I bought this camera a couple of weeks ago. I already owned the first version of the EOS 5D, but I thought it would be handy to have High Def video in the same unit. Many consumer grade handy cams have the ability to shoot stills, but their still photo resolution leaves much to be desired. I would have to carry both a high quality SLR and a handy cam to be ready for both situations. When the 5D Mark II came out I saw the opportunity to get high def both ways in a single camera.
Indeed it does that, but the video capabilities of the 5D Mark II are not nearly as convenient to use as almost any consumer grade camcorder at 1/3 the price. Let me be clear about what I am saying. The quality of the high def video that the 5D Mark II shoots exceeds any consumer grade camcorder I have ever seen. Capturing that video however requires both hands whereas almost any handycam is a one handed breeze due to the ergonomic placement of the controls. Not so with the 5D Mark II.
You would think that to start shooting video you simply select "movies" on the mode dial and click the shutter with your right index finger and everything happens automatically from that point. Not so. Not even close. With the 5D Mark II, first you press the "live view" button. The mirror flips up and the image appears on the LCD screen. Then you find the part of the image you want to be in focus and press the AF-ON button (assuming you are using auto focus). Step 3, you press the "set" button to start recording video.
In the high def mode, the camera will record up to 12 minutes in a single run while making a digital file on the memory card of about 4GB. Think about that. 4 GB for 12 minutes! One 12 minute clip would completely fill a standard single layer DVD. That's a whole lot of data! In fact neither of my Windows based computers can play it back smoothly. Even the built-in playback within the camera itself is jerky. The more motion there is in the scene, the more frames that are dropped. Even the Canon web site acknowledges that the playback "MAY" be jerky unless your computer has a certain minimum configuration. To be fair, I will say that Apple computers seem to be much better playing back these huge movie files smoothly. This camera records movies in .MOV file format. That is Apple's Quicktime software. Even though Quicktime does run in a Windows environment, it seems to work much better on a Mac. A recent test I conducted showed that a current model Macbook Pro with a 2.53 GHz Intel CPU did a very smooth playback job using Quicktime.
Speaking of focus, you would hope that you simply set the camera to the full automatic mode and your auto focus lens takes care of the rest for the duration of the clip. Once again no. It doesn't work that way. The only way I found to make this camera track the focus in movie mode is to set the mode dial to one of the non automatic positions, and set the focus to the "servo" position as though you were trying to capture still images of a moving subject.
Zooming? Ah yes, that is another capability that is far less convenient. Most handy cams have a built-in powered zoom that is easily operated with one finger on the same hand that is holding the camera. With the 5D Mark II, as with any quality SLR, zooming is done by reaching around to the front of the camera and rotating a lens ring. Needless to say, that can't be done smoothly if you are hand holding the camera with your other hand.
With all the buttons to push and settings to remember, this is not the camera you want for shooting candid spontaneous footage in a hand held situation. To be sure it does a great job shooting video in a controlled environment mounted on a tripod with a fluid head. Without a steady mount however, this camera is best for stills if hand held.Get more detail about Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera (Body Only).
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