Being asked to use the Canon 5D for a shoot, questions.

H

harmonica44

I have been asked by a director to use it for a short film. I think I can handle it as I have gotten a lot of practice out of my T2i, however I am having some possible trouble with focus pulling and have a question about the camera.

Now if I shoot flat, that makes focus pulling more difficult cause the contrast and sharpness are turned all the way down, thus making it harder to tell what is in focus and not. The 5D also has a much larger DOF compared to my Canon T2i, so I hope the director will be okay with using really bright lights, and stopping down. And hopefully they will allow me to take it home to practice outside of the pre-production meetings and rehearsals, but probably not lol.

When it comes to focus pulling however, the camera shoots RAW video I see. Does this mean that I can turn the contrast and saturation all the way up, to pull focus easier, but it won't matter since it does not record that way but records in RAW data? Thus, the sharpness and contrast will not be baked in, and can easily be changed in post? I am also going to ask the director if she wants RAW video format, and if this is a good reason to shoot in it, I will mention it.

I will also ask the director if it's okay if we shoot the shots, in order of camera changes. That is we do all the shots with a wide angle lens first at an more closed aperture, before switching to long focal length close ups, at a more open aperture. This might speed things up, compared to constantly switching lenses back and forth, so is that a good idea?

Thanks.
 
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The 5D only shoots raw via magic lantern, not natively. There are a lot of issues around your choice of resolution and the required card speeds, etc, and it can be unreliable if you don't get the right combination of both. I personally wouldn't recommend using it unless you already have a good deal of experience working with it, both in camera and post.

I definitely wouldn't make the decision based on how it affects your ability to pull focus. I've been pulling focus on the 5D for years, and doing so using the cinestyle preset since it's been available - it just takes practice. If you don't think you can do it well, you shouldn't take the gig. At minimum you should make the director aware of the issues so she can make an informed decision about whether you are appropriate for the job.
 
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Or run the camera and have an assistant pull focus. :)

If you do go with magic lantern though, I'm fairly certain it's got focus peaking, which would help address your issue as well.
 
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Oh okay thanks for some reason it looked like it had more DOF in the video examples I saw online. I will tell the director that I can work the camera, but would require someone to pull focus. I want to get on the project, and am confident I can run the camera itself, since I have had so much practice with mine. If I can shoot at f8, I am confident I could pull focus much easier as people move around, cause it gives me more DOF room. Not sure if she's using magic lantern or not.
 
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Less DOF means a smaller part of the image is in focus.
A large DOF means a lot of the depth is in focus.

Lower f-stop = smaller DOF (and thus more bokeh)
Higher f-stop = larger DOF (more stuff in focus)

And:
larger sensor = smaller DOF

You are mixing things up.
More fuzziness and unsharpness means it's a SMALLER DOF!!!
 
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harmonica44 said:
Oh sorry I thought that more fuzziness meant larger since the aperture is open BIGGER, hence larger. My mistake.
Click to expand...

Nope. Depth of Field refers to the distance (depth) on the Z axis that objects in front of the lens are in focus. Objects in front of and behind that focal range are varying degrees of out of focus.

The size of the range is inversely proportional to the aperture size.

Smaller aperture == wider (deeper, bigger) focal range, ie: more in the frame in focus at a time regardless of distance from lense. Wider aperture == shallower (shorter, smaller) focal range.

That's still somewhat simplified, because there are other aspects at play too, but in the simplest terms, smaller opening in the iris equates to more in focus, which is a deeper depth of field. larger opening in the iris equates to less in focus because the area of the image in 3D space, extending along the Z axis away from the lens is shallower -- thus shallow DOF. ;)
 
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Okay thanks. Well it turns out the director doesn't mind shooting at a deep DOF but we are shooting outdoors at night, but does not have the lights for it, for the indoor scenes. I actually was able to get a focus puller, or so I am told, and I do not have to do that. The director has a strange problem with the camera though. She wants me to shoot the whole movie with an ND filter on, even if it's not called for. She says that if you don't, the footage has unwanted artifacts in post, after exporting, from the editing program. The footage looks fine before it enters the editor, but then looks strange after exporting, with unwanted artifacts.

She says that this is a result of not using the ND filter, but is this true, even if it's not too bright and a filter is not needed? I saw some tests she did and the artifacts do not show with the filter on. I haven't heard of this before?
 
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That doesn't make any sense at all.

harmonica44 said:
The footage looks fine before it enters the editor, but then looks strange after exporting, with unwanted artifacts.
Click to expand...

Then that would indicate an error in the export process, not the camera. An ND filter does nothing but reduce the amount of light entering the lens - it wouldn't have any effect on artifacts during export.

Are you sure she's talking about an ND filter, and not an anti-aliasing filter?
 
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Shooting with ND without enough lights will be a disaster!

ND doesn't cause or prefent artifact after post.
Clearly user-error on the computer.
Plus having no clue what Neutral Density does.
 
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I didn't see the filter yet, so not sure if she means ND or not but that's what she says. But now she's calling it a UV filter. But thanks, I told her it has something to do with export.
 
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Just a wild guess, but it's probably the VAF anti-aliasing filter. If that's the case, then yes - you should probably shoot everything using it, it does a great job of eliminating the aliasing & moire that is common with the 5D.
 
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