Canon to give 5D Mark II a cinema boost

It counts only as a footnote compared to today's announcement of the professional EOS 1D Mark IV camera, but Canon also had a nice nugget of news for those who've invested $2,700 for the 5D Mark II SLR.

Canon's EOS 5D Mark II

(Credit: Canon USA)

Specifically, through a firmware update due to arrive in the first half of 2010, the SLR will be able to shoot 1920x1080 video not just at today's rate of 30 frames per second, but also at the 25fps rate used in European TV and the 23.976 fps rate used in cinematography, videography, and U.S. TV.

Lisette Ranga, program marketing specialist for Canon USA, confirmed the change Tuesday.

The 5D Mark II isn't a cheap camera, but it's an affordable option in some circles--documentaries being one example. "The Battle for Hearts and Minds," a documentary on Afghanistan by independent filmmaker Danfung Dennis, was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II. In some situations 30fps is fine, but a lot of the videography industry is built around a rate of 23.976 frames per second.

However, there's no word on whether the firmware update will also enable 60fps video at the lower 1280x720 resolution--a feat possible with the new EOS 7D, an 18-megapixel camera with a smaller sensor and lower price than the 5D Mark II.

The firmware update reflects how software updates available over the Internet can significantly change a camera after it's introduced, something that gives camera makers some new flexibility to fix cameras and adapt to customer desires. The 5D Mark II arrived in late 2008, but through a firmware update in January, Canon fixed a "black dot" problem that afflicted high-contrast areas of some images, and in June, Canon added manual controls for video.

Via Planet5D

[muskratboy]

"In some situations 30fps is fine, but a lot of the videography industry is built around a rate of 23.976 frames per second. "

this isn't really that true... video still has 29.97 as the king. 24p stuff is film speed... specialty uses, and not very common, even now. 30p / 60i is by far the most used in "videography"

so this is a good upgrade... but "a lot" of the industry is NOT built on 23.976.

[SX10 IS]

Ya... tell that to Canon.

[SX10 IS]

I meant Nikon. Oops!

[buschblick]

Depends on where you live. Historical NTSC territories (US, some parts of Asia) are 30 fps, PAL territories (Europe, middle East, some parts of Asia, ...) are 25 fps, so it's an essential upgrade for at least 50% of the camera users living in these areas.

[baconstang]

In a quest to make their videos look like film, some videographers shoot 24(23.976)fps instead of 30(29.97). Most video is shot at 30, especially for broadcast.

[codynews]

only 23.976? Let me know when it does 23.982

(yes, I know that this particular FPS is some meaningful amount, I'm just poking fun at AV geeks)

[sythara]

lol

[davidlari]

I'm more interested in 60fps to do slow motion. I hope they can cram that into the firmware update.

[Shankland]

Me too. I'm not going to be shooting any documentaries, and realistically my videos will be shown almost exclusively on a computer to my friends and family where 30fps rate is just fine. But I'd love to have the ability to have slow-motion videos with 60fps shooting replayed at 30fps. But that's just me.