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First Still Photos with Canon 5Dmk2 DSLRSo let me get this straight, this camera takes digital photographs at 21.1 MP? I thought is was a video camera! I purchased the Canon 5Dmk2 digital SLR camera with the sole intention of using it as a video camera with very shallow depth of field. I was impressed by the low light performance of the imager and I really liked the fact that I could mount interchangeable prime lenses. I also wanted to shoot 1080p HD footage at 30 frames per second in remote places. I was happy that the camera was small, water resistant, and light weight. But… the camera was made for shooting stills! I wanted to use it to shoot “film-like” video in almost any lighting condition. The fact that it is a digital photo camera was a bonus for me. I have finally started taking pictures with it and look forward to the day when I can edit RAW images. For now, the .JPEG pictures below where shot at 5616×3744 and they were about 5.5mb each. These shots were taken around New Hampshire yesterday. I thank my friend, Dave for his help! The forest was very dark and I was surprised that I could even expose some of these shots while shooting handheld. If I was using a video camera, it would be set to like 18dB noisy gain! The pictures displayed on this blog entry are thumbnails. You can click the image to see a much larger .jpg of the photo if you like.
My first impression of this camera (as far as stills goes) is that I need much more practice! It is very hard to hold the camera when taking a still at a slow shutter speed. Your focus may be spot-on, but just the trigger pull will cause the camera to move very slightly and throw everything into a bit of a motion blur. When snapping pics handheld, it is best to run the camera at a faster shutter speed if light allows. The best way around this would be to use a tripod and a remote trigger. I will next time! Some of the pictures above were shot at ISO 6400! If you do not know much about the still camera world, this translates to like 20dB gain when shooting video. The only difference is that there is very little noise in the picture. This is why this camera blows away just about everything else when it comes to shooting video or stills in very low light. 8 comments to First Still Photos with Canon 5Dmk2 DSLR |
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Copyright © 2010 Tom Guilmette - All Rights Reserved |
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Pick up a copy of Aperture, and start shooting RAW. Great editing tools. You will love it. And, Aperture is a great app to organize all your shoots as well.
i will. or i might use adobe lightroom. not sure yet. have you used both?
“Water resistant” ? BE careful here. I got moisture under my LCD and it stained the protector glass with a light mist one day. There have been numerous reports with moisture issues with this camera. A camera housing for all your gear would be warranted with all the rain we have had in the northeast. UGH!
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1032&message=32176384&q=moisture&qf=m
NICE PICS!
i got my 5dmk2 pretty wet. no signs of damage yet. i see news photogs and sports guys beating up this type of gear. is the 5dmk2 not as durable and water resistant as other pro-type dslr’s?
First of all the 5DM2 is not a 1 series Canon, which is water resistant. Seals and all. Lightroom and PS are what you want for serious still photo work. What lenses are you using on the Canon? Good L glass will make a difference.
Good luck with the new toy. After going with the EX1 and other gear it will be a little while before I upgrade my 5D….
thanks george! i do not claim to be an expert with this stuff, i just like shooting with it!
i plan on using lightroom to edit the raw images. i own two canon lenses, both cheap ef lenses. one is a 100mm to 300mm f4.5-5.6 ultrasonic zoom. the other is the ef 24mm f2.8.
i also have a canon eos to nikon adapter ring so i can use all my manual nikon glass on the camera. things seem to be working well, i hope to do more work with it soon. i am very new to the still photo world. this is the first slr or dslr i have ever used.
i bought this because of it’s video capability. taking stills is just a bonus for me.
thanks again for the correction. my ex1 is not water resistant, but i have gotten that rig very wet!
tom
Tom: I would use aperature as I have used Lightroom before and it requires rendering of the raw files.
Takes forever. Aperature works much faster and has almost the exact same capabilities. You can even publish directly to your me galleries as well via aperature. Full screen editing too! 
I found your site/blog when attempting to perform a Google search. I was doing some research on the weather resistant properties of higher end pro-sumer DSLR’s. After reading posts from previous visitors and your responses I was curious if you would be willing to entertain me (and perhaps other inquisitive persons) by using your skills as a cinematographer to create a short video regarding your camera. I would hope the video would display how “wet” your camera actually became and include any other situations showing the camera’s real world weather resistant prowess. Currently there are many articles and comments about the durability of this camera against the elements but no one has published/released actual still or video footage of it’s real world properties (not even on YouTube). If time is short and shooting/editing a video is too much, some stills of you using your 5DMk2 (and gear) in the field would suffice. Thank you for your consideration.