Canon EOS 7D 24p footage tries to make indie filmmakers / chain smokers out of us all

Want a really good excuse to spend $1,700 on a DSLR? Check out the 24fps "Dublin's People" short after the break, shot with one of those fancy new 7D DSLRs from this little company named "Canon" that you may have heard of. The verdict? Filmmaker Philip Bloom loves the new hardware, and says the rolling shutter problems of the 5D Mark II have been slightly reduced (at a cursory glance, anyway). Still, he's hoping Canon also releases a firmware update for existing 30fps-limited 5D Mark II owners -- he owns two.

[Via planet5D]

Dublin's People: Canon 7d 24p from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

[bdav Posted Sep 8th 2009 2:01PM]

Wow. To my (which is admittedly untrained) eye, that video looks pretty impeccable. I remember filming a conference with a cheapo prosumer Canon XL-H1 video camera, and the low-light was horrible. This looks beautiful to me given the low light. So so very tempting....

[roxics Posted Sep 8th 2009 3:51PM]

At $9000 I've never heard anyone call an XL-H1 "cheapo".

[bdav Posted Sep 8th 2009 4:24PM]

Well by cheapo I mean it was the cheapest prosumer I could find from my suppliers to rent ;)

[bdav Posted Sep 8th 2009 4:34PM]

I Lie - It was a XHA1.

[loocas Posted Sep 8th 2009 2:04PM]

Well, it's Dublin... what did you expect?

[balls Posted Sep 8th 2009 2:05PM]

I still don't understand video on the dslr.

It's a cool idea, but its a total PITB to use.

[PMJ Posted Sep 8th 2009 2:15PM]

I don't know a ton about digital video on DSLR so my question is: Is the shutter opening/closing at 24fps? Or is the mirror just down and the shutter open? Seems like a nice video and all but I'm no film geeky enough to see the real diff with others. It would be nice to do side-by-side video of the same scene.

[Chris Leither Posted Sep 8th 2009 3:08PM]

The shutter is open. Rolling Shutter just refers to the way the sensor is read. In this case line by line (think the way CRT screens build an image). As line is read AFTER line there is a delay between the first and last (and those in between ofc) which causes this 'wobbly' effect.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 2:18PM]

I think I read through every comment but never figured out what resolution the camera shoots video in?

[shauno Posted Sep 8th 2009 3:15PM]

"Full HD Video is captured at 1920 x 1080 resolution at 30p (29.97), 24p (23.976) or 25p frames per second, for up to 4GB per clip. Movies are saved as .MOV files and can be viewed in Full HD with HDMI output. Other recording sizes include HD at 1280 x 720 (50p / 60p (59.94) fps) or SD/VGA at 640 x 480 (50p / 60p (59.94) fps)"

[gbc Posted Sep 8th 2009 2:27PM]

To finance the purchase of this camera I'm going to print that "caution" tag the woman at 1:40 is wearing and sell them on the NYC streets on Friday nights. I think I'll have the money for the camera in one weekend. Or I would, if the world worked like it was supposed to.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 3:05PM]

Is there some way to download this video to my hard drive? Right clicking did not bring anything up...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 4:07PM]

yes got to www.exposureroom.com/dublinspeople and click download original!

[teamlouish Posted Sep 8th 2009 4:30PM]

Yes, if you go to vimeo and login to your account, it lets you download the original uploaded file. Quicktime, 1920x1080, 245.69MB http://vimeo.com/6475938 The download link on their site is on the right side when you scroll down.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 7:29PM]

nice, worked great, thank you!

[culbeda Posted Sep 8th 2009 3:20PM]

Wait a minute... I thought Tiger Woods DIDN'T smoke.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 4:29PM]

I have the 500D , I upgraded from the 20D. Here's the weird thing, the video on this camera is better *in low light* than in broad daylight. I don't know why this is, but I get more dynamic range in low light. And you can film a movie in really low light, just a couple of light bulbs in the room, and it looks fantastic.

I almost think that something at high brightness is oversaturating or something.

[Enjo Posted Sep 8th 2009 4:33PM]

About the subjects...if I were into men this would be a beautiful video. Unfortunately I'm not, so how about at least half your subjects be the beautiful women of Dublin--instead of about 1 in20? I don't really enjoy looking at highly detailed close-up screen filling images of odd-looking men.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 7:43PM]

there were some nice looking girls but to be honest i am more interested in capturing interesting looking people rather than beautiful girls. Interesting faces fascinate me. There are lot of people filming hot chicks. Check them out, not hard to find! :-)

[rcappo Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:08PM]

Either I don't 'see' this wobbley effect (unless it is deliberate), or I don't watch crappy filmmakers who would pan and tilt quickly. Most people would stop filming and reposition the camera and start filming again wouldn't they?

Either way, I'm happy.

[Retroman Posted Sep 8th 2009 7:33PM]

Ok, I live in dublin. Why are all the women so damn ugly in this vid. We have so many beautiful ladies and he films the mingers out on the piss.
Dammit man if you are recording some nice hi def vid get some decent ladies in it at least, not these mongos

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 7:45PM]

BECAUSE, as you should know living in Dublin that Temple Bar is full of English, hence the mingers from my country. Check out my film from Southend for Minger central. http://philipbloom.co.uk/films/35mm-films/love-from-southend/

I love filming interesting people!

[D1RTYSLOTH Posted Sep 8th 2009 9:44PM]

Anyone who is into film / doco's / film making will appreciate Phil's fantastic insight into capturing strange and interesting characters in their environment, this video is a great sampling from a certain area at a certain time.... Beautifully shot and a great little snippet from that particular environment and the characters around him.

I know a lot of 5Dmii owners are hoping for a firmware update - but i wonder if the rolling shutter is significantly less if that isn't a hardware implementation on the 7D ? would be interesting to see some A/B pans between the two...

As a filmmaker - things have never been more exciting - apart from having to choose which path to take!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2009 2:49AM]

Ahhh, orthodontia!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 21st 2009 2:23PM]

Philip Bloom is amazing. Give him any piece of technology and he can sell it.

-JD

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 3rd 2009 9:04AM]

These DSLRs doing video is such a democratising force for good.. I love the way people can now make gorgeous looking video with the high-quality lenses that are available.

How was the seemingly overcranked footage at the end produced? If the frame rate of the 7D is a maximum of 30fps?