A Game Changer: The Canon 5d mkII (5d2)

It has been a while since I’ve posted a new entry on the blog. I hate writing just to be writing and filling up space on white pages. But I feel compelled to write a bit about a new camera that I see as a real game changer. Several months ago, a good friend of mine asked me to pick up a 5d2 for him before an epic trip to India. Of course, before I handed it over to him, I shot a few frames with it. Well, maybe it was a whole basketball game. (Doug, if you are reading this, I was just making sure it was fully functional. J)

I thought it was a competent camera, but it did not really hit me how good it was at the time. My initial impression was that it performed solidly, handled the poorly lit high school gym well enough, but it did not really blow me away. And coming from someone who uses a 1dmkIII (1d3), that would have been a tough task. The 1d3 is bliss. Fast, accurate and the images are wonderful, even at ISO 6400. I gave the video a quick test as well. OK. Nice. Moving on.

Sure, as the newest big boy (or girl as it may be) toy from Canon, I wanted a 5d2, but I held off. For a full month or two I was able to stave off the need for megapixels and full 1080p video. What a mistake holding off turned out. I finally placed my order in May and it arrived a few days later. Overnight shipping is magical.

I changed my mind about the 5d2. It is not just a competent camera. The 5d2 is an incredible tool and a real game changer. In early June 2009, Canon released a much needed firmware update for the 5d2. It allowed users to gain pretty much full manual control over the video capture process. From hobbled to full cinemagraphic capabilities overnight. And that might be a bit of an understatement. Perhaps the biggest knock on the 5d2 was its lack of full manual control in the video capture mode. I am not sure what forces at Canon decided to fix this flaw in the original firmware, but many people had their prayers answered the day the new firmware was released. I did not pray for the firmware, but I certainly did welcome it.

But what does all of this have to do with this camera being a game changer? Well having in your hands the ability to shoot 21mp images and then quite literally, with the push of a button, switch over to shooting full 1080p HD video with stereo sound is pretty amazing. And it is precisely because of this unique ability that I think from now on every serious pro body introduced by Canon (or Nikon) will have to copy this ability.

Previously, if I wanted to capture some video of my kids sporting activity or some school function, I would need to haul a video camera bag along with my still camera bag. The video camera bag housed the camera, a spare battery, some DVDs (It burned directly to DVD) and other stuff. Many times, it was just too cumbersome to take both. Now, with one bag, I can do both still and video.

Currently, only a small handful of folks with the 5d are shooting video seriously. And some are producing some stunning work. Maybe you have even seen their work on TV or the big screen. Most, like me though, are stumbling through their video and managing to capture a few great moments here and there. But I think that will all be changing as we get more comfortable with our video skills and the hardware makes it easier to capture great video.

I have some ideas. In the past, I created some nice photo slide shows and the software I use has the ability to integrate video. I can definitely see inserting 10 to 12 second video clips into these slide shows to spice them up. One good customer asked me last year if I could add some video to the slideshow. At that time, I told them I could look into it, but I did not capture video but include some of their video. Now, when I bid on their project, I can tell them I can capture some HD video for them, and burn the whole show to a blu ray disk and they can watch the whole thing in HD.

As a professional sports photographer, what will I do with the captured video and better yet, what can I do with it? How can I sell it? People can buy still images from me. Can I sell them moving images? What is it worth to sell them a 20 second video of their son (or daughter) scoring the winning touchdown? Four other photographers got the still shot. I was the only one that got the video. What about providing content to media outlets? Most sites now support video on their websites. Now, I can provide both still and video for my customer. I am more likely to get the assignment? How do you price video? I have many questions and few answers at this time. But to see the 5d2 as anything but a game changer is a bit shortsighted. It is revolutionary.