Too true!

Tonight I was thinking about the film, "The Spanish Prisoner." The 5D is the perfect high-quality stealth video camera for the undercover Japanese tourist. A RED ONE on rails just wouldn't cut it!

This can't work...
 

Even with no physical first/second curtain, there is a limit to how fast the sensor can be read. I can't imagine it can go faster than 1/1000 sec. and probably more like 1/400 as a limit. I'm guessing part of it is camera is not reporting reality.

I don´t trust shutter display too!
 

Recording with the cam as much as is could - I don´t trust the displayed values eighter.

Using the (*) exposure lock, it even displays wrong apertures!!!
I just tried it on my 50mm f1,4 - and the cam displayed f2.0 when wide open and vice versa!

The displayed values are at least not reliable!
And I the feeling that shutter values are complete nonsense - you get even longer shutters than 1/30!!!
Gives you the impression that it diaplays just what it would use if you took a photo during video.

You are right about longer shutter speeds than 1/30. I believe 1/20 is the lowest it can do. It will let you dial values even lower (up to 30 second long shutter) but it won't make any exposure difference in video mode.

It still does not make much sense. It may be slowing down the framerate to allow longer exposures.

I really have not taken the time to measure but I believe the shutter values are accurate down to 1/30 at least.

Is this find totally accurate?

Check this thread for a shutter analysis. Watch the video to see the results:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-eos...r-exposed.html

We didn't test 30fps or lower, but posted our findings for 1/40 to 1/500.

In summary
* 1/40 and 1/50 yield 1/45 or so.
* 1/60, 1/80, and 1/100 all yield 1/80, with the 1/100 setting becoming artificially darker.
* 1/125, 1/250 and 1/500 were accurate.

All tested with a Nikon lens at 100 ISO.

With 30p, an exposure longer than 1/30s is impossible.
No it doesn´t, audio & movements clearly show that.

Just took the time to do some quick tests. I don't have any charts here so I just printed something. Its only meant to demonstrate exposure with different shutter values.

There is something strange is going on for sure. It must be manipulating the framerate or the values are wrong. I did not try any movement test. One other possible explanation is that past 1/30 it only adjusts gain.

ISO value remained at 3200.

You might be right about only manipulating gain. From my tests of 1/60, 1/80 and 1/100, the smear is the same for all three, but the gain varies.

The LCD display only shows up to 3200, but according to the instruction manual (page 123):

When you enable ISO expansion and shoot in low light, you'll see that the image brightens even more (as the LCD shows slower than 1/30 speed) but becomes noisy.

If the LCD shows around 1/15, it's 6400.
If it's 1/8, it's 12800 (if ISO expansion is on).
But the actual shutter speed is 1/30.

Anything above 3200 becomes noisy, so I try to keep my shutter speed (indicated on the LCD) not dip below 1/30 (by underexposing using the exposure compensation dial).