2nd Thirty Days – Day Fourteen
Posted on Thursday, 18 March 2010 @ 7:12pm by David
Heather and Kolton Carmichael at Stephens Lake Park | Canon 7D and 300mm f/4L lens; exposed 1/200 sec. @ f/4, ISO 200.
2nd Thirty Days – Day Thirteen
Posted on Wednesday, 17 March 2010 @ 8:19pm by David
Sarah Flagg at the window | Canon 5D Mk. II and 50mm f/1.4 lens; exposed 1/125 @ f/1.4, ISO 320.
One of a series of portraits I’ll eventually be posting, made at the place where I work for my assistantship at the University of Missouri as the photojournalism sequence’s equipment manager. This is the “window” where students come to check out photo gear to supplement their own to complete assignments and personal projects.
5D Mk II Firmware 2.0.3 Released!
Posted on Wednesday, 17 March 2010 @ 12:04pm by David
Change has come to the 5D II
The firmware that I referred to earlier this month that finally provides manual audio level control, as well as some other important features for video recording with Canon’s 5D Mark II camera body, was released the day after the Ides of March.
In addition to manual audio control (negating the need for something like BeachTek’s adapter unless one really needs XLR inputs), video is finally scaled back to 29.97 frames-per-second instead of 30 fps, meaning that it will be much easier to work with the 5D II in conjunction with traditional video cameras in the editing phase as the timecodes will match.
Also, 24 fps becomes an option, just as it was introduced on the 7D.
The New
Canon’s comprehensive list of changes is as follows:
- Adds or changes the following movie frame rates:
- NTSC: 1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps)
- NTSC: 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
- NTSC: 640×480 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps)
- PAL: 1920×1080 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)
- PAL: 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
- PAL: 640×480 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)
- Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
- Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
- Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
- Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
- Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)
Downloads
The new firmware can be downloaded from Canon’s Web site here: http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos5dmk2/firmware.html
Note also that a new copy of the instruction manual, as a PDF, is also available from Canon, and includes how one uses the new features of the latest firmware, including setting the audio levels. The chapter on video recording begins on page 125 of the PDF file.
Parting Thoughts:
While the experience of working with the 5D Mark II for video production is markedly improved with this update, and exceeds the practical functionality introduced with the 7D, one thing is still missing from the equation: the ability to monitor the audio being captured by the camera. Plugging in a set of earphones into the AV/Out jack simply leads to obnoxious buzzing. The function of this port needs to be changed to allow for the photographer-cum-videographer to have total control over the situation. Being able to set the levels is a great step in this direction, but it’s hard to know where to set the levels exactly when you can’t hear what’s being recorded until playback.
Oh, and Canon, please make a similar firmware update for the 7D with the audio control. Right now, the 5D II will have to be my A-Roll camera, with the 7D as B-Roll, as it does not have the audio control that the 5D now sports. But in the meantime, thanks for listening to our complaints suggestions.
Update 3/18/10:
Canon has acknowledged that there is a slight bug in the new firmware 2.0.3 that makes audio capture impossible if using one of the three custom (“C1,” C2,” C3″) modes on the mode dial. From Canon:
Recently we have discovered a malfunction that occurs with Firmware Version 2.0.3, in which the manual recording levels for C1/C2/C3 are changed and the camera becomes unable to record audio if the power is turned off (or if Auto power off takes effect) after registering “Sound Recording: Manual” in the camera user settings.
We apologize very sincerely for the inconvenience, but we are going to stop making this firmware available for download. For customers who have already updated to the new firmware, when using the camera with the mode dial set to C1/C2/C3, please either set the sound recording settings to Auto.
We are currently preparing firmware that will correct this malfunction. As soon as those preparations have been completed, we will let you know on this Web site. In the meantime, we apologize for the inconvenience this represents, but please wait until the fixed firmware is ready.
Broadway Project – Stephens Lake “Notes”
Posted on Wednesday, 17 March 2010 @ 9:00am by David
Sedges near Stephens Lake | Canon 5D Mk. II and 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 16mm; exposed 1/60 sec. @ f/9, ISO 800.
On Tuesday I made my way over to Stephens Lake Park on East Broadway and took some visual “notes” while I walked the loop along the lake a couple of times. A lot of people were walking their dogs, others were power-walking, some jogging, and some people were just playing with their kids, teaching them to cast stones.
On review of the photos, one thing that I was astonished to find was sensor dust! I’m so accustomed to using the 5D Mark II without any dust whatsoever! So, I cleaned it last evening; I’ve owned the camera for fourteen months, and this was only about the fifth time that I’ve cleaned its sensor.
I’ll be going back soon, but for now, I’ve posted some of the “details,” including the most successful image (above).
2nd Thirty Days – Day Twelve
Posted on Tuesday, 16 March 2010 @ 9:00pm by David
Late afternoon exercise, Stephens Lake Park, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens @ 93mm; exposed 1/125 sec. @ f/4, ISO 800.
Twilight over the Gas Station
Posted on Tuesday, 16 March 2010 @ 12:33am by David
Twilight over HyVee Gas, West Broadway, Columbia, Mo. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ 21mm; exposed 1/60 sec. @ f/5, ISO 400
This is the view that greeted me as I pulled into HyVee last evening to pick up a couple of groceries. I thought it a fitting tribute to our picture story class’ ongoing exploration of the street that connects so much of the city.
2nd Thirty Days – Day Eleven – Sunset over the Locust Street Mosque
Posted on Monday, 15 March 2010 @ 8:50pm by David
Sunset over the Locust Street Mosque | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 45-200mm f/4-5.6 lens @ 175mm; exposed 1/1600 @ f/5.6, ISO 400.
We had a wonderful sunset tonight in Columbia, and I can only hope that’s a good sign for the projects that lay ahead.
2nd Thirty Days – Day Ten
Posted on Sunday, 14 March 2010 @ 10:06pm by David
Chelsea and John | Canon 7D and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 28mm; exposed 1/250 sec. @ f/4, ISO 800.
Today, while walking out of Broadway Brewery from an early dinner–sans $5 pint glass that I paid for, because those are even easier to leave on the table than a to-go box–with John and Chelsea, I let them walk ahead of me because I could sense that something weirdly endearing was about to happen. Here’s the advantage of Aperture Priority, folks: I dialed it up to f/4 and bumped the exposure compensation to +1 EV because I knew that the cloudy sky would fool the light meter into thinking the situation was more neutral than it really was.
Could I have retained some detail in the sky at +2/3 instead of +1? Possibly, but I’d rather have the shadow detail. The sky isn’t what matters in a picture like this. Furthermore, in post-processing in Adobe Lightroom, I added another stop, so I could have gone even brighter, but I had properly exposed to the right, so this was less of a problem than it sounds.
If I’d been in manual, I would have had to ratchet up my shutter speed very rapidly, and this is something that you don’t always have time to do. And when you don’t, you’re happy you know how to compensate for the whole scene, and get it right in the first exposure!
