Don't understand.. I didn't see anything...

It's Tim Smith of Canon USA with an overview of their HD-capable Digital SLR product line.

...and for those who can't be bothered to watch the whole video... he briefly mentions the firmware upgrade (the one earlier this year) and that 24p is coming in 2010 to the 5DMkII, right at the end (but you all knew that already, right?)

Yeah, it's a brief mention near the end about new menu option in the 5D Mk. II which shows the new frame rates (24p, etc.).

we getting some 60p at 720p up in here?

5dMKII menu options includes 24p ,720 60p and SD mode also 25p and 720p 50p are there, you just need to select PAL instead of NTSC

I have watched that film a few times. I am not so sure that screen is showing the 5D frame rate selection. In listening to his words, I can't be sure he isn't lumping the three cameras all togeter as a group and then referencing that between them you have the available frame rates..... I hope the 5D upgrade will include 60 p. but, I am not seeing this as confirmation yet.

I agree, Chris. I watched it several times too.
It sure sounded to me like he was talking about the options availble in the "Canon VDLSR Family" not the 5D specifically.
I'm sure we'll get 24&25P, and if we get more, I'll be thrilled. But right now, I'm thinking the the 60P is only going to be on the 1D and 7D.

SURE hope I'm wrong. I'd be SO happy with 720/60p.

Yeah...I watched this closely last week and even went as far as trying to type out what he said. But it seems that he only mentions 24p for the 5Dll. Those other frame rates were the ‘family” of DSLRs. The camera he’s using is the 7D by the way.

This has gotten all sorts of buzz, but as far as I can tell, they haven't said anything new and the screenshot is just from a 7D isn't it? Nothing to see, move along now...

Agreed, nothing new here really; merged w/ our existing 5D Mk. II firmware update thread.

Has anyone any ideas/rumours as to when the release will happen? I got a shoot at the end of Jan I'm planning for - be very handy to know when it's coming out....
cheers

"Early 2010" is all I've read around the web - not exactly specific enough for your needs just yet ...

thanks Andy - here's hoping !

Sometimes I base my observations on common sense and gut feelings. I've watched the video a few times and if I HAD to bet what we are going to get, I'd go with the 4 modes shown on the screen from Tim Smiths presentation. I've watched the video a couple times, and while I wouldn't bet my house or life on the 4 capture rate modes, I would make a bet that we will get those 4 modes on the 5DmII.

This firmware is a long time in the making. Canon is a big company with lots of resources. It would be stupid to not give the 5DmII the same modes as it's cheaper brother the 7D.

I have both and editing them together is too much extra work. I need the same rates/modes on both cameras.

The 5DmII was first delivered the last week in Nov 08. Until two months ago, they were still back ordered. Many people believe the film/video purchases are a small part of the overall sales, but I'd guess they are substantial. My guess is this is a HUGE profit center for Canon. Why not make it better and spurn some more sales to keep the money train going? I know I'm excited for a Jan/Feb release. Again, Jan/Feb is a guess, a gut guess.

I don't think it's about them being "stupid" or not, I think it's about the hardware capabilities of the 5D2. But, if it can be done, I agree with you, it'll be the same as the other models.

However, in terms of it being a huge profit center, I guess it depends on how you think about it. It could be just cannibalizing high end video camera sales, in which case it's a huge profit suck. Also, I think you may be surprised by how few sales are from primarily video people when compared to primarily photography people, I'd be shocked if it was even 5% of sales to be honest.

Changed over
 

From my personal experience Canon was no where near my radar until the 5D. I now have the 5D ( sold my Nikon D300 and all Nikon lenses ) along with three L series lenses, some old nikon glass and a few non L lenses, macro 100, 15 fish eye.

How many times would you say that needs to happen to make Canon some money:) I can't even begin to imagine how many people have not bought other brands cameras and gone with the 5D, so I have to disagree that it could be a profit suck.

I am happy with the 30p but would really like to try 24p. I read about the 7D overheating in warmer climates so that is OUT for me.

Well Philip Bloom stated on his blog that the screenshot in the video is NOT the 5d but the 1d mkIV. How he knows this is not quite clearly stated.

720/60p would be an awesome option to have BUT ..... I've seen a few posts on the 7d threads (and in other forums as well) that a few owners have experienced overheating problems when utilizing the 720/60p mode. So I don't know if the same would apply for the 5d since the 7d has two digic processors vs. one for the 5d.

Bill, there might be a flaw in this logic. Canon does not have high end video portfolio as of today. In their video department they have not responded to the tapeless challenge of Sony EX series and stuck with HDV format with their so called "high end" cameras, in the same time they came up with a ton of consumer HD cameras. Apparently their response was nothing but HD recording with their still cameras.
If they wanted anything from video guys, this was the only thing they did for about 2 years. Your 5% is just a guess, right? I think its not more than 5% overall who went to the Canon route with prosumer HD video.
On the other hand Canon is the only one today that can give you the desired film looking DOF out of the box without the overpriced spinning glasses sitting on crippled looking and ridiculously long rigs. If you don't want that hassle you buy into an another, which is the limitation of the VDSLR of these days. But for the latter you pay only the fraction of the price.

One day Canon's move will be listed in the marketing books as another example of blue ocean strategy, where they have created their own market by value innovation and involved people who would not buy pro video cameras otherwise and attracted many who would have bought a competitor.

In the meantime they have kept their costs low (no entirely new video cam line development, just a video add-on to their SLRs), also compensated their late response to the tapeless HD challenge. With the introduction of the really low cost 7D they will involve more and more people who previously had nothing to do with pro HD.

And - additionally - they will boost the sales of their glasses. Smart.

I'll buy most of that, makes sense to me.

The 5% was just a guess, but I'm not sure it's being interpreted the way I meant. I was just saying that it's my personal belief that there are orders of magnitude more people buying the 5D2 primarily for photography as opposed to buying it primarily for videography. That's not to say the new segment isn't wildly important, but just saying make no mistake, it's a stills camera first and foremost, and I personally believe that's why the overwhelming majority of people buy one.

The numbers are sure to be fuzzy because there's probably a lot of crossover in use between still & video, but here's how I look at it:

# of Vimeo clips tagged 5DmkII: 3,096

# of Flickr photos from the 5DmkII: 37,925

a 10x difference, not that huge until you realize that the vimeo stat is all time - while the flickr stat is for yesterday. The flickr all time count is 8.5 million. So while it's not a precise method I think it pretty clearly indicates the usage overwhelmingly skews towards still photography.

Hi Guys,

I think this might have gone under the radar, so thought I'd bring it up again.

Well, to me your argument is like comparing apples to pumpkins -- I'm one of those who bought the 5DMKII for video only, but yet, I've shot more stills with it than videos, (unless you count my videos as 30 individual stills per second ;^)

However, when it comes to the time I've used the camera, it's more like 99% video vs 1% still photography, if not even less, (I use a different SLR for still gigs).

-- peer

They do if you count the fact they make the most high end glass for 2/3 eng cams.

I'm in the same situation as Peer. I can snap a photo in the time it takes the firmware to boot. I generally shoot RAW, but if I shoot JPGs, I can connect a USB cable and upload and huge number of snaps.

Making a film? That takes more time. :)

Personally, I was not remotely in the market for a still camera. Had my wife told me to get an SLR, I would have resisted spending over $500. Then Canon releases the 5D Mark II and within a month, I dish out $2,700 for the thing, as well as money for memory cards, spare battery and lens adapter. Not to mention the money I've spent on lenses and other accessories since then.

I had looked at the HVX200 and then the 170 and never pulled the trigger. Had RED released Scarlet on the schedule they announced at NAB, I would have bought that. When the D90 came out, I really wanted that to be my camera, but the codec and rolling shutter didn't make the grade. When the 5D Mark II came out, my D90 budget more than doubled overnight.

The 5D Mark II is really a breakthrough product. It broke through my bank account barrier and removed my money - while leaving me smiling. :)

There's another aspect: I'm a professional still photographer (concerts mainly), and I have two 5D's. I just sold one of these and got me a 5D mk II, just because I can use it for my hobby (making videoclips) and because Canon promises a firmware update to 25p. If the MkII wouldn't have done high quality video, I would have stuck with my 'old' 5D's much longer, because for the job they're still perfect. So in this case, the video-aspect generated extra - or at least sooner- sales for Canon.

Canon does not have high end video cam line today, or they have outdated stuff. They have glasses, you are right.

But Beta isn't dead yet! LOLOLOLOLocal Neeewwwsss...

Sure, and I'm not suggesting this is a precise way of measuring precise usage - I don't think there is a way. And these numbers are naturally only a tiny fraction of total usage. I shot over 35 hours of video on my 5D this year, and I've only got about 30 minutes of it on Vimeo - and I'm probably into 3-4000 stills with none on flickr.

But consider the huge disparity in in total numbers - .0003x as many videos as stills. Flickr has an average of 2000 users uploading photos from the 5DmkII every day. Vimeo probably has 500 total 5DmkII users (I'm just assuming an average of 3-5 clips per user). I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that it's at least a 10:1 ratio of photo to video users.

What your not taking into account it the "easy" factor. I can shoot a pic and have it on flickr in about 5 minutes, and it could be a decent photo. Its WAY more work to shoot video, import it, convert it, edit it and then render it and upload it to vimeo than it is a picture. Thats why the numbers are so misleading.

Actually I am taking that into account. I would absolutely expect more photos than videos because of the ease of uploading them - that's why I say I think 10:1 is reasonable, despite the fact that the actual numbers are significantly higher.

And I'm not saying that video sales are an insignificant portion of the overall camera sales - even if it represents a 2-3% increase in sales for the camera it's important to Canon, especially if you consider that much of that 2-3% is probably also buying lenses from Canon for the first time. I just think it's really easy to spend a lot of time hanging around here and assuming that the rest of the world feels the same way about this camera as everyone here - which I don't think is the case.

I suspect that it must be quite a bit more than 2-3% -- I got three friends of mine who are all still photographers (one is a full time professional) that bought the MKII after I got mine -- and what was their reason? You guessed it -- its HD DOF video capability.

-- peer

I know I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't for its video capability. I also have a friend who was a nikon photographer as a hobby but video is his profession and switched over to canon for the mkII video functions and also bought lenses for video, and is going to buy flashes for his hobby, so video production really helped the sale not only of the camera, but its accessories.

Any news at all on the Canon firmware update allowing optional frame rates for video ???

I was at CES Thursday and Friday. Not a peep about the new firmware delivery dates or features.

I'm curious -- were there any other new 5DII related stuff of interest..?

-- peer

Ugh.

Man, it's going to be a happy day when they finally come through, but the wait is getting kind of excruciating.

There's the new 70-200L II. It's said to be a bit heavier than the current model, because of an additional element. It has the new hybrid IS, including modes 1 and 2 (panning).

The real motivation for the new lens is faster focusing. Sports photographers were not happy with the 1D3. The 1D4 focusing is said to be MUCH better. I think Canon was desperate to maintain their lead in sports, so they delivered improved focus response on the 70-200 to seal the deal.

We've got to wait for the firmware to ship - and NAB to arrive - before we get more information and products for pro video...

"It has the new hybrid IS, including modes 1 and 2 (panning). "

You sure about that Jon? I thought it was not the hybrid system (reserved for the 100macro). I know the V2 70-200's IS has increased to include another stop, but I don't believe they included Hybrid stabilization.

Just as an fyi, the original 70-200/2.8is also has iS mode switch 1/2:)

Anything at all in the Canon area that's NOT predicated on the "Consumer market?" IE, other than the ELPHs and Power Shots, is there any DSLR activity? Are they showing off the 1d4?

J

Jeremy, you're probably right. From the Canon website: " It features a next-generation Optical Image Stabilizer, providing up to 4 stops of correction at all focal lengths." I had assumed that the "next generation Optical Image Stabilizer" was the same as the new IS in the Macro. Now that I think about it, x-y stabilization is important in a macro, but not so much in a long lens. The next gen IS is probably just faster and more precise.

One thing the CES rep mentioned is that the new lens has a 1ft shorter minimum focus distance, which is sweet (1.2m/3.94 ft. - maximum close-up magnification: 0.21x). I have the 200/2.8L and the 4.9 ft MFD can be a stretch when photographing something at your feet - and it only offers 0.16x magnification. It's nice when you can keep shooting with your long lens, rather than having to change over to a macro to get the shot.