Super Late Wednesday Post: Prints From Video Grab From Canon 5D Mark II - How Good Are They?
Good Afternoon Everybody,
Here is the news - How good are prints from Canon's 5D Mark II video grabs?; Laforet's video "Reverie" takes down Canon's servers!
Man, Oh man, has it been an incredibly busy day! I've been non stop till just a few minutes ago. I'm just now hitting the computer for today's post, but a provocative post it will be, I hope.
So the BIG news over these past 3 weeks has been Canon's announcement of the Canon 5D Mark II. Of particular note has been the new Hi-def 1920x1080 video capture capabilities of the camera. Vincent Laforet even put together a unbelievable video entitled, "Reverie" that got 1.5 million view in 10 days. In fact the "Reverie" video was so wildly popular, it brought down the Canon servers and they unfortunately needed to pull the presentation. Vincent said it should be back on as soon as mid-next week.
You still want to know how hot the camera is? Well, Amazon just posted that they or out-of-stock on their pre-orders. How you get out-of-stock on a pre-order - beats me, but it looks like everybody wants one of these puppy's. Here is that story over at 1001 Noisy Cameras right here.The camera has definitely raised a few eyebrows - some of you loved the new feature, some of you were not looking forward to having to learn all the "bells and whistles" or even wanted video on board as an option. I happen to be a huge fan of the video feature. Read about my wildly insane enthusiasm for it in my post "Game Changing Camera Technologies" right here. Be sure to check out the comments that follow the post too - a lot of other people feel the same way and offered some great ideas for using the on board video option.
Potentially Great looking 8x10 prints from the video capture;
But, folks, that's only half of the story. I'm reading all these new specs on the camera and the BIGGIE that stands out for me is the 1920x1080 pixel spec. I'm a guy who started shooting digital with a Fuji S-1 and whose real pixel count was 2040 x 1353 Pixels. Is this bit of information hitting anyone the way it's hitting me? MY OLD FUJI S-1 WAS CAPTURING A FILE ONLY SLIGHTLY LARGER - 5% LARGER - THAN THE CANON 5D Mark II' VIDEO CAPTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What are the possibilities for pulling images from the video capture - UNBELIEVABLE possibilities!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now we have a camera that can capture 30fps at a decent resolution for printing. I know you think I'm crazy, so I ran a quick test. I grabbed 10 quick images, re-sized them to 1920x1080 pixel resolution and had them printed up as 8x10 prints during my morning meeting. I couldn't wait to hear what they looked like. I called Jen, my assistant about 10 a.m. to get her reactions to the printed images. She had no clue what I was up to. I asked her how they looked, she said, "They look wonderful!" I heard that as she saw no real difference from these lower res images when compared to our hi-res images we print everyday.I did a story a while back that got little notice and very few comments. It was entitled, "How Many Pixels Does It Take To Make A Face" Here is the link. I did and in depth analysis of the minimum number of pixels it took to get a salable wedding image from the digital file. That number happens to be 2000 pixels according to my tests when printed as an 8x10 print - read the article for the whole story.
Now we have a camera that's captures video in that 2000 pixel range. I got back to the studio , checked out the images and saw for myself that indeed they looked great. Folks, do you get what this means - we are getting closer and closer to the convergence of still and digital cameras. That means even more image grabbing possibilities for us image-makers out there. I'm not even suggesting that we shoot video only and then make up our prints, but what I am saying is that now we have that option, and that option opens up a whole slew of creative opportunities for us in this new digital market.
We can now easily capture SEQUENCES of different parts of the wedding day that could easily be incorporated into the wedding album. It gives an entire new twist to the term wedding candid. Think ring exchange, think receiving line, think peripheral sequences during the wedding shoot, think cake cutting, think garter and bouquet toss in bright enough light. My imagination is in over drive just fantasizing on the possibilities. Sure, I realize that in low light situations , we will have motion blurred frames. Who cares? Its' the other opportunities when we won't have compromised images that really matters. Frankly, I think some of the motion blurred sequences, when presented creatively, could also present some interesting possibilities.
Anyway folks, it's time to put our thinking caps on again and see where all this leads - heck, it may lead to some of the most exiting times of our lives!
OK, OK I've got to go now and take a cold shower just to calm down. I'll plan to see everybody tomorrow much calmer, I promise. Signed, On Cloud Nine Dave
Written by Carlos. Read more great feeds at is source WEBSITE
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