Canon 5D2 – RAW vs. H264 In Real-World Production

Gameboy
When I was in middle school, I saved my pennies until I had enough money to buy a Gameboy. I played Tetris until I could close my eyes and see falling blocks. All the game graphics were gray/green monochrome, because that was the limitation of the technology. About 15 years later, my wife got a Gameboy Advance SP. It was billed as being backwards-compatible with original Gameboy games, so I dug out my old Tetris cartridge, and plugged it in. To my amazement, the falling blocks were in color! The programmers of that game put color data in the game code, even though they thought nobody would be able to see it.

The way I felt when I read that the Magic Lantern team had discovered a way to record RAW video from a Canon 5D Mark II reminded me of the way I felt when I saw those colored Tetris blocks. How is it possible that a five-year-old DSLR can have state-of-the-art functionality? It leaves me shaking my head in awed disbelief.

I didn’t spend a lot of time in disbelief, however. I immediately downloaded the Magic Lantern RAW module, shot some test footage, and decided to use it for a real project.

So, I did. Here’s what I learned.

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LED Lighting Is Finally Affordable

There’s a great scene in The Devil Wears Prada, in which Meryl Streep’s character explains how concepts in the fashion industry begin with the avant-garde, move to upscale designers, filter from there to regular retail, and eventually trickle down to the bargain basement stores.

The production industry works largely the same way. A decade ago, HD video was the exclusive domain of high-budget productions. Now, you can shoot HD video with your cel phone.

I am very pleased to see that LED lighting is following the same trend, and I’ve found an LED light kit that is price-competitive with tungsten equivalents!

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Testing the Canon 5D2: RAW vs. H264

I can’t sit on the sidelines when something like RAW video functionality on a DSLR comes out. There are a lot of nice test videos out now, but I needed to shoot my own. So, here it is!

My first impression, once I put the H264 and RAW footage back-to-back, was that the H264 looks very good! Sure, the RAW files have a tremendous amount of detail, but the colors and the overall punch of the ungraded H264 files are often much more appealing to me than the minimally-processed RAW files. The difference, of course, is that the nature of RAW allows one to grade the footage to look however one wants, while maintaining data integrity and clarity, so it’s difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison.

rainbow h264

rainbow raw
Nevertheless, I did learn some important lessons through this effort.

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How To Shoot RAW Video On Your Canon 5D2, 5D3 or 6D

After spending most of the morning sifting through the Magic Lantern forums, I’ve figured out how to install Magic Lantern on my Canon 5D Mark II (note that it is the II, not the III). As far as I know, the process is identical for all three cameras.

1) Make sure you have the up-to-date official firmware on your camera (2.1.2 for the 5D2 available here).

2) Copy the official firmware files to an CF card, and use the “Firmware Update” function in the menu to update it.

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Steal The Shot: GQ & Esquire Covers

If you happened to peruse the magazine rack at your local bookstore this month, you may have done a double-take … GQ’s cover photo featuring Robert Downey, Jr., and Esquire’s photo of Robert Redford are virtually identical.

esquire redford cover

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Although these photos were taken by different photographers (Marc Hom and Peggy Sirota respectively), they have a lot in common:

1) A plain, aqua-colored background (I believe that GQ used the “Ocean Blue” shade and Esquire used the “Teal” shade of seamless background paper);

2) Soft, frontal, single-source lighting;

3) Composition framing the subject from the waist up;

4) An actor named Robert wearing a jacket.

This is a great setup to duplicate, because it’s so simple (aside from finding someone named Robert to photograph).

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Competition for the MoVi?

While most of the attention at NAB was focused on the high-dollar MoVi camera gimbal, this also happened:

Yes, that’s a very similar concept, for $1,800 compared to $15,000 for the MoVi. Granted, this one is constructed largely from Redrock Micro bits and pieces, but the gyro action looks pretty smooth. I contacted Drew Janes, the guy in the video, for more information, and this is what he told me.

What is it called?
It is called the DEFY gimbal. It is a 2 axis stabilized gimbal for handheld, multirotor, jib or any mountable surface. It comes with a handheld rig and base platform for mounting on many applications.

When is it available?
The first runs will be very limited to the first 20 pre-orders. We are building 20 only before it goes into larger production which will cause a delay to catch up to orders. The first 20 will target to ship in July.

What cameras will it carry?
Right now our rig is made for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera or the Sony NEX series (or similar). This is popular for its weight and size and it will be part of the first 20 runs. COMING very soon will be sizes to cary a DSLR like the 5D Mark III. We are currently not planning on carrying a RED (even though we shoot with RED), but may have opportunities soon to do so.

Will it be available around the world?
Yes. We could ship anywhere the user would pay for shipping, as long as there are no legal restrictions regarding the country.

Can I pre-order?
Yes. Very soon, we will have a stand alone website to pre-order the gimbal and find more information.

Drew promises to post more demo footage soon, and I’m very interested to see it! This rig stabilizes for side to side movement, but not up and down, so it’ll be interesting to see if 2 axis stabilization is sufficient for the needs of camera operators.

Flash Photography Essentials

Vivitar-9782

Yesterday, a friend of mine who does a lot of video work asked me a big question.

“I’d like to start learning some photography. Portraits to begin with. What type of strobes would you recommend? I know I would need wireless triggers as well. Anything you can recommend is appreciated.”

Normally when somebody starts learning photography, they start off using available light. In this case, my friend is very familiar with using available light, because he’s done it for a long time with video. He’s also familiar with studio lighting principles, for the same reason. What he doesn’t know about is the very intimidating and mysterious world of “strobe” lighting.

Fortunately, having walked this path myself a number of years ago, I have a few suggestions. Here’s what I would recommend to my friend, and to anyone else interested in learning flash photography.

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Behind the Curtain of the Beaufort Film Festival

Did you know that the Beaufort International Film Festival – one of the hottest and fastest-growing film festivals in the country – just turned seven years old? This comprehensive film showcase is held every year in the lovely coastal city of Beaufort, SC, better known to Marines as the home of the Parris Island recruit training depot.

Ronald E. Tucker, one of the founders of the Beaufort International Film Festival is a retired Marine Corps captain, a documentary filmmaker, and a longtime resident of Beaufort. In this exclusive interview, he shared with me his perspective on filmmaking, the behind-the-scenes story of Beaufort’s film festival, and a few tips for filmmakers who want to get their projects noticed by festival judges.

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The Real Deal on Redrock’s “One Man Crew”

One Man Crew

Last week, I compared two recently-announced products: Redrock Micro’s “One Man Crew,” and Kessler Crane’s “Parallax.” Based on the information available at that time (basically, just the sales page & promo videos on the respective companies’ websites), it was a little difficult to tell exactly what the distinguishing characteristics of each product were.

I’m pleased to report that, today, I was able to have a very pleasant and in-depth conversation with Brian Valente, one of the partners at Redrock Micro. I asked him some tough questions about the One Man Crew, and I was a little surprised by what I learned.

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I’ll Never Make Anything As Beautiful As This

When I see a big-budget movie, I feel inspired to try out the techniques I thought worked well. I know that what I do isn’t going to look as good as something that had $50 million poured into it, so there’s no competition. The pressure’s off.

On the other hand, when I see a short film that somebody made out of basically nothing, and it’s one of the most emotionally moving and creatively compelling things I’ve ever seen, my instinctive response is to give up on video and become a farmer.

“A Short Love Story in Stop Motion,” by Carlos Lascano is one of those projects that makes me want to join the FFA. Carlos hand-made virtually everything you see on the screen. It’s not the result of fancy equipment, software or facilities, it’s just the product of a brilliant and passionate artist.