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James Butler

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5D-Mark-III-and-24-70mm-II

Testing the Canon 5D Mark III

For the past three weeks I have been testing the 5D Mark III and its various modes and settings. So I’m just going to sum up what I think, Its great ! I love it. For stills the images are so rich and so sharp, Im not a fan of the inbuilt HDR modes as it just complicated things in the menus but the auto focus is great, a vast improvement on the 5d Mark II. Of Course the low light is astounding ! I can push to 6400ISO and even at 400% crop there is no unrepairable noise. When shooting video this is a huge advantage, I helped a friend shoot a short film in match light… No problem for the 5D Mark III and my 35mm F1.4 !

With the  (IPB) compression for an editing-friendly format and interframe (ALL-i) compression for superior data compression the camera offers great flexibility for different workflows. The ALL-i compressions offers unto 90MB/s and it shows in the edit suite. Grading the 5D footage is a joy. Put some custom picture profiles on it like MarvelsCine and the 5D opens up a world of possibilities in Grading.

Here is a sequence I shot on the 5D Mark III with the camera set to ALL-i 720/60fps then conformed to 25fps. This was shot with the Canon 35mm F1.4L and the Samyang 85mm F1.4

Music: Chim Chim Cher-ee by Turin Brakes

 

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Canon-5d-3-front

Canon 5D Mark III Spec List

Unsurpassed Image Quality

22.3 Megapixel Full Frame CMOS sensor

DiG!C 5+ Image Processor

ISO 100-25600 (expandable to L:50 H1:51200, H2: 102400

Full HD Movie (ISO 100-12800 (H:25600)

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Screen Shot 2012-02-02 at 00.51.09

RAW Timelapse Workflow

Here is a great tutorial for doing time lapses with DSLR’s using RAW images. The video covers everything from setting up the camera, shooting and editing the sequence.

 

 

Here are some other very useful links to help you get the best out of your time-lapses.

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LeftSide

Fix Unwanted lens flare with Flex Lens Shade

Just found this, looks like a great solution for travel photographers and videographers working on a budget.

I will pick up one as a alternative for carrying a massive matte-box around with me, I will let you know what I think.

You can find the Flex Lens Shade at B&H 

 

The Flex Lens Shade

The Flex Lens Shade is a flexible lens shade that can be easily attached to any lens to block unwanted light from the lens. This large (7 x 11″/17.78 x 27.94 cm) lens shade attaches to a lens or lens hood using the included touch-tab strap, and can be bent into whatever shape you need to prevent lens flare–the shade keeps the shape you bend it into. It will also block rain from your lens (the lens shade is made from waterproof ballistic nylon with double-stitch sewing and finished edges). The Flex Lens Shade weighs just 1.2 oz (34 g) and lies flat for easy storage and transport.

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Nikon D4

Nikon’s D4 Outed Officially

Nikon’s D4 has been confirmed. It looks very impressive on the spec sheet.

Looks like it will be packed with some great Video features ! I just hope someone at Nikon has thought about audio.

 

Here are the specs:
- Nikon D4 will have substantially lighter body
- Available in February
- Suggested retail price: $6,000
- The ISO range is listed again as 100 to 102,400, expandable to 50 to 204,800.
- 91,000-pixel RGB metering sensor
- Face detection/recognition
- 100% viewfinder coverage (obviously)
- Illuminated function buttons
- Dedicated video button
- Includes H.264 B frame compression
- Contrast detect AF in movie recording
- Low-pass filter for video recording
- Smooth aperture feature for video recording
- Nikon D4 is not produced in Thailand

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Magic Lantern releases new Firmware for Canon DSLR

Magic Lantern have just launched a new firmware for the Canon DLSR cameras. Aimed at filmmakers who use cameras such as the Canon 5D and 500D the new firmware vastly improves the camera handling of video and audio. The new firmware lets users monitor audio levels on-screen, adjust gain manually  with no AGC, use zebra stripes for exposure control and  use custom cropmarks for 16:9, 2.35:1, 4:3 and any other format.

This update also included some cool features such as HDR Video, you will get two streams at half frame rate. For example, if you record 25p, you will get two 12.5fps streams. Interpolate them to 25fps and use your favorite HDR software to blend the frames. Magic lantern is not a hack it runs side by side with Canons own firmware, booting from the card.

The Firmware is currently available for: Canon 5D Mark II, 500D, 550D, 600D, 50D and 60D

Unfortunately they have not been able to port the firmware onto the Canon 7D, but they are working on it.

Click here to go to their website.

Introduction to Magic Lantern

 

Example of HDR video with Magic Lantern

 

 

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