5D MKII power is amazing.. I hope full hd DSLR cameras in the nearest future will be cheaper and everyone will be able to afford it..

cool vid, very atmosphering!
hey, so what ab.Merlin, how does it work for You? As i read, cam is little bit right side overweighted, so how did You solved it?? around 2:20-2:30 its little waving, and how its work with lens? which one did You use? because max.capacity is ar. 3 kg, right? once again, good work!

The ambience is amazing.. nice work!
I've been wondering about the merlin/5d combo myself.. it does look like it likes to teeter back and forth.. Did adding more counter-weight help at all?

I'm wondering if the shape (& weight distribution) of the DSLR vs a Video Camera kills it's effectiveness..

nice stuff... can i just ask about the absolutely terrible mpeg artifacts, is that in the native shot footage or just the recompressed delivery

Awesome flare. Thanks for sharing :)

All you need is to tape over the contacts, and then you override the camera's tendency to not always use full-open aperture. With taped over contacts, shutter speed is always a pleasing, consistent, 50'or so. 1/50 in my tests is ideal for night shooting (mostly ideal all the time) Taping contacts does not harm your camera. Just use clear regular tape, not something thick and heavy like electrical.

ISO is adjusted as needed (no way around this, even if you had manual full control) and you can use the exp. comp. wheel to make things brighter or dimmer (and compensate ISO at the same time).

To get other apertures, simply dial in what you want in AV, press the Depth of Field preview button, and while holding that button remove lends. Then tape over contacts and put back lends.

I have soem Nikon lenses I use with a cheap adapter - so I have full manual control without tape, but I use my L-lenses in this way.

igore what the read-out says - 30-20-etc. are not doen by the camera - it si always 50 in fact, unless there is too mch light at 100 iso (200 in highlight mode) and then it must increase speed to cut light.

Simple easy - now no need to buy any other cam :-)

Everytime I change apertures hold DOF preview button, remove lens, tape contacts, and then ignore read-outs? This sounds sort of impractical...I did buy some ND filters so will try that route first.

hey luke i am watching it at the 720p fullscreen but scaling off hd on.

apart from the banding in alot of the areas of falloff from the volumetric lights the compression is in all the areas where the colours drop into black, ie in the graduations between colour and black. for example at 29' left of screen half way up. where the texture of the road falls off into shadow (black) is just very messy and blocky with the compression. I'm not talking about grain/noise but a mosaic like blocking which is from the compression.

at 33' with the silhouette, look at the edges of the light volume where it goes from blue to black and in the corners. in fact even the body of the person is full of blocky artifacts.

If you can't see this stuff, i'm betting your on a mac, and that your gamma settings need tweaking. try lifting the gamma just to see the problem.

I may be using this camera for a similar shoot setting as yours, which is why i was asking if these arifacts are in the original footage from the camera or just after the recompression. Would be great if you could let us know.

Cheers

Paul

Great footage! I'm in love with my 5D II...I sometimes forget it is also THE kickass still photography camera on the market.

Wanted to throw out that I just bought a SteadyTracker (as opposed to the far more expensive Merlin), and that is a GREAT option for the 5D II. It can hold up to 8 lbs...and I can run at full speed with my [insured] 70-200L IS lens. It might be a great option for you people out there who want some sort of stabilizer...It's also easy to focus while holding, and you can even buy a foot for it to get tracking shots along the ground.

I will have a sample up Very Very Soon. Still dealing with my workaround intermediate codec in Premiere Pro CS3.

Again, GREAT fog work! Beautiful stuff.

Whoa, interesting to hear....I wanted the Merlin back before the 5D was announced, but now that I just spent the money, I wanted a cheaper option. Looking at your footage, though, I'm pretty certain I could "replicate" decently it with the SteadyTracker. I haven't used it much yet, though, so who knows? I'd love to try the Merlin out eventually...but I have other upgrades to worry about first...i.e. ditching my PC :-)

i could see what paul gill was saying, but i only get it in the non hd version. in hd it is perfect. i like around 0:44 the thin strand of light through the hand, pretty cool effect. nice video luke

music?