‘Another night in Beijing’ Production Canon Eos7D movie

Canon 7D movie – Another night in Beijing from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

So here is my first attempt at filming with a production Canon Eos7D just one hour after receiving it from my local camera store. Starting at 10pm I spent about 2 hours in total filming this in the Nanluoguxiang Hutong in Beijing, mostly at around 1600 to 6400 ISO. At first I had a few problems re-adjusting my head to the different button layout to the 5DmkII but by the end of the shoot I was getting used to it. The camera feels great in the hand and I get round to doing more testing and analysis later. For now I’m happy that it is producing the kind of results I want and at 25p, all ready for broadcast. For the news shooter this is the last major hurdle to proper production, there are other issues like sound and aliasing, but this was the big one and so we can rejoice. Several of my broadcast TV collegues are now interested in using these cameras for news coverage.

In my unscientific gut feeling test I think the images from the 7D in low light are slightly noiser than the 5DmkII but still amazing considering Beijing’s dark streets and dim lighting. Its a shame this isn’t a full-frame sensor, but its not a deal breaker for me.

Picture style was set at neutral and the whole thing was edited in Final Cut Pro with no colour correction, the reduced from 1080p to 720p in MPEG streamclip with just a slight contrast and saturation tweak. I’ll try and make the 1080p version available soon on Smugmug.

7D with Genus d-slr bars and mattebox, z-finder and Zoom H4n

Lenses were the Canon 50mm f1.2L, 35mm f1.4L and the 70-200mm f4L IS. I shot mainly handheld attaching my Zacuto Z-finder straight to the camera, then added a prototype of the new Genus d-slr bars supporting their wide angle mattebox to prevent any excess lens flare. I also shot using a small Redrockmicro shoulder rig at times as well as on my fantastic Miller DS-20 tripod. Audio was from a Zoom H4n feeding the camera audio directly using a custom cable from Pinknoise systems (living with AGC to speed time in the edit).

When I shot the my original ‘One night in Beijing’ test reel on the Eos5DmkII ten months ago I new the whole video game had changed irreversibly. The 7D is the next logical evolution of the 5DmkII video capabilities, apart from the lack of a full frame sensor and the resulting low image noise, it does all things just that little bit better.

Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

My original 5DmkII movie also shot on the day of its shipping.

This entry was posted on September 25, 2009, 3:03 pm and is filed under Canon Eos7D, DSLR video news, Matteboxes and filters. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

#1 by Yves Simard on September 25, 2009 - 3:31 pm

Nothing wrong with that mate!

Looks great – very interesting thanks for posting, you helped me make my decision!

#2 by Johnnie on September 25, 2009 - 4:21 pm

Great work (as always)!.
Wish I had that camera 1.5 years ago while filming in Beijing…well, next time and hopefully soon.

Johnnie

#3 by Kat Small on September 25, 2009 - 4:49 pm

Thanks for all the info and can’t wait to see more. Just put my order in for the 7D yesterday!!!
Loved the Corona shots

#4 by planetMitch on September 25, 2009 - 5:56 pm

Congrats Dan – you’re making several firsts! Hope you got some sleep

#5 by Eric Gersh on September 25, 2009 - 6:34 pm

Dan,

Great work. This is probably the most helpful test I’ve seen. I’m amazed at the quality of these images at this incredible ISO setting!

On a quick glance I didn’t even notice any of the aliasing you mentioned, though I’m sure it’s there. Anything I saw I attributed to compression for the web.

Can’t wait to see that 1080P sample. Have you tried the 720P native and seen how it differs in terms of compression artifacts and aliasing? I’m thinking it’s probably much cleaner, if a bit software.

Well, this just about does it for me. Can’t wait for them to be available here in the US.

#6 by Nick on September 25, 2009 - 7:34 pm

Nice shots. You’re so lucky to have the 7D now… here in Hong Kong, Canon says it won’t ship until October 20th! Not surprised actually. Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Apple… the local distributors here are all crap and don’t have a clue.

Oh Well… keep shooting!

#7 by Preston Kanak on September 25, 2009 - 9:48 pm

Post 3 minutes — Epic!

#8 by Richard Tew on September 25, 2009 - 11:12 pm

Hi Dan. Two questions. First, what kind of cable do I need to interface an H4N to a 7d? I have the Zoom and man, it is awesome or what? I love mine but can’t get it to interface with anything with a mini jack. Two, can you please post something showing actually shutter noise at 8fps? The press release says the shutter was designed after the 1d series. From what I can hear, it sounds nothing like what the 1D’s sound like. I am a journalist and will be buying two 7D’s for media work.

#9 by Bob Thompson on September 26, 2009 - 3:32 am

Just bought my 7D at Broadway in Tai Koo Shing this afternoon

#10 by Duke on September 26, 2009 - 5:30 am

Great video. Interesting subjects, and great images.

No one else seems to have done it yet, do you think you could you do a well lit test pattern shot that will tell us if the anti-aliasing is better than the 5Dm2, and what the true resolution is?

Keep up the good work.

#11 by admin on September 26, 2009 - 6:31 am

Duke :

Great video. Interesting subjects, and great images.

No one else seems to have done it yet, do you think you could you do a well lit test pattern shot that will tell us if the anti-aliasing is better than the 5Dm2, and what the true resolution is?

Keep up the good work.

Duke I’ll try and do that but I don’t have a good pattern to hand and my printer isn’t working properly for some reason.

#12 by admin on September 26, 2009 - 6:37 am

Richard Tew :

Hi Dan. Two questions. First, what kind of cable do I need to interface an H4N to a 7d? I have the Zoom and man, it is awesome or what? I love mine but can’t get it to interface with anything with a mini jack. Two, can you please post something showing actually shutter noise at 8fps? The press release says the shutter was designed after the 1d series. From what I can hear, it sounds nothing like what the 1D’s sound like. I am a journalist and will be buying two 7D’s for media work.

The audio cable I use on the Zoom is made by Pinknoise systems in the UK. Its a custom item but I believe that a new batch is being made. Speak to John McCombie there. It works well with the zoom but does mean you can’t monitor with headphones. Actually works better on audio recorders that have a seperate line and headphone out. I’ll post more details very soon.

As for 8fps it sounds much softer than the clunk of an Eos1D series. Nice actually.

Dan

#13 by admin on September 26, 2009 - 6:39 am

Eric Gersh :

Dan,

Great work. This is probably the most helpful test I’ve seen. I’m amazed at the quality of these images at this incredible ISO setting!

On a quick glance I didn’t even notice any of the aliasing you mentioned, though I’m sure it’s there. Anything I saw I attributed to compression for the web.

Can’t wait to see that 1080P sample. Have you tried the 720P native and seen how it differs in terms of compression artifacts and aliasing? I’m thinking it’s probably much cleaner, if a bit software.

Well, this just about does it for me. Can’t wait for them to be available here in the US.

Eric, not had a chance to test 720p yet. I’ll get on it. Having problems uploading 1080 version to Smugmug though, hopefully soon.

#14 by Ashley Scott on September 26, 2009 - 5:01 pm

Great work my man. Was debating about the Genus mattebox- any thoughts on it?

#15 by Mike on September 27, 2009 - 2:59 am

Well, I’ve been living in Shanghai for years and my expensive Pro Sony HDV never comes close to acceptable noise levels on dark Shanghai streets… that 7D footage is stunning Dan!

I’ve been holding off on the 5d because of workflow difficulties, and I’m a firm (read stubborn) believer in not buying first generation tech, but after watching that…

SOLD!!!!!

Dan, how much did you pay? Newegg.com.cn has them for 11700 with fapiao.

#16 by Dimitri on September 27, 2009 - 11:27 am

Hi Dan,

Thanks so much for the video. I have a question re: the dslr baseplate. I can’t find it on the Genus website, do you know how one can purchase it?

#17 by Bela on September 27, 2009 - 7:34 pm

Nice images, just too bad these CMOS sensors with the notorious electonic rolling shutter cannot handle fast motion at all. So, if you are fixing on doing an action flick with chases and fights (like we do), you simple cannot use the CMOS+r.s. techology. But hey, the image quality is stunning.

#18 by RJ Lemon on September 27, 2009 - 11:29 pm

Beautiful! Very stunning video – look forward to the 1080p samples. One question though, are you able to use autofocus while shooting, how do you maintain the focus? It looks like it’s not much of a problem from your test, but can you describe how easy/difficult it is to shoot and maintain focus?

Thanks