The Canon 5D Mark II for video

Berkley White · Issue 50, Sep/Oct 2009 · pp. 35–40

Products mentioned: Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D3, Nikon D3x, Sony FX1, Sony EX1, RED, Aquatica housing, Pelican 1620 case

Every now and then a camera comes along that makes you rethink possibilities. Like many fellow still photographers, the 1080p video of the Canon 5D Mark II forced me to reconsider a personal interest in moving pictures. The more I played with 5D Mark II shooting video, the more I kept leaving my Nikon D3 and D3x on the boat. The sensor size on the 5D Mark II is by far the largest of all the cameras in this chart, including the top cinema camera choice, RED. This results in a cleaner, lower noise image. The first obvious thing is that the 5D Mark II sensor is the large. Larger sensors can gather more light, and thus can produce images with lower noise when compared to smaller sensors. While it may seem limiting to only have a frame rate choice of 30p, this is by far the most popular frame rate and will satisfy almost all users needs. The H.264 compression format is more efficient than HDV…