Today Canon has announced the new - long awaited - EOS 5D Mark II. Sure it's got pixels, big displays and all the other things, but it also does video; full HD 1080P video at 30fps. So as many stills photographers are posting on the forums that they don't want video, and it's nothing for them; I'm in the group that thinks video is part of the changing face of photography and publishing that's happening in our lifetimes. Many newspapers are struggling or closing, people turn to the web for the latest news or have it fed to them via many methods. In the past they got the news when it hit the mat at breakfast time as a morning paper. The smart papers already have been developing the stories and their online presence and with online comes the option for moving pictures. I also read the bit of the specifications for the EOS 5D Mark II that says 640 x 480 pixels video is also available - nice and web, youtube, streaming friendly. Just how many professional reportage photographers and journalists will be thinking; Now I don't need two cameras.
With the ability to publish yourself on the web via blogs and the like, then the ability to shoot video of how you do something, or video of what you do is ever more important. Nikon got Chase Jarvis to shoot for their D90 launch, and he makes some cool video for the photographing masses. Strobist, PocketWizard, Bert Stephani and many others all put video online that their readers lap up. I think video as a feature of SLR cameras is part of the industry change in photography and imaging.
You may disagree, and if that's the case then ISO 25,600 does seem like a hell of a feature for shooting in dark caves.
On the downside 21MP images does make for rapid consumption of hard drive space, processing performance and memory cards.
UPDATE: Here's what I'm talking about, Digital SLR User TV have a hands on posted to youtube, in the future they could have shot this with the EOS 5D Mark II.
- p4pictures -
1 comment:
Personally I'm not bothered either way by video. I'm sure it's useful to some people, I don't find myself often wanting to record moving images though. That said, I'll not turn a camera down for it.
I am a bit surprised Canon aren't advancing their auto-focus system down the product range though.
Looking through DPReview, the 5D Mk II seems to have some nice new features that missed the 50D (improved battery monitoring). Chiefly though, I'm struggling to work out if full-frame sensors are a worthwhile improvement for what I do. Be nice if it had the 1 series AF...
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