When digging around earlier for the information on the U2 video, i was exploring the blog of the photographer James Vellacott who took the U2 video. Low and behold, there was a post about his trip to Afghanistan around Christmas. Guess what! He took a 5D mk ii and posted some video. This might be the first to come back from Afghanistan. (Click on the “HQ” icon in the lower right corner of the box for HD quality)

This is the ‘medley’ video he put together and the post where it was found

Earlier reports:

My friend from twitter, @tylerGinter (who is 55th Combat Camera Company Platoon Leader) says “Can’t wait till we send 20 to Iraq and Afghan this summer!” He also reports: “I do know a NY Times photographer taking one shortly to Afghan to shoot video!”

It is wonderful to see what can be done with the camera as well as becoming more aware of what the UK troops who are fighting for peace around the world are doing.

davedodg on twitter alerted us to a U2 concert that was performed on a rooftop in London last Friday. The event was filmed and photographed by James Vellacott on 2 5D mk ii cameras from the hotel opposite and documented on this blog post

You can download the entire video of the concert via this link

The BBC’s coverage from the rooftop (don’t know if they had a 5D mk ii)

Also interesting is the follow up post by the photographer about how the BBC wasn’t too happy with his coverage.

UPDATE: Edmond Terakopian suggests the BBC should buy 5D mk iis for their photogs based on the success James is having.

James seems to like using his Canon 5D mk ii. Here, in another blog post, he’s used his 5D2 to video another photographer from the same staff doing a shoot of a skater (his post is here)

And yet, i continue to read about how the 5D mk ii is not a good video camera - makes me smile every time!

What is planet5D?

For those of you new to planet5D, we’ve got more Canon 5D mk ii information and reviews/still/video samples than anywhere else on the planet. We have this blog, and we also have the 5d Wiki with tons of samples and 5d information. Please look around before you go and come back to see us again!

Don’t forget to sign up for the feed so you don’t miss out on anything!

Subscribe in a reader

@rob_sheridan asked a question the other day on twitter that i didn’t have an answer to:

“Even with a 45mb/s card, I’m still getting occasional stuck frames (1 frame holds for 4) on 5DM2 videos. Anyone know anything about this?”

and someone replied to him and he posted:
“This report of jerky frames when the exposure shifts automatically is consistent with what I’ve been seeing: http://is.gd/m8z5 -thx @rikerke”

So, i did some digging only to learn that indeed, there’s a known “issue” with the 5D mk ii and video - which as it turns out is even discussed in the user manual (page 124): “If the brightness suddenly changes during movie shooting, that part might look momentarily still”

Ok, so what is this issue? I think the post by sulka explains it well:

“What’s happening is, whenever you’re recording video, if the camera changes the aperture, it skips 2-3 frames, and replaces those skipped frames in video stream with copies of the last frame recorded.”

It was also discussed pretty well in this DPReview forum thread and this thread with a specific post and an example video where you can plainly see the impact (when the camera switches from the bright outside to the darker interior shot)

Now, there were also posts on twitter about rumors that this will be fixed in the next firmware release, but nobody replied to me asking for documentation of that rumor anywhere. So, we’ll have to see when and/if Canon addresses the issue.

Oh, and locking the exposure with the button on the back of the camera or using one of the “aperture control” tricks will prevent the stuck frames in the first place.