Using SLR ( Canon 5D mk2 ) to Shoot Movies ?

[stacks]

Hi People,

I was at a shoot the other day where an award winning ( adult ) film maker was shootind video on 2 pro vid cams AND 2 Canon 2d mk2 SLR's ..

Now this got me thinking as i have a 5d ( not the mk2 ) and wanted a pro video camera but cant really afford raising the money for one right now..

So brain waive: i just sell my 5d, raise the extra to upgrade to the Canon 5d MK2, then i have my SLR and can also shoot High Deffintion films on it too right ?

I'm thinkin if this guy uses them for video its good enough for me !

Looking for some opinions to assure me this is a good or at least not a bad move ?

I do have a question, will they be steady off tripod or only suitable for shooting movies in on tripod ?

Any bad points anybody can bring up before i sell my camera ?

i shoot adult content, wont have to do anything to creative on it, will set lighting up and just want to capture high quality video..

i just thought the sound will be pretty bad wont it ?

Thanks

Stacks

[lordsmurf]

Focus is manual -- one of many issues.
You really need to read up on this. It's not as easy as you're thinking

[jagabo]

You can have rolling shutter problems. Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJozM55HrsM

[aedipuss]

sound can be recorded separately. set shots from fixed distances on a tripod should work fine. bouncing appendages may be a problem for a cmos sensor. the distortion may be painful to view.

full length features have been shot with dslrs like that. not easy but doable.

[Soopafresh]

There's also the less expensive 7D and the baby brother - the $900 550D Rebel. The best part of the 550D is the higher capacity SD data cards it supports.

7D footage:

http://www.vimeo.com/groups/eos7d/videos

[Iambob]

Stacks, this is not your camera, but here is one I have up on You Tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX0-BLiVmKA
I didn't want to way a video camera around so I used my Canon A70 Sure Shot. I'll never carry my vid cam anymore which is a Cannon BTW.
This was aboard a dinner cruise boat, available light, on the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt.
I would say, take your SLR and go for it.

The only drawback is my camera will only take a 2GB card. Last year I took a lot of vid with it in China, and all came out just as good.

[VegasBud]

stacks,

As far as a tripod goes, a recent B&H Pro Video/Audio newsletter describes an alternative. Here's a link to that. The manufacturer's webpage is here.

Here's some material on the hd video/dslr subject from the Luminous Landscape (photography) website.

If you decide to go ahead with this, you'll probably be interested in the Magic Lantern firmware for the 5d. Here's the link for that.

Here's a link to a youtube video about audio considerations. The maker of the video also has a website dedicated to the subject. Click here to go there.

[Soopafresh]

An additional stabilizer option http://www.indifocus.com/products_indirailsprodslr.htm

Viewfinder which allows you to focus more accurately: http://jag35.com/new/products/lcdvf/

@VegasBud - thanks for that link to 5Dfilmmaking.com . Great tutorials up there.

[VegasBud]

While looking around the jag35 site which Soopafresh posted a link to, I found a link to an interesting article about Lucasfilm being interested in dslr video. Here's the link.

@VegasBud - thanks for that link to 5Dfilmmaking.com . Great tutorials up there.

It was my pleasure...and thank you for the link to the jag35 site.

[stacks]

Thanks everybody for all the replys, i'm glad i asked before selling my camera,

Lordsmurff, thanks, this is the most concerning issue which i overlooked and the reason i think i will have to just save up for a pro vid cam thats made for the job..

aedipuss, thanks, this explains the way i saw them being used, the vid cams were manned and moved through the scene the SLR's were not..

Thanks everybody else, i think i have the information to make a dessision and thats to get a pro vid cam..

Thanks

Stacks

[2Bdecided]

You can have rolling shutter problems. Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJozM55HrsM

You can have exactly that on many "real" video cameras too - e.g. Canon HV20. It's a pain on most CMOS-based cameras.

VirtualDub Deshaker can mostly remove it, as can a recent AVIsynth script, but slow.

It can be fairly catastrophic in some situations - e.g. running with the camera.

(Sometimes you want the look of running with the camera!)

Cheers,
David.