When Vincent Laforet endorsed Canon’s 5D Mark II with his short film Reverie, it generated a buzz that’s not quieted. I’ve been shooting stills since junior high and had always wished I could capture what I witnessed through the glass of my SLR camera… as moving images. The depth of field felt so right, so rich and emotional. And so hard to simulate with video. Sure, 35mm and 16mm have always enjoyed the company of their more stoic brother, but what about the rest of the family? Others have broken the shallow-depth-of-field ice (Red, HD cameras with film lens mounts, 35mm adapters), but none have accomplished for the masses what Canon has with their 5D Mark II. Out of the box, with a fast lens, the shooter can see an uncomplicated, shallow depth of field at 30 glorious 1080 progressive frames per second.

Yes, the set up has it’s challenges (camera shake, mini audio inputs), but when have challenges stopped filmmakers? We’ve put up with the loss of two stops of light in order to obtain a shallow depth of field when adding 35mm adapters and turned monitors on their head in order to correct the image. There are always workarounds when we think the end result is justified. I’ve used many of these myself (and been stoked by the results). Now, with each new 5D shoot I make a few changes to the rig and get more pleasing results. Adding a follow focus, shoulder mount with pistol grips and a larger, external monitor are essential. For post work, transcoding to a good, edit-able codec is a must. And, though the format does feel a bit thin, I’ve had no trouble achieving the looks I want in the color correction phase.

Acquiring shallow depth of field with video cameras has always been elusive. Intentionally or not, Canon has captured the beast and presented it to us in a shape we did not expect—the digital SLR. The industry had has turned to look and perhaps been caught unawares. Meanwhile, filmmakers have discovered a new tool to tell their stories and it feels a lot junior high again… but way more (digitally) rad.

by Vincent McAninch