelming desire from filmmakers around the world.
Also how did these guys not get any rolling shutter on their footage?
I'd like to talk see some posts from this guy's production engineering team.
The idea of using Bluetooth for camera control is intriguing - get off of Lanc and direct wired protocols and get to something that has a fundamentally different topology.
Ideally, I'd like to see a true remote for the Canon, and a reconfiguration of the lenses to handle longer focus throw. Maybe a new set of lenses like what Leica is planning - lenses designed for DSLR video.
Without that, we're going to end up reverse engineering cinema lens configurations and slapping 10kg of rails and folllow focus motors on a teeny body. I saw this on Ron Howard's set, and if just looked silly.
I wonder how they "bypassed" the compression in the camera? I've tested HDMI output on the T2i and it still needs some work to allow a sidechain/second record function. Not to mention, you still need to tie it to an Intensity card and a PC. Obviously, still within the $10K per camera rig.
You can also capably convert HDMI directly to HDSDI. I've done this for monitor chain as well as second record chain (still rely on the chip in the camera for primary record). Unlike the Sony cameras, the Canon still seems to be post -process (post compression) on the HDMI out. Sony cams I have verified that you get the full uncompressed bitstream on the HDMI output.
Still, I say for professional DPs and their assists, the lack of adequate lens control is a total buzz kill.
Very interesting article. I am very much exciting and waiting for how canon come up with wireless camera. If everyone had wireless camera then what would be the next..
So, I wonder what grading techniques were used to get rid of the moire pattern in the buildings?
Just came across this, looks very interesting. According to Canon Rumors the new 5D might be out as early as May but more likely late summer.
http://www.canonrumors.com/category/photography/canon-5d-mark-iii/
They must be correcting of rolling shutter in post.