5 Comments

• I shot some B roll footage of the Academy with the Mark II. Nathaniel was doing interviews with the Mark II as well.

  Posted by Jeremiah on January 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 am

• Mr. Botkin, how many of these features do you think can be accomplished with a simple firmware upgrade?

  Posted by Hunter S on January 22nd, 2009 at 8:40 am

• Unfortunately, probably not that many. The hardest issues are the compression and downscaling, since the existing “easy” solutions are probably already pushing the camera’s Digic IV processor to the max. I expect that what I want might have to be a dual-processor camera.

  The framerate should be an easy firmware fix unless they are using a hardware encoder that is locked in at 30p… but even so it may have a PAL version that could shoot 25p, which is close enough to 24p for me.

  The manual control is probably something that can be added via firmware, but it’s hard to say since the Digic IV is only in two cameras so far. The USB control exists but is poorly supported by external software, so that could be addressed pretty easily with an upgrade… but there’s no audio-out capability unless that can be accessed from the HDMI port, which is still a complete mystery at this stage.

  Remember though, this is Canon’s first try. As hopefully curious as I am to see what they can do with firmware, I’m expecting to wait until their next camera to buy.

  Posted by Isaac Botkin on January 22nd, 2009 at 9:52 am

• Is there a good canon that compiles the more important features you have stated?

  Posted by solomon gerges on January 30th, 2009 at 4:38 pm

• Hey Isaac! Here are some clips of the footage I shot at the SAICFA with the Mark II. http://vimeo.com/3780269

  I didn’t do any Color Grading or image stabilizing, although I would do both if I went back and put some more work into it.

  Posted by Jeremiah on March 20th, 2009 at 9:29 pm

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