Canon 5D Mk2 Stills at 6400 ISO - Wedding

As you can tell from my last post i was not that impressed with the 5D MK2 FOR VIDEO/STILLS at weddings. I will be posting the full video/stills fusion we did in a couple of weeks. Luckily for me Sharon made a great job of the video with the Sony camcorder and i concentrated on what i love PHOTOGRAPHY. I was able test the camera at ISO 6400 at F 2.8 with the 70-200 lens at the reception. I have mentioned in previous posts that i was not that amazed by the noise level at ISO 6400 and expected it to be better after all the hype from canon and certain photographers (who get paid by canon). As i thought the images were noisy but still useable at 7x5 print size. This is fine for the wedding album but you always have the problem of capturing a great image of someone and a relative wanting a 20x16 inch print on the wall. I am going to stick to the rule of ISO 3200 is the maximum for the 5D Mk11 and ISO 1600 is the maximum for the 5D. I have to say this is personal taste and with noise reduction software i can see allot of people having no problem with the camera at high ISO 's. Just to let you know the video mode at ISO 3200 is very poor and i would suggest a maximum of ISO 1600 in video mode for the 5D Mk2.

First Wedding With the Canon 5D Mk 2

Had a chance to use the new 5D Mk2 at a real wedding the other day and thought i would share a few thoughts with you. We decided to combine video with stills and i used the 5d mk2 and Sharon used a sony hd camcorder. The first thing i noticed was how hard it is to combine stills and video at the same time because you have to concentrate very hard with documentary/reportage wedding photography to capture the right moment. I found it almost impossible to do both things at once. We set up the 5D mk2 on a tripod at the back of the ceremony room which was quite dark. Sharon set her HD camcorder up at the front of the room to capture the vows / exchanging of the rings ect. I used the Canon 70-200 2.8 is lens and video mode on the 5D Mk2 to combine video and stills through the ceremony. I found it worked quite well as long as i manually focussed the lens and locked the exposure with the * button. I used the live view and iso 3200 / f2.8. It was then time for the signing of the register and i decided to stay at the back and capture natural images of the bride and groom. I found this a problem as the camera would only take a few images in a row before locking up and stopping the video recording. I was in the largest RAW mode and i don't think the camera / processor/ compact flash card could handle it. I had also set the white balance to auto as i always correct later on in lightroom. The problem with this is the video mode is a bit like shooting jpeg andso you can not colour correct the video easily later on. As you can tell i was not that impressed so far and decided to stop video at the end of the ceremony and let sharon use her Sony camcorder for all the footage from the ceremony on.

Click Here for another website about the pitfalls of Canon 5D Mk2 Video

Canon eos 5D MkII The New Screen

The new screen is great and a pleasure to use. The live view is also very good and the movie mode is very easy to use. My favourite new feature is the ability to change shutter speed, aperture, iso ect on the rear screen using the joystick to move around. This is great for tripod work with the camera at eye level. You can use live view mode as well and have a silent shutter which is very good. I think who ever designed the new camera is a 'real photographer' because when you start using the new 5D Mk 11 you wonder how you lived with out it. I will be trying a new way of working in church ceremonies from now on. I will be able to record short clips of HD video and take photographs at the same time with a very quiet camera. I can have the camera at eye level and adjust everything on the rear screen. The exposure is simulated very well on the screen as well. I think this is a massive improvement over the 5D for a wedding photographer.

more later

rb

Canon eos 5D MkII Noise at 3200

The main reason i have bought the new 5D Mk11 and not another 5D is i would like to be able to use IS0 6400 in dark churches with my 24-105 f4. I do not like changing lenses to much during weddings as you miss images. I have been testing the new 5D against the old 5D to see what noise is present and how bad it gets. I have not published the results as it is early days for the camera and i would like to show you the results from a wedding i will photograph at the end of january.

I have found that the old 5D was as good as i have always thought and the new 5D Mk11 is pretty much the same in terms of noise BUT............this will suprise you......the old 5D is a better type of noise that does not effect your images. I know this may be a shock to some people but i have processed the images through lightroom with the same settings on the same compact flash cards with the same 70-200 f2.8 lens set at 135mm. I can't beleive it but the ISO 6400 raw files are very noisy and i think un useable for my work........shock horror.

The reason i am shocked is because there has been allot of hype about this camera and i expected the results at ISO 6400 to be like the ISO 1600 on the old 5D. Everyone seems to talk about a 2 stop improvement over the old 5D but its not true. The only time i could use ISO 6400 is with black and white images. At 3200 the two cameras are the same and you would have allot of trouble telling the cameras apart.

rb

Canon eos 5D MkII Has Arrived

I have been lucky enough to get the new 5d Mk11 this week from just canon. I am going to be running a few posts about the new camera. I have always used the 5D for digital photography and it was the only camera that converted me from film to digital. It is going to be very hard for the new 5D mk 2 to beet it but here goes lets see if it is as good as every one likes to think.

I opened the box and picked up the new body and thought i had been sent a beta version because the top of the camera has had a new paint job. Its sort of like matt paint and looks a bit like plastic. Everyone is saying the new body feels just like the old one but if you look at every part you will see it is a brand new design and everything about this camera is different.

The screen on the top plate is bigger the main screen is bigger and much better. The viewfinder is brighter and better. All the buttons are in new positions (very annoying canon). The menu system is more like the 40D. The battery is a new type that will not fit the old 5D. Andso the main thing i would say about the camera is its all new and different.