From a press release from Canon issued today:

the hotly anticipated firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera is now available.

This new firmware will accommodate a great number of user requests for manual exposure control in the EOS 5D Mark II video mode. Manual exposure control while shooting video on the EOS 5D Mark II is expected to make a big impact with cinematographers and videographers using the 5D Mark II for high-end HD video production.

Please follow the link below to the EOS 5D Mark II product page on the Canon U.S.A. Web site to download the new firmware. Let us know if you have any questions, thank you.

http://wwwusa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=17662#ModelDetailAct

Once again traveling the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, at NAB we made a bee line for the camcorder manufacturers to see what was available in the low end of the broadcast range.

JVC was showing off it’s new ProHD solid state GY HM-100 and GY HM-700 camcorders, that record to SDHC cards in native Quicktime format. Both models record in almost every flavor of HD video, 1080i, 1080p, 720p at various NTSC and PAL compatible frame rates. The codec used is 35Mbps MPEG-2

JVC promised to get us a review unit of the hand held GY-HM 100 as soon as they’re off the assembly lines in a few weeks. The GY HM-100 is available within a few weeks at a price point of $3,995, and the HM-700 is on sale now for $7,995.

Panansonic announced a hand-held pro model, the HMC 40. This new small format camcorder also records to SDHC cards, but belongs to the AVCCAM line, meaning it records in AVCHD. The camcorder comes with 3, 1/4 inch CMOS sensors, with a maximum bit rate of 24Mbps.

The HMC 40 will be released in August with a suggested price of $3,195. We’re also keen to take a look at it here in the offices, as we really liked their HMC-150 in the same AVCCAM family.

Canon was there showing off some new broadcast lenses, but no updates to their camcorder line were there, unless you include the Canon 5D mark II DSLR, which they showed tricked out in their booth alongside their camcorders.

There were a lot of accessories for this DLSR, including follow focus systems, rails, viewfinders and various audio attachments. There’s no doubt that the DSLR as video camera is here to stay as a category. We’ve got our Canon on 5D mark II on the test bench now.

Sony didn’t have much in the way of new announcements this year, but one thing that did catch our eye, was the HXRMC1, POV camera. It’s essentially an AVCHD camcorder with the lens detached and conntected to the camcorder by a 9 foot cable. There’s all sorts of uses as a second camera with such versatility.

The camera shoots 1080i AVCHD to Memory Stick, and includes a 10x zoom lens, and weighs only 1lb. 1oz, making it possible to stick anywhere. Uses include work as a helmet-cam, or mounted on a boom pole for some extreme POV shots.

Digital still cameras have had rudimentary video capabilities for some time. However recent advances in high end models such as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1k, Nikon D90, and the Canon 5d mark II have made the idea of creating high-quality video content on a still camera a reality.

For the first time in it’s history Videomaker will review a still camera (Canon 5D mkII) in it’s pages, and we will add the Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) as a new category of camcorder henceforth. As you would expect, the focus on the review will be on the video capabilities of the camera, with a brief overview of its still photo functions.

We will focus on using the DSLR in real world shooting conditions, in terms of capacity battery life, audio capabilities and other practical tests. The footage that we’ve seen so far is very impressive, but there are some real limitations to capturing video with DSLR’s at this stage.

In broad strokes, some of the advantages of the DSLR video format are:

• Full Frame 35mm Sensors create a shallower Depth of Field
• High quality and relatively inexpensive lenses
• Integral “film look”

Some of the disadvantages are:

• Limited record times
• Poor audio capability
• Limited video controls
• Lens zoom and focus not designed for motion pictures, only stills

While still very much in their infancy, I expect that DSLR’s will make great strides in the near future in terms of video capabilities, and will be viable digital cinema cameras after a few versions.

It might be full-on winter right now, but if you have visions of shooting underwater videography of sharks or just the kids in the backyard pool this summer, check out the latest gadget from Canon.

Canon just announced a new WP-V1 Waterproof Case for the VIXIA HF20 and VIXIA HF200 Flash Memory Camcorders. You can dive up to depths of 130 feet to capture exciting underwater adventures. The compact and light-weight housing hugs the camcorder like a wet suit, enabling easy on-camera operation and control.

Checking in at $600, the housing isn’t cheap, but none of the true underwater housings are. The VIXIA HF200, pictured here, has an MSRP of $750 and the VIXIA HF20 runs about $900. Both will be on the market this coming April.

A rule of thumb for anyone wishing to do any underwater shooting, do your research on the housing first, then decide on the camera. In most cases, one size does NOT fit all.

Read our underwater shooting tips here: In Depth Video Tips and Dive in! The Water’s Fine.

Find our more about the Vixia HF-20/200 AVCHD camcorders on our blog here: http://videomaker.com/community/blogs/videonews/tag/vixia/

And more on Canon’s underwater housing from this press release issued Feb. 18th, 2009: Read the rest of this entry »

Canon announced today it’s consumer camcorder line-up for 2009, updating some old favorites and releasing some exciting new models.

Of immediate interest to Videomaker readers is the Vixia HF S10/S100 model. This is Canon’s top of the line AVCHD camcorder, and deserves serious consideration even by professionals. The engineers at Canon have included a 8.59 MP CMOS chip, and the DIGIC DV III processor, as well as allowing compression at AVCHD’s upper limit of 24Mbps. What does all this technical goodness get you? 900 lines of resolution, that’s more resolution than their professional line of HDV camcorders. I was able to see some sample footage from the Vixia HF S10/S100 on a recent trip to Japan, and the image quality was outstanding.

Also updated was the successor to Canon’s popular Vixia HV-20 and HV-30 HDV camcorder, the Canon HV-40. The key update here is the new abiltiy to record in native 24p mode, similar to their professional products. This addition is perfect for this model, one that has found wide acceptance in the low-budget movie making market. In addition the HV-40 sports a new custom key setting, that allows you assign your own functions to a physical button on the camcorder.

Another update was the Vixia HF-20/200 AVCHD camcorders. These are the smallest camcorder’s in Canon’s line up, and have a 15x lens, and the new Video Snapshot feature. This new mode is accessed via a button, and it simply takes 4 seconds of video each time you press record. So what’s the big deal with this feature? Well, if you’ve ever had to sit through hours of boring home movies, you will appreciate Video Snapshot. In addition to limiting shots to 4 seconds, you can use the camcorder to arrange your 4 second clips in any order, and assign a piece of background music (you can upload your own tracks to the camcorder), and play them out straight to the TV from your camera. It’s automated editing for those who can’t be bothered to edit, and seems to work very well in practice.

This is just the announcement, pricing and availability aren’t  set yet. So stay tuned to the Videomaker Blog for further updates.

Press Release Below:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Videomaker/Canon Short Video Contest has gone to judging. We accepted 159 entries this year, and they are all being viewed.

My hope for sending all of the entries as H.264 files was dashed, though. While computer monitors are getting better all the time (and computers are also getting quicker), the thing that I didn’t consider was that only one of our editors has a way to watch H.264 directly on their TV. (One of us has a PS3, but ironically, the H.264 files worked better for that particular judge, as he is in Tokyo right now. But more on that later.) So I leveraged the power of TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress again to create some quick DVD-Video compliant files and threw them over to Encore for burning and menus. It worked out pretty well, though. All of the entries that were submitted as HD encoded very nicely, making for some of the nicest-looking DVD-Video footage we’ve seen in quite some time.

Although the machine we used to create those files? Sloooooow. I set up a big batch to encode overnight, and my workstation was only half-way through when I arrived at work the next morning. If you find yourself working on a contest in a technical capacity, it’s worth your while to ask about getting a nice dual-core machine. Trust me.