Canon announced the much anticipated 5D Mark IV last week and the internet has been buzzing over the specs and footage from the camera. Undoubtedly, this will be a hugely popular stills camera for professional and enthusiast photographers as with the previous 2 generations; however the real question here is - how well would it fare in the video department?
It is too early to tell though, the camera hasn't even shipped yet, and until it does and sees proper field work, we simply don't know yet; time will tell as they say.
The 5D Mark III was extremely popular with Shooting Directors, event videographers, wedding filmmakers and just about everyone in between, so naturally the expectations of the video features in the successor were quite high.
As expected the two big features in the 5D Mark IV are 4K video capabilities and of course the amazing Dual Pixel AF ported over from the bigger 1D X Mark II and EOS Cinema cameras.
It's impossible to judge a camera from just looking at the specs or a few video samples online, but as most of you have probably already familiarised yourselves with the 5D Mark IV specs, here's a couple of video samples shot in 4K.
In Summary Here Are the Video Features You Need to be Aware of:
New 30 Megapixel Full-Frame Sensor
4K (DCI 4096 x 2160) Cinema at 24/25/30p
When shooting in 4K video, camera uses a portion of the sensor i.e. - crop by 1.64x (a 50mm lens becomes an 82mm portrait lens)
NTSC/PAL switchable - truly a world camera
Full HD at 1080p/60p and 50p and HD 720/120fps and 100fps super-slow motion
Dual-Pixel AF
Touchscreen functionality - can track and change focus with your fingertip while recording (extremely helpful in documentaries, events, sports etc.)
Uses same LP-E6N batteries from the 5D Mark III, and 7D Mark II
HDR video option
Headphone and 3.5mm mic input jack
IN camera 4K to Full HD downconvert feature will save you a tone of time in post.
You can extract 8.8 Megapixel Stills from 4K footage straight in camera.
Uses affordable and readily available Compact Flash and SDXC cards.
Canon also announced two new lenses with the camera - a new 16-35mm f2.8L III wide angle zoom lens and a new 2nd generation 24-105mm f4.0L IS II lens, which documentary filmmakers will love due to the image stabilisation and decent zoom range covering all the basic angles from wide to telephoto.
When it comes to video, although I wish the 5d Mark IV had the WideDR picture profile as well as Canon LOG that are both featured in the EOS Cameras and the XC10 4K hybrid, with the combination of Dual Pixel AF and 4K recording with touch screen functionality the 5D Mark IV certainly has the potential to become very popular with self shooters, web content creators and event filmmakers.
Of course it being a DSLR primarily designed for stills photography it looks like it performs its primary function very well. The new 30 megapixel chip is of course a full-frame sensor giving you extra depth of field and low-light sensitivity, which from early tests done by reviewers seem to be outstanding.
The big new features here is Dual Pixel RAW, which allows photographers to perform micro-adjustments to focus in post - for example, you can adjust the focus from an eye lash on a person's face to the centre of the eye.
The potential of this innovative new feature is yet to be explored, and as the camera is released to the public later this month, I am sure we'll start seeing more tests on both the stills and video side.
You can pre-order the Canon 5D mark IV DSLR from our website here.
It's impossible to judge a camera from just looking at the specs or a few video samples online, but as most of you have probably already familiarised yourselves with the 5D Mark IV specs, here's a couple of video samples shot in 4K.
In Summary Here Are the Video Features You Need to be Aware of:
When it comes to video, although I wish the 5d Mark IV had the WideDR picture profile as well as Canon LOG that are both featured in the EOS Cameras and the XC10 4K hybrid, with the combination of Dual Pixel AF and 4K recording with touch screen functionality the 5D Mark IV certainly has the potential to become very popular with self shooters, web content creators and event filmmakers.
Of course it being a DSLR primarily designed for stills photography it looks like it performs its primary function very well. The new 30 megapixel chip is of course a full-frame sensor giving you extra depth of field and low-light sensitivity, which from early tests done by reviewers seem to be outstanding.
The big new features here is Dual Pixel RAW, which allows photographers to perform micro-adjustments to focus in post - for example, you can adjust the focus from an eye lash on a person's face to the centre of the eye.
The potential of this innovative new feature is yet to be explored, and as the camera is released to the public later this month, I am sure we'll start seeing more tests on both the stills and video side.
You can pre-order the Canon 5D mark IV DSLR from our website here.