5D or XF100 ????

[Angelo Lorenzo]

It seems that you aren’t very familiar with camera specs so let me lay a few out for you.

The 5DmkII is, obviously a dSLR while the XF100 is a camcorder. The difference will dramatically determine your shooting style. The 5DmkII is a slow, cinematic, shooter — for it to be stable and useful you need a lot of support equipment (brackets, monitor, external audio recorder) and the shallow depth of field isn’t conducive for run-and-gun shooting like it sounds that your situation (car racing) calls for.

Let me get this out of the way:
“however I can never seem to match the softness, fast movement focus and depth of field”

The 5DmkII has a Super35 equivalent sized sensor while the XF100 has a 1/3″ sensor. The smaller sensor of the XF100 increases depth of field dramatically and, while not useful for a cinematic look, allow for sharper footage useful for news/documentary/reality and so on.

The XF100 also has SLR inputs for audio and a better on-board mic.

The XF100 allows recording at 60 frames per second natively. This is better for slow motion in post production.

The XF100 also records with a better codec — MPEG2 4:2:2 @ 50mbps. The 5DmkII records MPEG4 4:2:0 @ about 35mbps. While MPEG4 is a little more efficient than MPEG2, so the bitrate isn’t directly comparable, 4:2:2 records more color making post production color correction as well as the ability to key out green screen easier.

If you want a full package, I’d go for the XF100. If you want the cinematic look, go for the 5DmkII. The 5DmkII is a very capable camera and I’ve filmed race cars, tv commercials, short films, etc with it. Pull no punches though, if you get a 5DmkII, be prepared to spend at least $1,000 (probably closer to $2000+) in support equipment before it’s as easy to handle as the XF100 in demanding situations.

The only caveat I have is I’ve never used the XF100 in a really low light situation so I can’t comment on its image quality there.

Angelo Lorenzo
https://filmsfor.us – Helping you sell your film online
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[Will Schryver]

Thanks for that Angelo,

You have confirmed my thought that in an ideal world get both!!! Xf100 for the run and gun moments and the 5D for when time allows you to be more creative.

I think I will purchase the xf100 first to make sure I always get the shot and wait for a rainy day to purchase the 5D or is there a mark 3 on the cards that I should be waiting for?

You mentioned slow motion with the xf100 this is something that is puzzling me, I see a lot of videos with slow mo but it’s 1080?? Is it simply shot at 720 60frames and then stretched up to 1080 or is there a camera that is running 1080 at 60 frames ???

[Angelo Lorenzo]

60p can be interpreted as 24 or 30 fps for a natural slow motion. There are a few prosumer level cameras that do 1080p60… I think the Sony NEX-VG20 is due out next month (it doesn’t have XLR audio inputs so that’s a limiting factor in my mind).

Chances are most slow motion you see is just slowed down in post. You can get away with 50% speed, or 25% if you push it with a plugin like Twixtor. With fast moving objects, its preferred to have a higher framerate capture for a better looking result.

As far as a 5Dmk3, rumors peg its release some time around August of next year. With the release of the 1DX as Canon’s flagship camera, it becomes pretty obvious they don’t want to cannibalize sales right before photographers gear up for Olympics coverage.

Angelo Lorenzo
https://filmsfor.us – Helping you sell your film online
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[Malcolm Matusky]

Get both! They are very different cameras and are not interchangeable, use each one for what it does best. If the 5D is too costly, try the 60d, not as shallow a depth of field, but much shallower than a 1/3″ video chip.

Malcolm
http://www.malcolmproductions.com