[shuttertalk]

Spotted on Lifehacker - if you have a Canon 5D Mk II and are into professional movie making, then this Magic Lantern firmware hack will give you features and enhancements that only pros crave.
- On-screen audio meters
- Manual gain control with no AGC
- Zebra stripes (video peaking)
- Custom Cropmarks for 16:9, 2.35:1, 4:3 and any other format
- Control of focus and bracketing

http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic...mware_Wiki

Apart from that, I found the FAQ page on the front very interesting to read, especially the question asking why do this and not just buy a dedicated video camera?

Their answer:

If you can find a video camera that a) shoots HD, b) has a 50 mbps data rate, c) has interchangable lenses, d) has a 35 mm or larger sensor and e) costs less than $150k (without lenses, like the CineAlta F35), then buy that one instead. There are limitations to shooting movies on a 5D Mark II, notably the limited 12 minute recording time and lack of balanced audio inputs, but a ArriCam Lite only records 5 minutes of Super 35 and a high quality preamp like the juicedLink CX231 provides balanced inputs. The lack of auto-focus in movie mode isn't a problem either -- movies are focused manually with a follow-focus like the Cinevate Durus.

Interesting...

[Zig]

That is very interesting. Full marks to these guys for widening the possibilities: I could imagine that the onscreen audio meter and frames would be particularly desirable. Good stuff.

[matthew]

If you can find a video camera that a) shoots HD, b) has a 50 mbps data rate, c) has interchangable lenses, d) has a 35 mm or larger sensor and e) costs less than $150k (without lenses, like the CineAlta F35), then buy that one instead. There are limitations to shooting movies on a 5D Mark II…

It's fascinating to see what people can do with tools once they've been invented. I wouldn't be surprised if Canon wasn't expecting the 5D's video mode to have nearly the impact that it has; it's easy to tell that Nikon got caught completely off-guard by what it started with the D90, to the point where they're only just now trying to catch up.

I've read the website luminous-landscape for ages. Michael Reichmann seems like one of the first to predict what would happen with the emergence of video-capable SLRs, and he wrote another essay recently about what he expects to happen next.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays...ence.shtml

The smaller (but still large in cine terms) APS-C and Four Thirds sensors are at the sweet spot; small enough to allow shallow DOF when desired, yet not so shallow that a moderate aperture presents lighting issues. Indeed the Four Thirds sensor's size is isn't that much smaller than traditional 35mm motion picture film.Thus we will have both Sony and Panasonic with their new video cameras having sensors aimed at the DOF sweet spot.

All of the begs the question – is there room for video DSLRs in this new brave new large sensor video camera world? The answer is likely both yes and no. At the pro level there will always be those cinematographers who love the small size / big picture that a DSLR offers when shooting video. But for anything other than shooting in incredibly tight quarters, DSLRs make truly terrible cine cameras.
…
I therefore think that over the next year or so the video DSLR revolution, begun by Nikon with the D90 and brought to a peak by the Canon 5D MKII, will have run its course. Naturally all DSLRs will continue to offer ever-improving video capability, but they will essentially remain stills cameras that can (Oh, by the way) shoot video, while the new generation of large sensor video cameras such as the AF100 and Super 35 NEXCAM become the tools of choice for Indy film makers and other budget-oriented producers and cinematographers.

Aside from repeating the common misusage of 'begs the question', his essay's notable for thinking that the traditional film/video makers, Panasonic and Sony, will take back the dominant position in video by essentially demolishing their existing product lines with products that provide more suitable products at about the same price as a video-DSLR once it's been attached to all of the doohickery that makes them usable for video production.

But one thing that the 5DmkII has going for it, and by extension all Canon cameras, is the tremendous market momentum. If Nikon (Sony, Panasonic) were to come out with a spec-for-spec match for the 5D that improved on a half-dozen things, it still would have a hard time selling. People will buy what they expect to buy, and that will be hard to change especially if it goes against the current fashion that's supported by a huge advertising campaign. After all, our current generation of digital still photographers haven't yet figured out that thin DOF is a problem more often than it's a solution, and we've had an extra few years with the concept.

[Zig]

Excellent development by Matthew here; sharp as a greased ferret as usual.
"Room" for video DSLRs(c.f. Reichmann) in the "large sensor video world" he quotes, can be directly equated with Matthew's point: Matthew's excellent phrase "market momentum" is the very thing, the actual kinetic energy applied, that blats into consumer-consciousness and makes such room.
This "area of space" is in market terms then a vacuum of perceived need that has to be filled, in the buyer's mind: Canon can shift more space/room, just because it has such momentum.
By extension, Sony et al are "most efficient"(my quotes) by either creating different spaces, or perceived needs...the trick then being to keep the language of that need appropriate to whatever vacuum it can suggest exists in its consumers-to-be. Sony's present TV campaign(in the UK at least) seems to do 2 things: firstly, it pounces upon and subsumes the space that Olympus had clawed, with its smallness and cleverness only slightly shafted by Kevin Spacey's idiocy. It also(amazingly enough) seems to get to grips with depth of field, referring to its ability to introduce "background blur"!...as if this fluffy thing is something that Sony has developed in its labs in time for Christmas.
Thus, logic...and certainly what photographers count as logic...is of no consequence whatever, in terms of what people are going to get. Whether it is still, video, full-frame, digital, pi-r-squared or does the undies on a hot wash and adds conditioner...is of no relevance: while there still suckers about who pay a lot of cash for Nikon Coolpix, is worth the embarrassment for Nikon of having their name on it...an upturn on the graph at head office covers shame remarkably well, after all.
And so on across the market. The thorn in the side for the companies must be real, actual photographers who have been in the game for several years: these maddening inviduals do not want what the market wants, but still need tools that do the job...and I even wonder that full-frame DSLRS that take like, you know, photographs, might be really lost leaders pretty soon if not already.