Sample videos from 5D MkII

Awesome. DOF control and true wide angle 1080 video. I'm big into backcountry skiing and backpacking... the more I think about it, the more this really is going to get some use out of me.

Im no Geek, so i wouldnt know if this source is legit or not, anyone care to confirm..? Otherwise holy crap!
how could this detract from the stills performance of this machine? ie battery power, storage etc

WOW! I'm so excited!

Hard act to swallow, even heard sterio and soo steady, beats my A640 :)

That inane video of the squirrel with the screaming child and rather detestable sounding woman in the background is a prime example of why I hate Nikon for starting this and Canon competing with it. Also the one of the awkward woman is hilarious, which if everyone's models are that awkward on video maybe we'll get some laughs out of the little toy they've tagged onto their cameras.

I may have to get one of these despite the video, tho' I have to admit that the nighttime shot was sort of intriguing.

I thought HD video from a slr was a joke until I downloaded the full-res sample clips from the 5D Mark II. I really think that for my use this may be able to replace my Canon XH-A1 HDV camera which I've never been that happy with. The upgrade in optics moving to EF lenses, extreme depth of field control and a far superior sensor might be worth any drawbacks in convenience or audio capabilities. Add to that an optical viewfinder! I think the line between digital motion and digital still capture is beginning to blur, something I thought would never happen.

On second thought, I'm probably jumping to conclusions. It appears that Canon is using H.264 compression which is difficult to edit. This may be an AVCHD codec variant or something. The image does look pretty good if a decent workflow could be developed.

Dang! That is pro movie quality stuff! I might have to take a closer look at upgrading my 5D.

It looks awesome! What an amazing age we live in. So much technological evolution in such a short time. Watching the HD video of a fisheye lens panning the city scene... I can't wait to get my hands on one and put this to use! I already have clients who will love this. And it sounds like you can shoot stills during the video. Yes, the video pauses for an instant, but picks right up. You can shoot video, select moments to shoot stills, and keep shooting video. Wow.

Amazing indeed !

Absolutely stunning! This will call an end to RED One, glad I did not buy it and go bankruptcy :-). Great work Canon! I just wish it could keep the pixel pitch of around 8 um and not push up the megapixel count.

Zac, I just read the specs, • 1920 x 1080 (16:9) up to 12 mins (Quicktime 1080p H.264; 38.6 Mbits/sec)

• 640 x 480 (4:3) up to 24 mins (Quicktime 480p H.264; 17.3 Mbits/sec)

• Max file size 4 GB

• Quicktime MOV format (H.264 video, PCM sound)

• 30 fps

I am sure noise is very low on this since the DSLR portion can shoot at high ISO with low noise. Its a very cheap way to get HD video with interchangeable EF lens. However, the 12mins limit kills this as a serous viable HD video camera. The 38.6 Mbits/sec is amazing though.

@ Xiaoyuan Gu

No kidding! Red thought they would replace the DSLR... but personally, I think this will replace the digital camcorder. I will certainly never buy one now. Not when the 5D II will accept all my lenses!

I'm assuming that you can do one clip after another, so that you can have multiple video clips that add up to a larger time than the limit listed. I for one would take a lot more video of my family if I didn't have to lug a video camera AND an SLR around especially for more spontaneous moments.

"I thought HD video from a slr was a joke until I downloaded the full-res sample clips from the 5D Mark II." - From where?

Thanks Christina. Now I can imagine to kill the idea of Panasonic HVX200 (or whatever) plus 35mm adapter with another set of lens. Great that I do not have to dump my L-glasses either.

I would guess the 4G file size limit will be updated with the next firmware, and in the end it is just a matter of the max-size of the CF card (currently 64G) that will limit the length of the clip. The real issue is whether Final Cut Studio, Premiere or other mainstream editing platforms have good support for workflow of compressed MPEG4 part 10 (i.e. H.264) footage. Heard that Premiere does.

Sheldon, on dpreview there is a link to canon japan, some 200meg file to d/l :)

@ Xiaoyuan Gu

I know that Premiere supports H.264. Not sure what FCS is like.

i could be wrong but i think the 4gb limit is to prevent the sensor from getting too hot perhaps? im guessing there may be some down time after shooting a long video so the sensor has time to cool. has anyone read anything about the focusing during video? i havent seen the info anywhere but im guessing its the same as the d90, only manual focus right? anyway im excited about it! even if you dont want to shoot video whats the harm in having it there just in case anyway!

I actually imported the clips (from the link on dpreview.com) into Final Cut Pro 6 and threw it on a timeline which was set to H.264 at 30 fps. It seemed to edit OK, but was way too much for my internal SATA drive to handle without dropping frames on playback playing within FCP. (Oddly enough quicktime player could handle it OK.) Not sure how it would respond to a raid set up or something faster. Really H.264 has been mostly an end distribution format although I think Sony's IMX system may use a variant (not sure). I think the workflow would have to involve rendering out to a non long- form GOP codec like Apples Pro Res or something and then editing. I think this is how AVCHD is handled.

Actually other than for long form event type stuff for which you would never use anything other than a dedicated video camera the 12 minute limit per clip is not an issue. The early smaller capacity Panasonic P2 cards held less 1080p video than this per card when they were introduced.

The answer to the file size issue is basically because of the limitations on the FAT32 filesystem which compact flash cards tend to use. Basically FAT32 cannot have any files larger than 4gb. So for the possibility of files becoming any larger than 4gb they would have to change the filesystem used on these cards altogether. This makes me wonder whether larger files may be possible at a later date, if video can be saved onto an external USB drive using the grip if the drive is using a filesystem that supports larger files. In the end we'll have to wait and see. More info on FAT32 @ WIKIPEDIA