5DmkII quick review

[Dan Chung]

John,

You can lock exposure with adapted Nikon lenses the same as Canon EF ones. So basically after you have locked the exposure with a Nikon lens you can then use the aperture ring to alter to exposure. With a Canon EF lens you can alter exposure after a lock but only by +/- 2 stops.

Dan

[John Benton]

Thanks Dan!

[Dan Chung]

Some more info for you all. I've been playing around with EF lenses on the 5DmkII and found some strange quirks. As I suspected but hadn't been able to prove until now that the 5DmkII does not always adjust the aperture before the ISO. In a moderately lit room with my 35mm f1.4L the camera may choose f2 at 400asa instead of f1.4 at 200asa. This is going to make tricking the camera into maximum aperture without raising the sensitivity quite hard. I have to play some more but things don't look good.

On the plus side the AF in live view is actually quite effective, much faster than I thought it would be. The downside is that is seems to open the aperture to its widest setting to AF even when you are recording, causing a momentary change in exposure if you are not wide open to start with.

More later.

Dan

[Josh Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

5. It does exhibit some issues with 50hz lighting. I expected this to happen with a 30p camera but even so it is a little dissappointing.

Hi Dan, thanks for posting your impressions. Can you elaborate on 50hz issues?

Much appreciated

[Dan Chung]

Josh,

You get occasional flicker when the frequency of the lights does not match the frame rate and shutter speed combination. I'll post a sample on Vimeo after I've uploaded my short film. It does not seem anywhere near as bad as the effects I've seen on the Nikon D90 under Chinese lights.

Dan

[Dan Chung]

Ok, the sun is coming up here so I've been able to do some more testing with EF lenses on bright light.

I think with a little care you can set maximum aperture on the camera, 1/30th shutter speed and 200asa (for some reason getting 100asa is quite hard)

On a bright day if you point the camera and lens down onto a dark surface and activate live view you can then activate the meter by semi pressing the shutter button. Then slowly lift one side of the lens off the surface and watch the meter reading change as is lifts, at one point you should get 1/30th at maximum aperture. You can then lock this exposure and enter movie mode which should keep the setting. Then you need to add the appropriate amount of ND asap so you can get shooting. I think a Vari-ND is essential for this to work. Not an ideal solution but it should do the trick.

Dan

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

In a moderately lit room with my 35mm f1.4L the camera may choose f2 at 400asa instead of f1.4 at 200asa. This is going to make tricking the camera into maximum aperture without raising the sensitivity quite hard. I have to play some more but things don't look good.

I know you want an fully open iris for minimum DOF, but Canon may be wise to not use fully open because of quality loss. The question is how much noise is added by the increase in ISO?

[Dan Chung]

Steve,

I'm with you most of the way on the wisdom of not going to full aperture by default, however there are times when you might want it and many folks on these forums as especially interested in going wide open. I don't think there is much quality loss by jumping up a stop or two is ISO but I'll have to test more.

Dan

[Daniel Lipats]

Dan,

What kind of control does the software give you when the camera is plugged into the computer? I understand you can shoot remotely, so maybe it will give you manual control over AE settings?

[Daniel Lipats]

I just found the EOS software Utility manual online.

It does give you manual exposure & lens controls. But its not clear if the controls work for movie mode too.

If it does work, this would be the solution to a lot of problems! Dan, would you mind testing it?

[Don Miller]

Thanks Dan. Very Interesting.

Looking forward to seeing the video.

[Tyler Franco]

I imagine we are bogging Dan down here. After all I'm sure he wants to play with his new toy and not answer a million questions. However, I'll toss a couple in here. :)

Does it look like the camera tries to keep the shutter at 1/30th if possible? I can't imagine using 1/60 or 1/125 is going to look to good unless you want to achieve the "Saving Private Ryan" effect.

By your studies so far, are you thinking that the manual Nikon lenses with adapters are looking better and better for video work?

[Dan Chung]

Tyler,

I think the camera tends to go for a low shutter speed unless it has to, 1/30th or 1/40th seems to the most common.

I do think manual lenses are the way forward but I'll let others be the judge.

Dan

[Wacharapong Chiowanich]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

The downside is that is seems to open the aperture to its widest setting to AF even when you are recording, causing a momentary change in exposure if you are not wide open to start with.

Dan

This practically makes autofocusing while recording (as opposed to prefocusing using autofocus) useless. Are you sure? Because this is a real downer.

Wacharapong

[Dan Chung]

And here it is, my 5dmkII short is here Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. on Vimeo

Please feel free to spread it around, you should be able to download a version if you are a registered Vimeo member too.

Dan