Canon 5D For Video: A Report from the Field

By Special Contributor Hal Goodtree

In the slo-motion evolution from film production to digital media, the Canon 5D is a milestone for video and television producers. This is my report from the field.

Shooting for University Mall

When I got the assignment to direct a video for University Mall in Chapel Hill, I discussed various options with Josh Steadman, the cameraman and editor on the project. He’d been having some great success with his new 5D and persuaded me to go with it.

Everything is different about shooting a movie on the 5D. It doesn’t look like a video camera. It doesn’t feel like a video camera. A lot of the connectivity we take for granted doesn’t exist on the 5D.

But when you boil it down, none of that really matters. What matters is making a great movie at an affordable price.

Memory

The first thing to keep in mind is that the 5D stores images on flash RAM, not tape or a hard disk. You’ll need a lot of flash RAM to hold the footage from your shoot.

Fortunately, flash RAM is pretty cheap. Josh had this to say:

“I get about an hour and a half of footage from the 5D on a 32 GB card; and the cheapest/best data rate tradeoff I can find is Kingston cards, at $76.99 currently. 32GB is the best size.

From doing so many doc shoots lately, I have 5 of these 32 GB cards, and yes, you are definitely right about having enough on hand to not DL cards during the day; but if you do have an assistant on-hand, you should have him (or her) do that while you’re shooting. Or at the least, have him label/note your cards, cause otherwise you’ll be hunting through folders at the end of the day trying to figure out which cards go in which order.”

As a comparison, a similar amount of 35mm film would cost about $20,000.

Make sure you have enough flash RAM on hand so you don’t have to depend on downloading the memory cards during the shoot day.

Lenses & Lights

The 5D takes all the standard and esoteric lenses that fit on an electronic Canon. The electronic lenses enable you to use auto exposure and program modes. Older lenses may also fit, but you’ll have to meter manually.

The assortment of lenses available for a DSLR far outstrips the inventory for any one video camera. It’s in the unusual primes (non-zooms) that you’ll find some interesting choices.

Primes also can be faster (let in more light) than zooms. This can be a crucial advantage in low light, fast action, documentaries or other situations where you have to depend on ambient illumination.

If you scout your location, there’s really no guesswork. The images you make in still mode are identical to what you’ll get on video. We scouted the mall to rough out the shots and just brought a small light kit.

Josh: We had a 4 ft. 4 bank kino for our soft key, and used some 300w arris for fill, bounce and hair.

Sound

Sound was my biggest concern. How would the 5D deal with sync dialogue?

Steadman suggested we bring an external audio recorder. He set this up in-line between the microphone and the 5D, essentially passing the signal through the audio recorder on the way to the Canon.

We used a mic on an arm and had our trusty P.A. Rachel boom the talent. She wore cans to make sure we were getting a good level.

Josh: I think we used my Rode NTG-2 mic, plus a Sennheiser wireless lav; both of which went to the external recorder. And later, in post, I used the ref. on-camera mic sound to sync up the footage using a crazy-magic plug-in for Final Cut called pluraleyes, which syncs up 2 separate clips based on waveforms!

We played back frequently just to make sure.

External Monitors and Such

It’s great to have an external monitor to check composition and focus. Looking through the camera before the shot is great, but it’s no substitute for seeing it on a screen. Steadman had a small flat panel on a stand.

Josh: The 9″ DP1, made by a local Cary company, Small HD. Great folks.

Check Your Cords

Some of the 5Ds connectors are non-standard for the production industry. There’s no XLR input on a DSLR.

Josh: So if you’re planning on taking audio directly into the 5D, make sure you have an XLR to 1/8″ cable. And the only video output of the 5D is via the HDMI port.

Check to make sure you have the right connectors and run a test before the shoot day.

Editing

We were able to import and edit the footage in Final Cut Pro. No issues syncing up the sound.

Josh: The new EOS E-1 plugin for Final Cut allows you to use the log and transfer function inside Final Cut to transcode the almost-unworkable H.264 native format recorded by the 5D into an edit-friendly format, such as Apple’s Pro Res 422. It also assigns timecode to the clip based on time of day info from the camera.

Things to Love

In addition to the marvelous effect of high quality lenses, here are two other things I loved about video from the 5D;

• Detail in the Darks – Video cameras are notoriously sketchy in low light. Not so the 5D. Darker shots showed terrific detail and warmth without much noticeable noise. In the UMall video, check out the scene where the lady talks about cheese.

• DoF / Or Not – I loved how easy it was for us to manipulate the Depth of Field. You can change the aperture/shutter speed like traditional SLRs since the beginning of time, but Josh says you’re better off using a variable ND filter to reduce/increase the amount of light getting to the lens so you can keep the shutter speed at 1/50th of a sec.

No Excuses

With the 5D (and its siblings at Canon plus some new entries from other DSLR makers), there’s no excuse for bad video. Even virals can be affordably shot on a DSLR.

For less than $5000, you can have a full rig that makes gorgeous, 1080p pictures.

Don’t expect the “film experience” on the shoot because it’s a different animal. But you can expect the opportunity to make great movies at a ridiculously low price.

University Mall Video

Shot on the Canon 5D. Edited in Final Cut Pro. See it also on Youtube.

Tags: Viral