Canon USA Announces EOS 5D Mark III

[Murray Christian]

Originally Posted by Brian Brown

Zach, if the numbers were anywhere near what you suggest, Canon (or someone else) would have made a dedicated video body with a better ergonomics and a large 2k sensor that shoots ideal video instead of the down-sampled stuff we have to live with. They'd be crazy NOT to if they could sell hundreds of thousands of units. But the market is simply not there.

I think this is a faulty supposition. They know only too well, I suspect, that you are likely to do just as well, perhaps better, in the long term by apportioning out progress than by jumping to the greatest camera theoretically possible. We hear this every time something new comes out. In this or the C300 topics it's always "Why aren't they releasing some all conquering thing for cheap?" from someone. I suspect it's not as easy as we often think, for reasons practical and economic. But I don't know exactly why.

Besides, when you're already winning there's no real call to go out and crush the opposition in one fell swoop. That's just the sort of thing that sinks companies when they take a small misstep doing that. It's fine for small up-start start-ups and so on to be vastly innovative at every turn. It's probably the only way they'd get a look in. The others, not so much. We kid ourselves that redirecting an entire R&D and production line to making things we want is a straightforward affair in a massive multinational.

As to the video question, we've forgotten the impact of these things already and take them completely for granted only a few years later. When I got out of school everyone was still hoping they might pool their resources or save like mad to that first ten grand video camera, which was probably only HDV. If you'd said to anyone why isn't there a true 1080 camera for under five grand that can use photo lenses they would have laughed in your face.

The last shoot I was on there were 3 5Ds on set, only one was actually used for photography. If you'd got everyone to bring their canons along there would have been ten or eleven of them; various 5ds, 7d, 60d et al. About 3 used for photography on a regular basis. This was just a little ten minute thing with no money.

I have no numbers, only impressions. But I know that Canon DSLRs are so ubiquitous in the video circles I walk that they are now a little embarrassing. The 5D II was always the one to have of the line. Every school now has a few; any highchool and university with a media department. They are probably the first 'video camera' a lot of people touch these days, outside of their phones.

Pros might sniff at the video quality and the practicality, but they were leagues ahead of just about anything that would have been doing the same job at the bargain basement level only a year before (and frankly they are only deficient in areas most people really don't care about, especially when you factor in the cost of anything significantly better). Every film student bought one. You need only glance around and the snobbish mockery along the lines of "Got a 5D/7D and thinks he's cinematographer!" that the internet is loaded with to get an idea.

And for all that there's still loads of weddings and so on shot with them. 4gig clip limit? Get two! You're still in front. I know several wedding/corporate/commercial start ups built around them (people might say they're tasteless and doomed, but that's not really the point is it). I handy-cammed a christmas lights show last year and there were a couple of dual Canon shooters alongside the guys with the big broadcast camera.

So, as I said, I have no numbers, but I do think that under estimating how many people are into these things for the video would be a mistake. So why aren't they being served with more specific features? Well, I don't know. On one level I think you could say they don't need to. People are still buying 5DIIs for the video (and to some extent the big sensor rep). If you're a dedicated industry watcher you could think its old news with nothing exciting to offer, but I think the trickling of this quality of video to every corner it can fit isn't done yet. Such things move more slowly than the daily barrage of whiz bang press releases and internet buzz would suggest. They are still what a generation of would be film(video)makers wanted and couldn't get: manual control at a low price, and Canon are the biggest name in the game.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Peer Landa

So what happened to the "EOS C" that Canon showed at the C300 unveiling -- did that end up being the 1DX or is it yet something to come..?

Something yet to come, separate from the EOS 1DX.

New Canon Digital SLR Camera Under Development at DVInfo.net

Originally Posted by Brian David Melnyk

do you know if it can record video with the crop/magnification like T3i?

Sorry, I don't think it has that feature.

Originally Posted by Jacques Mersereau

Sorry guys, no real pleasant surprises. YMMV.

Gapless sensor, 17x faster processing, no more line skipping, no more 4GB
clip limit, reduced moire, a headphone jack, these aren't pleasant surprises?

[Brian Brown]

That "something yet to come" is still intriguing indeed. I'd love to have that many pixels to work with (re-framing and movement) in a 1080 frame. Considering the pentaprism and form-factor, it will also no doubt shoot stills, too. I'm not sure why Canon is going with an APS-H sensor on it, if they're trying to sell a bunch to filmmakers. There's not a real analog for that sensor size comparing it to motion picture film sizes and focal lengths like there is with FF=Vista Vision and APS-C = S35. Strange. Maybe a variant of the sensor in the C300 will morph into their 4K cam for cinema.

[Julian Frost]

Originally Posted by Brian Brown

I live in a tourist town where all summer people drive up here and lug around their prosumer Canons and Nikons, with big old 70-200/2.8s (or 400mm beasts) to capture the wildlife and have never once seen anybody shooting video with theirs. Not once.

Brian, that's only true because you have yet to invite me over! :-)

That said, I'm still not convinced I need to upgrade from my 5D mk II.

Julian

[Brian Brown]

You come on up anytime, Julian. We'll bring the revolution to the unwashed masses!

Timecode, clip length, a yet-to-be A-B'd reduction in moire' and artifacting, and an HD output during recording for pulling focus with a field monitor either makes it worth $1k for you or it doesn't. It's an easier choice for me to supplement my crop body w/ a FF one. I just have to decide if it's gonna be the D800 or the Mkiii

[Markus Nord]

Anyone knows if the mkIII got the option of changing the shutter to start/stop video, like the 1Dx?
Would be nice to use a remote to start/stop...

[Tom Roper]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Gapless sensor, 17x faster processing, no more line skipping, no more 4GB
clip limit, reduced moire, a headphone jack, these aren't pleasant surprises?

No more line skipping has been confirmed?

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Gapless sensor, 17x faster processing, no more line skipping, no more 4GB
clip limit, reduced moire, a headphone jack, these aren't pleasant surprises?

The most pleasant surprise is that no one has complained it isn't the same price as a T3i!

[Peer Landa]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

The most pleasant surprise is that no one has complained it isn't the same price as a T3i!

Oh Dylan, Dylan -- here's a complaint for you; initially I was dead set on getting the 1DX but wanted to see what the 5D3 had to offer... (which, to me, again was a letdown similar to the C300) -- but then, today, Mr. Hurd rekindled my quest, telling us that the EOS-C is in fact still in the pipe. So I've returned to 'the waiting game' mode.

-- peer

[Jon Fairhurst]

Regarding the 4K DSLR, I'm thinking that I would only wait for it if I really wanted 4K. Odds are that it will deliver great looking 4K, but I would guess that it won't do 4K 60p. It will probably be 8-bits. It will probably be 4:2:0.

That's the way this stuff is usually rolled out... incrementally.

Now, Canon might surprise me, but for now, I would expect 4K as the only big, new feature.

And, yes, that will be great for anybody shooting video that won't need extreme processing that has a target of the big screen or 4K TVs. Also, given 4K resolution input with a 1080p target, you can get GREAT 1080p with the ability to crop at will.

On the luma side, you get four 4K pixels for each 1080p pixel. That's like having 10-bit resolution and two extra stops of noise reduction when you downsample to 1080p. On the chroma side, 4:2:0 @ 4K delivers 4:4:4 1080p. S'not bad...

Also, we know that we'd be getting all the pixels. That means proper anti-aliasing for sure.

So 4K with no other upgrades could still be pretty sweet. And maybe it will do 1080p60...

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

And proBably 4K raw
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/digital-...plication.html

[Arne Pursell]

If the c300 is circa 15-16k, doesn't it stand to reason the cinema 4k hdslr (if not vaporware) would roll out around 20+k? In any case way out of my league. Would have like to seen a camera with 1080 48/60p at a little over 1920 for post stabilization - because I'm too lazy to use a steadycam most of the time! WITH clean hdmi out...

Still, JVC has falconbridge, maybe they can spur some competition, or sony or panny will bring something to the table soon..tired of this crippling thing....folks have been asking for hdmi recorders since 2006/hdv...now they're here, no clean hdmi (apart from d800/d4, with possible line-skipping moire etc.)...I remember this especially as an early adobter of the hv20...decent codec was the thing...

Canon essentially don't want their dslr's to be potentially used for broadcast - even small independent productions - it's 'buy a c300' (or fs100 more like) or their smaller-chipped videocams...

edit: yes aware of 'house', act of valor, danfung dennis etc..

[Nigel Barker]

4K especially if it were RAW would give us events shooters the capability of just taking stills off the timeline so delivering photographic work & doing two jobs at once. We would offer combined video & photographic packages & be shooting 25 stills per second. I was all fired up with the original promise of Scarlet for just this reason but a 4K camera from Canon would be a far preferable option.

[Lee Mullen]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

I'm in. Sent my order into B&H... like 392,000 other people probably also did. :)

Would rather be wise and wait till others have discovered any issues first.

[Lee Mullen]

I shall now look forward to decreasing prices for a Mark II. :)