I for one am not. When the Canon 5D mark 2 was released in November 2008 I was one of those people that went gooey in anticipation.
The videos from Vincent Laforet were fantastic, The demo stills were breathtaking. So I happily parted with my money and did not really look back.
Reflection
Reflection is an important learning tool in our development as human beings. So on reflection was it the “right” choice?
Conclusion
The short answer is no. The long answer is that the 5D mark II is a fantastic camera but I don’t need all of its capabilities, Its RAW files are big and thus it takes longer to edit them. I shoot still and it does the job very well.
My biggest bug bear is the video feature, to quote the advert “I am a PC” and I cannot edit the video smoothly. On a Macbook it just works. I want to shoot more video but find myself shying away from the nightmare that is post production on a PC.
In total I have made 3 videos, 2 edited with Final Cut and Final Cut Pro (which was easy) the final video was made using a Cineform plugin to strip out the video and then added back with MP3 sound in PowerDirector. It was a hideous workflow which I have not repeated.
I have been told that Pinnacle Studio 14 is very good but have yet to try it personally.
My first attempt below: -
My second attempt: -
My third attempt: -
As you can see I need a lot more work before LaForet will be worried!
What I should have done
With the benefit of hindsight, I was very naive and thought that a camera would make me a better photographer. At the time I had no concept of how lighting, lens and better post production would have improved my photography better towards the images that I wanted to emulate more then a new camera body.
Thus at the time I wanted the definition and wide angle of a full frame body and combined with the fact that in the last year I have not used the video function, I should have bought a 5D mark 1 and then invested then remaining money in prime lens or Canon’s L series F/2.8 zooms.
If you have had any experience with editing the 5D video please post in the comments. I would love to hear a simple PC workflow for this camera.
An interesting read!
ReplyDeleteFor me this camera body has really been a great tool that has allowed me to take pictures I couldn’t have before taken. I notice you didn’t mention the ISO sensitivity but for me it was probably THE reason I bought the camera. Whilst I do a bit of flash work this isn’t always an option and so it has allowed me to do what I couldn’t do before.
I’m a big believer in megapixels, both for cropping and because I end up printing a fair few of my photos. The quality of the prints is great, perhaps not worth the upgrade but they certainly look a bit better.
Your problem with the file sizes is more aimed at your computer hardware rather than the camera. Don’t forget you can always shoot in sRAW.
Again, your gripe with video is aimed more at your frustration as a PC user rather than the camera. As I use a Mac I don’t have the same gripes about processing video. iMovie does a superb job. In honesty I wasn’t prepared for how good the video actually is but I would agree that you need an external microphone, tripod and some lucky manual focusing to make good video. I guess if you want good video you’re still better off buying a video camera. For me I use video to capture the fun moments that photography doesn’t always convey so well. Maybe I use this feature a few times a year.
I guess my biggest problem is that you have to have the infrastructure in place to be able to use this camera easily. You have to have huge memory cards, a computer with serious horsepower to render files and video, large harddrives to store all the files and back them up and good glass to match the high resolution.
I know this made me laugh…
http://www.whattheduck.net/sites/default/files/WTD030710SUN.gif
Bert,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. The points about ISO, I agree totally with. ISO 3200 is better then my old 400D at ISO 1600 by a margin.
As for the megapixel debate I never have really gotten into as sensor size is much more important to me.
Infrastructure, it was a problem when I was starting out. The lens, cards and the other ‘stills’ side of things I was prepared for when I made the upgrade.
Where as with point you made about Mac versus PC and 5D Mark 2 video you’re bang on. As a PC user I have been totally hamstrung by the lack of h.264 acceleration.
I also respect the message of the duck.
Much love,
Rich