The first high-def footage off the Canon 5D Mark II was a commercial shot by renowned photographer Vincent Laforet. If you haven’t seen the video, it is simply amazing and will certainly be shown at countless camera shops for years to come. Canon has been hosting the raw footage for anyone to download and ‘cording to Laforet’s blog, the traffic is too much for Canon. The sample video will probably be available after today, but if you want the raw footage, you have less than five hours to grab it before it’s pulled at midnight EST, tonight.
The highly anticipated first look at the 5D’s high-def capabilities has leaked onto YouTube. Fortunately for Canon, and not so much for us, the video isn’t the HD version, but rather a crappy camera phone capture of the $4,200 commercial playing on a laptop. Even still, you can tell through the 21-second preview that this Laforet’s project is going to be hot. Expect more to come as soon as Canon gives the green the light for the real thing.
Professional photographer Vincent Laforet happened to be at the NY Canon HQ when a shipment of pre-production Canon EOS 5D Mark II arrived and before he knew it, he had shot an high-def commercial with the 21.1 MP DSLR. PDNgearguide posted a great weekend read ’bout the whole experience, but from the sounds of it, this camera might be a game changer with great HD video, relatively low initial cost and the ability to use any previous Canon EOS lenses. The $4200 commercial Laforet shot will be available as soon as Canon gives it the green light so you Canon fanboys might want to hold your breath ’till we all can peep the actual footage – or until a side-by-side like the Nikon D90 and Panasonic HVX200 video test appears.
Update: Laforet’s blog has some of his own thoughts and three more screencaps of the commercial.
It produces the best video in low light that I’ve ever seen – at 1080p. A top commercial film editor who who regularly edits RED camera footage – and has seen the raw footage from the 5D MKII – says the 5D MKII is “far superior to the RED camera” in terms of low light performance…
The Canon EOS 5D Mark II broke cover earlier in the week and while pics of the camera are available, pics from the camera were absent; that is until the camera aficionados at Digital Photography Review released the first set. There are 40 images available in their full resolution for you camera nerds to drool over.
Per a Canon employee talking to Tech Digest, the engineers behind the 5D Mark II were held back by the megapixel race instead of focusing on the sensor. The chaps in marketing reportedly wanted to beat out Nikon’s latest DSLR flagship (rumors says it’s coming tomorrow 9/18 btw) and us consumers are apparently dumb, paying attention just to the mighty megapixel.
Alongside the new EOS 5D Mark II, Canon is launching a new EF-series lens.
Featuring a 13-element, 10-group lens, the EF 24mm f1.4L II USM is designed to achieve the highest standards of image quality. Two high-precision GMo aspheric lenses are employed to correct various forms of aberration such as curvature of field and distortion, with a floating mechanism ensuring crisp corner-to-corner detail throughout the focal range. In addition, two UD lenses reduce the chromatic aberration common in wide-angle lenses.
If all that makes sense to you, that means you’re the target market. Price and availability not announced.
Hot on the heels of the D90 we find the 21-megapixel EOS 5D Mark II, a $2,699 monster with a 50-25,600 ISO range with a full-frame 24×36mm CMOS sensor. The kit with lens costs $3,499.
Most interestingly is the 1920 x 1080 pixel HD video at 30 fps. While these new video features are a bit hard to stomach – DSLRs take pictures well but rarely take good video – but clearly some of this tech is getting more and more impressive. It’s basically a nice value-add.
The camera also has live view on screen along with standard views through the viewfinder. Let’s call it a “really nice camera” for professionals and the rich and leave it at that, shall we? That doesn’t mean I don’t covet this camera. I covet, friends. I covet.
Oh man, if only I were very, very rich. To have a full-frame professional SLR, the joy! So it looks like the upcoming 5D Mk II is going to be an interesting camera. Its detail retention at 12800 ISO is supposed to be equal to the previous 5D’s at 3200, which is fantastic and represents nearly a 2-stop advantage. This means sharper, clearer pictures at higher shutter speeds in lower light — the holy grail of sports and nature photographers.
This is possible because the Mk II is rumored to use a next generation CMOS with “vastly improved” light-gathering capability and signal/noise ratio. It will also have a new version of the Digic III image processor. It’s supposed to be announced on April 22 and be available in early June for ~$3500. Hit the links or the [more] for the full specs.
Apparently some Canon reps technicians have loose lips and while jawing about how unpredictable their bosses were about announcing things, may have leaked a few specs for a phantom camera set to fit in between the 1D Mark III and the 5D. He also mentioned some possible upgrade specs for the 5D — maybe now is your chance to buy a used 5D on the cheap as all the pros ditch for the new freshness. The “3D” is rumored to have a smaller body but still a 15.1-megapixel full-frame sensor. And 12800 ISO? Yes please! See the rest of the shady specs after the link. Read More
Some slightly shady sources have suggested that Canon will be rolling out the 5D Mark II soon, possibly at the PMA convention in a couple weeks. If only I could have stayed in Vegas! AVN then PMA! There’s nothing solid, but some unnamed Canon reps seem to think we’ll be getting a couple surprises at the show, which hopefully will include the long-awaited update to their pro-level full-frame DSLR.
Gizmodo found some leaked photos of the unannounced 5D Mark II on some crazy German forum. No details are known yet other than it will replace the current 5D, so a similar feature set is assumed. Make of it what you will, but this SLR sure is purdy.
