One other thing I've discovered about the lens - it turns out the IS is only designed to stabilize the image while shooting, and not to stabilize the lens during free fall or the subsequent impact. Just in case anyone was wondering.

uppsss... I thought it was shipped with a built in airbag???

ok.....

here's a quick vid I through together from when I took the kids to the louisville science center. all default camera settings, handheld with 24-105 f4 IS L and IS on. auto WB but manual focus.

the original quicktime ( pre upload ) is very clean... cleaner then how it looks on XR.

By chris witzke On ExposureRoom

as you can see.. the IS works pretty good.... and there is some decent shallow DOF at the long end of the zoom.

This camera handheld drew absolutely no attention to me.... very stealth.

I'm impressed with the overall handheld stability with IS, good job Christopher. Did you say it was all manually focused with the 24-105? How'd you do that?

By the way Christopher, I'll be shooting the San Diego kids museum with the 5DII myself this month - the Animal Grossology exhibit that we created.

I typically get my focus before I hit the record button, then try to stay within the zone for the duration of the take.... a lot easier handheld since you can move the camera with the subject..... old school.

What kid would not dig grossology.... heck, if I win the lottery can I have a museum wing dedicated to farts?

Very nice Chris - footage looks very good indeed and shows off the low light thing incredibly well. It would be interesting to know what ISO was used, but I suspect 800-1600? 800 ISO represents +12 gain from memory

My XH-A1 will not even go there without horrific noise and I suspect that is true of most camcorders.

Finally, I think the stealth aspect of this camera is frequently overlooked - there is a lot to be said for being inconspicuous. Here in UK photographers are regularly arrested for taking pictures on the street - a security treat - liberty anyone?

Nick.

Really nice footage, Cristopher. Especially the longer focal lengths are impressing. Really steady and with filmish (not TOO MUCH) shallow DOF. (And the last takes, when your kids step out of the elevator: Your nickname is "Steadycris" isn't it? :)) Here a section of an interesting and complete 5D Mark II review that seconds your experience:

"I mentioned image stabilization - stabilizing the camera is another very important consideration for reasonable quality video work - it helps prevent the audience from becoming motion sick. A fast shutter speed is not going to save you on this one (as it can with still photography). Ultra wide angle lenses work reasonably well handheld, but by 24mm, I'm not as pleased with my results. Add IS and the results are much better right up into short-to-medium telephoto ranges. ..."

Here the link to the complete review:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera Review

I'm kind of surprised that I haven't read more people talking this approach - it's the first thing that I thought of when I heard about the 5DII ...that it might be a compromise on one hand, but quickly nailing focus with the AF and then filming from there seemed to be a big plus. It's nice to see the IS work too.

Have you seen the Grossology show? It was a lot of fun writing and producing that. My partner and I are starting work on an entire new kids museum outside of Chicago this month.

Here an interesting testshot with/whithout IS on the 24-105 lens on youtube:

YouTube - Canon 5d MKII Video Image Stabilization IS Lens Test with 24-105