Interesting new piece of freeware for Canon 5D MkII / 7D / 1D MkIV users looking to improve their workflow, called 5DtoFCP from idustrial revolution.
I’ve not had a chance to try it out yet, but this is the blurb from the creators:
“A complete FCS workflow package to get footage from a Canon5DmkII/7D/1D into Final Cut Pro at 25fps. Custom droplets, correctly configured sequence settings and flow chart included to make getting the HD H264 files into FCP easier & quicker.”
If you do try it out, let me know how it goes….
[Update 27/01/10] New version 1.1 out, is said to add “New set of droplets & timelines to work with Final Cut Studio 3″ and “support for FCS3 Compressor 3.5″
If you’re mainly interested in the media you can probably skip part 4, but the rest is well worth a read if you want an idea of the issues currently facing journalism, some of the solutions, and particularly are wondering how the hell it’s all going to be paid for.
Guardian photographer/videographer Dan Chung has set up a new website DSLR News Shooter aimed at those shooting news video on the new generation of DSLR cameras such as the Canon 5DmkII.
With the recent release of the Canon 7D and unconfirmed rumors that Nikon’s new flagship camera the D3s will feature full-frame 1080P video and 14fps stills shooting, the DSLR video race is starting to heat up.
What I’ve found with many of those sites though, is that most of the people there are using the cameras for what I’d categorise as a “slow” working environment i.e. documentaries, feature films, editorial work, etc.
Trying to shoot and edit video with DSLRs in a live news scenario is a heck of a lot different, so am hoping Dan’s new site will live up to its name and cater more to this field.
Two new audio recorders have been announced. The Sony PCM-M10 (seen at right) aims to be a smaller more portable version of its bigger brother the PCM-D50.
The Samson Q3 on the other hand is a hybrid audio and video recorder – sort of a cross between a Samson H2 and a Flip video camera.
The convergence train never stops.
Firmware guru Tramm Hudson has publicly released the first version of his alternative firmware for the Canon 5D Mark II camera (Note this is the same firmware as the “5D Mark Free” one I wrote about previously, it’s just been renamed). Additional features added to the base Canon firmware include:
- Onscreen stereo audio meters
- Full-time cropmarks
- Zebra stripes for overexposed regions
- Fixed audio gain (+10 dB analog, +12 dB digital) with -NO AGC-
- Live headphone monitoring on A/V jack (without disabling LCD)
- printf() to the bitmap display
- GUI event viewer (press Picture Style button)
Note that the firmware doesn’t operate quite as you might expect. You store the firmware on a compact-flash card, and to run it you have to do a “firmware upgrade” on the camera each time you want to use it, but the alternative firmware does not persist between camera reboots – therefore the base Canon firmware remains untouched.
More info at the links below, the video introduction gives a good idea of the capabilities….
One day someone’s hacking the firmware to give manual audio control… the next Canon itself is announcing full manual exposure control in an official firmware update due out on June 2nd.
Coincidence? Well, who knows… but if they could just combine manual exposure control with manual audio control, and add in a 24P shooting mode, they’ll have some pretty happy video-shooting customers.
For more info check out Canon 5D Tips, who are writing a series of posts about what all this means, and already have an interesting post up about the effects of different shutter speeds when shooting video.
The ever-enterprising crowd over at the Cinema5D forums have managed to overcome the most sought-after complaint by those who use the Canon 5D MarkII camera for shooting video – the lack of any manual control over audio levels.
In particular, the user “Hudson” has developed an alternative firmware named 5D Mark Free which not only disables the automatic audio gain control (AGC) leaving it set to the default +36 dB, but now also adds onscreen audio meters (see video above).
Bear in mind this firmware remains heavily in “alpha” territory… it’s a proof-of-concept so far, not a working version for everyone to flash today, in fact it’s not available for download yet.
But what is very significant indeed is that it proves once and for all that it is actually possible. There is not an unknown hardware limitation, it’s merely a question of developing the right firmware.
Canon? The ball would appear to be in your court….
Photographer Doug Plummer’s blog posts a news release from XLR audio adapter company BeachTek announcing their new model specifically designed for the Canon 5D Mark II. Back in January of this year photographer Edmond Terakopian posted a preview of the device.
This isn’t just a simple XLR adapter like the rest of the company’s product line, but includes one special feature to overcome a specific problem that photographers and videographers using the camera have been complaining about since the camera was launched – namely that it applies audio Auto-Gain Control (AGC) all the time, with no way for the user to switch it off and exercise manual audio gain control.
The new device is said to get around the problem by “sending a high frequency inaudible tone to the left channel of the camera” – in effect tricking the AGC circuit into thinking volume is at a high, fixed level all the time and so applying a fixed level of gain, which in turn allows the user to control overrall gain via a dial on the device (if my reading of the technology is correct). The device also allows the photographer to monitor the audio in real-time with headphones, another feature missing from the camera itself.
According to the press release posted the device will be shipping at the end of May for $379. Of course it would all be a lot simpler if Canon just allowed the user to switch AGC off completely, which presumably could be done via a firmware update… although there’s no clear sign of that coming.
For lots of discussion on the subject of the camera’s audio and other features as regards shooting video, take a look at these sites:
