Why I Love the New Canon 5D MKII

I just recently had a conversation with a friend of mine, who is new director, and I was emphasizing the importance of why he should implement cameras with that sweet, sweet looking depth of field for that film look that everyone strives after.  As always, budget is an issue, and like me, he can’t afford 35 mm lens adapters, or even the lenses for that matter.  We got to talking about how to get that film look for the least money possible, and it brought up a lot of good points that I figured my readers would like to have some insight on.  This one is for you, new comedy troupe, or aspiring music video director.  I am gonna give you an indie filmmaker’s point of view on what I have my eyes on these days, and why.

More often than not, I see productions that look great, have amazing editing and color correction… but the thing they are missing is that film-like depth of field.  There are many ways to go about getting this look such as buying a RedRock or Letus Extreme 35 mm adapter, but then you have to buy lenses on top of that.  There are cameras that are built to attach 35mm adapters natively, but they usually cost more than the adapter route.  Recently, the Canon 5D MK II came out, which is a DSLR camera, which shoots native 1080p video.  Best thing about it?  It takes regular Canon 35mm lenses.  A lot of directors and filmmakers I know don’t hound the net like I do, so they don’t understand the greatness of this camera, and the impact that has been being made the last 6 months or so.  This camera uses a full size CMOS sensor, so you get an amazing picture with full color space.  I am not going to get into the deep numbered details in this article (partly because I don’t fully understand them myself), so if that is something you are looking for check this out.

The price of the camera isn’t that bad as well, only running about $2,500 – $3,000, which isn’t that bad, when if you are working with an actual video camera, you are going to spend at least half of that on a 35mm lens adapter anyways.  My final point on this article (which kind of turned into a rant on how much I love these), is that you don’t have to spend a ton of money on lens adapters and high end video cameras, especially if you are a filmmaker that is starting out and wants some insanely professional looking video.  There are a bunch of rigs that that are created specifically for video shooting DSLR’s, such as Zacuto’s Store, and also tons of extras like extra long batteries and viewfinders, and you can use your existing gear such as monitors, IndieSliders, and steadycams that you already have without having to buy new equipment.  Check out Vimeo, or look for my article in the next few days on some awesome 5D MK II videos to see what I mean about how this camera performs.  Photo courtesy of Planet5D.com.