A brief warning to everybody. Using a variable aperture zoom while shooting video can cause the aperture to change while zooming, which makes the 5D2 freeze the video for a number of frames. This is the "stuttering" that people are complaining about. The firmware does this so you don't get a frame with one exposure on top and another on the bottom, which would look horrible. I found this out the hard way with my 28mm-135mm f3.5-f5.6. I not buying any more var aperture lenses.

I should also mention that the 28-135 had so much stiction on the zoom that zooms always looked jerky. My 17mm-40mm f4 zooms perfectly.

Can someone expound on the "rolling shutter" effect mentioned in this thread and others. I heard that movement of the camera (any movement? Pan? shake?....) can cause a rolling shutter effect. I watched "Reverie" and it looked good with handheld, car mount, and helicopter rides!

Does anyone have a link to an example that displays rolling shutter effect?

From Wiki:

Rolling shutters have the potential to frustrate videographers by creating rolling shutter "artifacts" due to the possibility of the camera moving during the time when the top and bottom of a single frame are captured. This can result in issues such as "skew", "partial exposure" and what is colloquially known as the "Jellocam" phenomenon.

Rolling shutter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is a fuller explanation there.

You can actually see subtle examples of rolling shutter in the Reverie video, notably in the handheld shots when the actor is washing his face. If you play that section frame by frame you will see skew across the frame. It's rather like looking at an image reflected in a sheet of shiny metal as you twist it.

In the making of Reverie video Rolling Shutter is very clear in the same scene, take a look.

In terms of the other shots. Helicopters actually fly pretty smoothly provided there is no wind - I was shooting in one on Monday - and that particular shot is taken at short focal length, quite possibly with a stabilized lens.

Rolling shutter becomes especially prominent at longer focal lengths, when any small movement/vibration will induce prominent rolling shutter artifacts with the 5D MkII without an IS lens. Try a handheld shot at 200mm with a non-IS lens and you can't escape it.

Most of the remaining shots are locked down on tripods or on a vehicle that is moving smoothly. Provided movement is controlled, rolling shutter is not a big deal with the MkII.

It is much less of a problem on the 5D2 than on the D70.