That isn't the issue, it's encoding a 1080P60 HD image stream to AVCHD. A 720P image is 921,600 pixels per frame and 480P is just 345,600 while 1080P is 2,073,600 pixels. The 1080P frame is 2.25 times larger than 720P. That is a huge multiplier for the amount of work required to encode. The 720P60 encode probably requires less processor work than 1080P30.

Gotcha. I wouldn't pay to rent for something that wasn't paying me. But if it was a paying job, there wouldn't be a hassle - one phone call and I have whatever I need delivered in a couple of hours.

Still no firmware upgrade !!!
 

Well, my my my...... here we are at 2/17/10 and still not a sound out of Canon.

I guess I can live with 30p and just enjoy what I have, but I still think Canon should have used better judgment BEFORE letting some announcement spill out. Albiet, I still say it's not a legit announcement that it was coming, just that it was under development. It always leaves them an "easy out" if confronted by enough customers..... "due to hardware limitations, we were unable to get a satisfactory firmware upgrade to accomodate the requested frame rates."

"Oh, and thanks to all those who ran out and bought up the original 5D Mk IIs while in stores, as we're now happy to announce the 5D Mk III with new frame rates!"

February 17th, 2010. Day 48. We just finished the last of our last food reserves. Two more died last week. I'm not sure if it was the biting cold, pneumonia, or they just could not bear to go on living without the 5D2 firmware upgrade.

Some are starting to wonder if risking life and limb in these mountains is the only way to get Canon to deliver the firmware sooner than promised and with additional features like 60p. Now that Jon Fairhurst covered the deaths in a sobering clip posted to Vimeo, I'm sure Canon will speed things up. If not, the worst case scenario is one hundred and thirty four more days before the Canon deadline of "first half of 2010". With no food and the coming blizzard, I hope Canon is ready to shoulder the burden of so much tragedy.

5D firmware update
 

Dear Daniel,

That was excellent. It is snowing here in Birmingham now, even as I read that post.
"The biting cold makes many 5D users wonder when the torture will all end. When will we have our beloved frame rates? When will the Sun come out from behind the clouds?" LOL.


Saraswati Films | News and Events

Heh. Not going to happen anytime soon. The Mark III version of this camera is still a loooong way off (even longer than the Mk. II firmware update, believe it or not). If you're reading elsewhere about a supposed Mk. III, well, if you believe enough in that stuff to get distracted by it, then you sort of deserve it I guess. Meanwhile on DV Info Net we're dealing with real information and facts... and the fact is, as Daniel points out above, that Canon still has 134 days left in its self-imposed deadline. So there's still a shred a hope for you to cling to.

Yup. I hate to say it, but I've by and large quit looking for a firmware announcement at the video forums I normally go to because it's just turned into a bunch of whining about why it's not here yet. Newsflash - when July 01 gets here, THEN Canon hasn't met their "deadline" and you can start complaining. Until then, use the camera you bought which has the same features as when you bought it...

One Texan to another, Kevin... DV Info Net should be the video forum you normally go to. Just sayin'!

I can complain whenever I want.

And don't forget, complaining is probably what got us manual controls (back when, you know, there was no promise for anything by any date).

True, you can do whatever you'd like - but it just kind of looks like an impatient toddler stamping their feet if you do it now.

It's a little different to complain that something that has been announced isn't out yet, when the deadline hasn't been blown, versus asking for additional functionality that should have been in there from the beginning.


It is - this is by far my favorite production site/forum. I've learned more lurking for the past several years here than just about the rest of the internet combined.

He he

nice one Daniel.
Day 28. Just eaten the last of the dried cracker crumbs I found in the sleeping bag.

Can't…hold…out…much…longer…






Oh hang on. It's OK, just found the fridge again.

"This is by far my favorite production site/forum"

Me too. Particularly when there's poster's like Daniel Browning around to make us laugh while we're waiting for the update.

Very funny. Thanks Daniel.

I read a first-person post on another forum from a guy who went to the Earl's Court video show. Supposedly, Canon told him that the firmware would be available in less than two weeks.

Now for the boulder of salt: the guy has five posts. But his first posts were technical and credible. (He's not happy with the codec's block artifacts on large, flat areas like a clear sky. I agree. That's the weakest aspect of the codec.)

In any case, it should be here before long. As Chris predicts (and I fully agree), Canon will not want to go to NAB without the new firmware in our hands. So, maybe we get it in two weeks. Maybe not. But it shouldn't be as long as two months.

I was told "any day now" at Earl's Court this week.

And "by the end of January" at another London show before Xmas.

I was just about to ask the large canon guy at the stand when the release day may be when the chap in front asked the same question. He was a little offish and said "It will be here when it's here, I don't know anything more." at that point I u turned and went to watch the street dancers on the sony stand, much more friendly.

I went on the last day, so this guy had probably been asked the same question hundreds of times.

There seemed to be a 5Dmk2 on every stand.