Hi everyone,
I am hesitant to post this here, since it pertains more to videography than photography, but because it is about Canon SLRs, I will post it.

I have a friend who is very interested in videography. I was talking to him, and when he heard that Canon's VSLRs offer 1080p video, he got really excited. I don't want him to get a Canon VSLR if the quality of the video isn't that good (1080p doesn't say it all). I also told him that NBC had recently used the 7D and 5D II. He was amazed when he heard the VSLRs' prices.

What's your opinion on Canon's DSLR video? (esp. quality of image, sound, etc.)

Send him over to here http://www.cinema5d.com/index.php

Thanks, el_hoppy.

The quality is very good for a cheap camera.

However it has it's limitations.

The CODEC is not the greatest i.e. a lot of compression, sometimes obvious.

The feature set is very limited compared to a dedicated video camera.

So you wouldn't consider the quality of the video very usable for commercial purposes?

It's a tool with limitations. So it really depends on what he wants to do and so on. Under the right circumstance it can, as we know, be used for commercial purposes. However, not as well as full blown pro video cam with the works.

Dpic_arctic wrote:
So you wouldn't consider the quality of the video very usable for commercial purposes?

Like anything else if it is part of a well thought out kit of equipment and editing software of course it would be usable for commercial purposes, absolutely.

Dave

I think it would be cool to have access to certain lenses for film-making, like TS-E lenses or super telephoto lenses or even fisheye lenses, but that would not end up being a money saving kit. In one of Canon's 7D sample videos, they used probably 50k worth of lenses! It seemed like a high quality video to me.

I've seen it used on the set of "Flash Forward," so the 5D's been used on network television. The show's budget certainly allowed for a Red camera, and if you've seen the look of this show, you know that they have high visual standards. I would say that it works very for commercial purposes.

Thanks for the info. Sorry for my ignorance on this topic, but what's a Red camera?

http://www.red.com/

Interchangable lens, usually PL mount, cinema digital camera used on features and numerous other professional productions.

I would suggest lurking at cinema5d.com or http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-eos-5d-mk-ii-hd/ for video DSLR information. Those two forums are much more suited to the topic.

Thanks Daniel.

Me and a friend put together this music video for a friend's metal band using a 5d2 + 24 TSE + 17-40 (there is another camera that i dont know what it is that had lower quality used as well).

http://www.youtube.com/user/JisforJenkem#p/a/u/2/ls4-cjCI-NQ

Is a bit NSFW

Most of the stuff I'm going to be doing will be for the web, so it's perfect for me. It's the ultimate web cam.

Thanks Nick and Future Man.