Calm down – Canon has not made a professional video camera

Web buzz about the Canon 5D and 7D cameras seems to be spilling over into the real world. We take a look at the fuss…

Peter Parnham

Calm down. Canon has not made an HD camera that will take over from the big boys like Red, Sony, Panavision or Arri -  the corporate camera makers fighting over the old 35mm film space.

Nor are Canon about to take over the television camera space largely owned – in New Zealand at any rate – by Sony and Panasonic.

Yet the web-buzz seems to be spilling over into the real world – perhaps some people are seduced by the idea that Canon have suddenly discovered something the others have not; a way to ignore the trade offs inherent in camera design.

Stop the nonsense! The Canon 5D or 7D is a camera designed for a certain segment of the professional still photographic market; it’s just asking too much to expect it to perform as a serious professional video or feature film camera as well.

It can rightly claim to be a high quality professional quality still camera that has a video function that television camera professionals might be able to use from time to time when there is a special reason to do so.

Here at info.crews.tv we know this because a group of experienced TV crews member cameramen tested a Canon 5D against some professional HD cameras. We aren’t the only ones that have done these kind of tests.

These testers would have loved to be able to recommend a Canon,  because it delivers it a shallow depth of field – a creative tool that usually belongs to larger cameras and big screen shooting.  There are other reasons to like it too; it’s small and comparatively cheap.

But while you get the beloved shallow depth of field the sacrifices in usability and image quality are just too much for general broadcast television use.

For example you can’t operate through the viewfinder because it doesn’t work when shooting video and the LCD screen on the back is a poor substitute.

In the model we tested (Canon 5D) if you take the mini HDMI feed out of the side of the camera for a monitor, that turns the LCD screen off, and at the camera you fly blind.

If the video picture was really good perhaps you could put up with these problems.  But whether the picture is any good depends how well the cameras automatic functions cope with the scene and what you are shooting.

This is because the camera auto adjusts shutter speed, aperture, and ISO speed on the fly while you shoot. Exposure is out of the operator’s control and may vary during shot.  This might work for shooting the family at Christmas dinner, but it’s not something a professional DP will want to give up.

Auto focus is one function that the camera doesn’t try to control while shooting, on the other hand pulling focus is going to be tricky without a viewfinder, and with the shallow depth of field -  probably the reason you got the camera – focus is far more critical than a 2/3″ HD video camera.

All this is before we get to the quality of the image, probably determined largely by the processing within the camera. When the BBC tested a pre-production model they didn’t get past a test chart because of aliasing caused by sensor which is set up for the best still photography.

Consensus from NZCREWS members and a number of other commentators is not promising.

It’s just all together too much to expect a camera optimised for still photography to shoot high quality video except in ideal circumstances.

None of this is to say that the camera is no good – far from it. The camera is great. It’s an advanced photographic camera from a manufacturer with a great history, NZCREWS members say it is especially great for shooting time lapse because it gets great results without tying up your main camera. Still it doesn’t make it a video camera because time lapse is achieved using an intervalometer accessory and linking a series of still images together.

It will shoot reasonable video if the scene is not too demanding and you can get focus. This makes it C camera at best.

But a professional broadcast HD video camera it is not.