Taking stock of DSLR video
Yesterday, Canon released into the wild a new firmware update for the 5D Mark II. Firmware updates are usually ho-hum affairs, but this one was a game-changer: It allows 5D users to manually control the aperture, ISO and shutter speed while shooting video.
This is important for a few reasons: first, one of the things that has gotten users really excited about video on the 5D is the crazy shallow depth-of-field you can get with exotic Canon lenses like the 85mm f/1.2. But since the camera set the aperture automatically, the sorts of convolutions users had to go through to get that wide-open look was almost comical. By releasing a dedicated firmware update, Canon has said "Look, we're serious about video."
Is that true across the board, and should it matter? Most DSLR video right now is aimed squarely at casual, consumer use, and that could be the right idea. Even Canon's own 500D, which also features 1080P HD video, works only at 20 fps, which isn't suitable for most professional work. Nikon, which was first to the market with the D90, and has supplemented that with the entry-level D5000, right now is limited to lower-resolution 720P. It may be unconventional cameras like the GH1 that begin to work best on the video level by taking out a lot of the "camera guts." Video focusing on these models ranges from paltry to none at all, and focusing HD video is hard work, because higher resolution shows mistakes. If there's any surprises that watching HD television brings, it's how often camera operators even for the biggest shows don't always nail the focus perfectly in tricky situations.
Should it matter? Will DSLRs ever really make waves in professional video use? I'm not sure of the extent. Yes, you can do great things with these cameras. Chase Jarvis made a slick promo video of and with the D90, and lots of people have been doing great things with the 5D. Partially, though, all of this creative energy is coming from the novelty, and partially it's coming because dSLRS tend to have sensors that work better in low light than traditional video cameras, allowing people to do more with less. But in the end, the form of a camera that's perfect to take pictures with all day and the form of a camera that's perfect to take video footage with all day are very different. There will be considerable convergence toward the middle for people to do hybrid work, but other people will soon find that photos do not instantly become more interesting when you add video, and vice-versa. But it's a nice tool to have in a pinch.
The real winners from all this, though, have got to be computer makers. For years most people have considered their computers to be basically good enough, fast enough for their daily needs. Well, that three-year-old computer that serves perfectly well for e-mail, web surfing, and even casual photo processing is probably wholly unsuited for editing 1080P video without banging your head against the wall, an issue DSLR and video camera users alike will face.
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That D3s is amazing and it was cool to see an "iPhone optimized clip" from the 7D
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