Professional video in a DSLR - not an actuality

[Overread]

Ok so we all know that DSLRs are getting video modes in them, HD video infact. Infact its so good that even the TV groups are waking up and using them - the last episode of House being a very recent and big example of this use. However the article below draws our attention to a rather major point in the terms and conditions. It appears that whilst you can shoot all you want of video on the DSLRs, if you move to use the feature for a commercial purpose you and then have to purchase a new licence in order to use the codec that the video is encoded in.
You also can't get round it by just changing the codex type in editing because you have already used the original codec to record the original work.


First (having seen this thread run on another forum) let me be quite clear about something

This is not Canon's doing nor a restriction placed on us by them, but instead one placed by the codec owners

Why Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the MPEG-LA

 

[ghpham]

Hmm...off topic kind of...Isn't there a heat problem with the sensors if you film for too long? I thought the limit is around 5 minutes or something like that?

 

[Village Idiot]

Hmm...off topic kind of...Isn't there a heat problem with the sensors if you film for too long? I thought the limit is around 5 minutes or something like that?

No. Canon's limited to about 24 minutes with 720P due to file size restriction of 4MB. You can shoot longer, but if the sensor does start to hit a certain threshold, it will stop recording, but that's definitely greater than 5 minutes.

 

[Joves]

Hmm...off topic kind of...Isn't there a heat problem with the sensors if you film for too long? I thought the limit is around 5 minutes or something like that?

Five minutes with really hot ambient tempratures. If you modify your camera with a sink on the back you can run it for hours. A nitrogen sink is even better. I saw a Canon that had been modified like that for astrophotography.

 

[Dallmeyer]

Seems a need for an open-source codec and get the CHDK folks to come up with some alternative. I watched two TV shows in the last few days and wondered hmmm this looks like it's filmed with DSLR- Jamie Oliver in Sweden and then some farming/nature diary thing with John Craven. Kept flitting between angles and using a lot of shallow DOF, short segments, tightly edited. TV on the cheap? That's cool but the qualities a bit weird, IMO. Zeiss just launched a range of movie lenses for FF DSLR - did you see on dpreview?

 

[Village Idiot]

Ok so we all know that DSLRs are getting video modes in them, HD video infact.

How many of the movies and TV segments that have used a 5D MKII have had to pay royalties? That's the real question.

 

[magkelly]

When did all digital cameras suddenly become camcorders? When did shooting video and just cropping nice looking frames to use become photography? I admittedly hate that. I don't really want large video capacity in my digital camera. If I want video I'll switch to a cam. To me that's a different thing, a different kind of media and they should be separate.

My Fuji has a 5 minute mode, I think, but I never use that.

 

[Dallmeyer]

I feel the same magkelly. I don't want a video recorder. I want a midprice camera to give the informed amateur the most useful camera body for the money. AF, Liveview, ""scene"" modes, pop-up flash - it all superflous to me but i dont fit any market segment at all in their business model or the realworld!. I want a histogram on the back, a bigger sensor, best imaging engine, useable ISO rather than more than about 12 megapixels...and thats about it.. in a metal body, adaptors for m42, nikon, pentax mount to fit lots of old manual lenses and a handheld lightmeter. Get Zenit or Praktica to build it really old school! that would so cool lol!!!

 

[Village Idiot]

When did all digital cameras suddenly become camcorders? When did shooting video and just cropping nice looking frames to use become photography? I admittedly hate that. I don't really want large video capacity in my digital camera. If I want video I'll switch to a cam. To me that's a different thing, a different kind of media and they should be separate.

My Sony has a 5 minute mode, I think, but I never use that.

As I've said what feels like a million times alread, try and find an HD cam that has the quality of a 5D MKII with all the benifits for the price. You can switch lenses, you can use wide apertures for ultra low DOF shots, you can use high ISO to shoot with ambient light in environments that most dedicated video cameras could only dream about, and you can do it all for a fraction of the price.

Why on Earth do you think the people that film House would shoot a whole episode of the show with a 5D MKII? Or SNL filming skits with one, or feature films using them for certain shots?

Go to some place like www.cinema5D.com and you'll see why video in a DSLR is a good thing.