Here’s a quickly edited piece of both stills and video produced with the 5Dmark2 on a recent trip to North-eastern India. I was mainly there to do still photography, but every now and then I was tempted to use the HD 1080P video feature on the camera, and slowly I’m being absorbed by it! here’s a link to the video on YouTube
Be sure to download the HD version of this, so you can see it at much better resolution than the normal one…

It’s a super feature to have on the camera – the ability to shoot at 1080P. The picture quality is awesome, but the inability to control exposure and shutterspeed and shoot the way you want to shoot IS a problem and probably the biggest reason why people won’t immediately switch to shooting footage with this camera. Also, it only shoots at 30fps, which is fine for NTSC but not a very friendly format for PAL countries. I suppose if you are just shooting for the internet, then it’s fantastic – you have a range of creative lens options and you can use them in ways you could only dream of with a conventional camcorder…

Pros:

I like the way the Image Stabilizer on the lens works even in video mode. I was using not so sturdy legs and inspite of that and the 500MM IS, the video results were amazingly still, and it’s only because of the IS feature – otherwise most of the video would have been shaky cam.

The Mic – Not bad at all!! surprisingly the quality of the Mic and the sound recording straight from the camera is pretty impressive! I can’t wait to rig the camera up with a real microphone and see how it performs. Need to order this quick. The sound of the Swamp partridge at the end of the video is sound recorded straight off the camera – no modifications.

Cons:

Well, for one, the camera was supposed to be more weather-proof and all that, but there’s dust all over the inside of the LCD display panel on the top right of the camera. I first thought that it was only a bad camera, but i’ve noticed that both my cameras have a layer of dust all through the display. It’s irritating because none of my previous cameras have ever shown dust in the display! and they weren’t even weather-proof!!

It may be coming in from the ‘holes’ made to accommodate the mic and the speaker – I can’t think of anything else… any other canon 5Dmark2 users with the same problems?

DO NOT BUY second party batteries. I bought a second party LPE6 battery for this camera, and although the battery seems to work on the camera, it will not charge on the Charger! I can’t remember the name of the company, but i recommend simply using the canon battery pack for now.

That’s all folks!

Have to head off to the island now, but thought i’d post this video before heading out!

Cheers,

Sandesh