[Micah Mcdowell]

Canon has (to my knowledge) never really explained exactly HOW frame mode works. Regardless, it gives results identical to 24p from true progressive chips except for a very very small drop in resolution according to some testers. Basically, it’s just true 24p by a different name.

The 5D mkII is definitely true progressive. No interlacing going on at any point there.

[Micah Mcdowell]

If they’re white/bright spots, they may be stuck pixels. Put the lens cap on and shoot a high ISO long exposure still; this may make them show up stronger.

[Micah Mcdowell]

I’ve been using the T2i for a while now and I LOVE it…

I bought mine with the 18-55 kit lens and it’s a mediocre lens at best. You can get somewhat narrow depth of field with it (especially compared to the HVX), but not nearly as much as you would with a faster lens. It’s not great for low light and it doesn’t have a great look. It also doesn’t have a constant aperture so the exposure will change if you zoom while shooting. It’s certainly usable and affordable, but not ideal.

I also have a 50mm prime which I greatly prefer to the kit lens in every way. The Canon 50mm 1.8 is great and cheap, the 50mm 1.4 is a bit faster and more pricey, the 50mm 1.2L is a bit faster still but rather expensive for what it is. You definitely must buy one of them. For me, a 50mm prime and a good wide angle like the Sigma 10-20mm would do everything I need.

Of course, if fixed focal length lenses are too limiting for you, something like the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 would be great, albeit pricey.

Other things to note:

get good SD cards (class 6 or greater)
shoot on a tripod or use a shouldermount handheld rig for stability
use a separate audio recorder (Zoom H4N, or I use the Alesis ProTrack) or investigate the Beachtek or Juicedlink audio preamps

It’s an incredible camera even with the compromises. You may want to use it for more than just family videos once you get used to it.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Are they requesting files to edit or for the web? That makes a HUGE difference. Just asking for “Quicktime” is quite vague.

What format/resolution are the clips now? If they’re SD 720×480, why don’t you just export as Quicktime DV-NTSC? I don’t know how much footage you have to compress, but you can fit approximately 20 minutes of DV on a standard DVD, give or take a bit.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Did you possibly burn some form of data DVD and not a true encoded video DVD? There’s a big difference.

What software did you use?

[Micah Mcdowell]

I’d be very, very cautious with free DVD decoder software.

I downloaded a “free” decoder codec once, and while it certainly worked, it also came with a full compliment of spyware and whatnot that started trying to take over my machine. Generally, DVD decoder codecs cost money, and I wouldn’t touch the ones that do not. I could be wrong, but you might want to do a virus/spyware scan to be safe.

VLC player is a free download and plays DVDs (and just about everything else) nicely, spyware-free. However, it’s a standalone application, and not a codec package, so Windows Media Player still won’t play a DVD with VLC installed.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Looks like it was shot with a camera with some slow-mo/speed ramping ability, and then you could use masks to overlay the parts with different movement and fill in holes frame by frame/cg.

Or, they could have shot the different elements separately using chroma key, but I don’t think you’d have to do it that way.

[Micah Mcdowell]

“For the 5D you have to get L series lenses, that is a full 35mm sensor, non-L will vignette on you.”

I think you meant you have to get EF lenses and not EF-S. There’s plenty of non-L EF glass that would be great on a 5DmkII. Though, if you have plenty of $$, L series is excellent.

[Micah Mcdowell]

There’s tons and tons and TONS of information about these cameras and comparisons to other cameras in past threads here on the COW; you may want to go to the “DSLR Video” forum here and search around for a while to get a feel for what they are.

Based on your brief description of what you need in a camera, it sounds like a 5DmkII might be perfect. Here’s a quick rundown of the current pros and cons:

Pros:
Excellent full 1080p HD video quality
Impressive low-light performance
Huge selection of interchangeable lenses
Small size
Controllable depth-of-field to get a very filmic narrow focus look
Pro-quality stills
Affordable

Cons:
Lousy audio capability (though the 5DmkII at least has manual levels now)
Rolling shutter artifacts(read up on it; never has been an issue for me as long as I use a tripod)
Aliasing (could be a problem depending on what you shoot)
Video codecs (usually need to be transcoded before editing, not ideal)
Ergonomics (lousy form factor for hand-held video, though you can buy shoulder-mount rigs to fix this)

[Micah Mcdowell]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

The projects on the Avid were completed several years ago but are things we need to keep archived and editable for future use, hence the reason for wanting to move them to a new system.

I suppose upgrading the Avid is one option, but our system has always been trouble and has resisted upgrades… we’d definitely need a new workstation. For example, we tried to add 2GB of certified compatible RAM, Avid wouldn’t even open, and adding hard drive space has been problematic and expensive. Plus, the editor who uses the Avid most often (not me) strongly dislikes it and has been doing most of her projects on our spare Adobe Premiere system, which is also on its last legs.

At least I know Automatic Duck should work (albeit pricey) , so we’ve got some options to pursue. Thanks again.