Going back to Full Frame - the return of the 5D3

My first ventures into the land of DSLR shooting were with the good old Canon 7D back in the beginning of 2010. A lot of effort was put into getting the DSLR to a level on which it would be possible to do video / film work with it efficiently.

And while the shallow depth-of-field look and the colors were appealing, moiré and aliasing made a lot of pictures I envisioned impossible. Even though, there was enough film work done with the camera to justify the expenses. 

Still, it was not pleasing enough, which made me return to standard videographer equipment later that year. The Canon XF305 I purchased in late 2010 still is my main partner for ENG work. Convincing professional codec, reliability and ease of use.

When Canon released the 5D3, I immediately hopped on board to use it for a short film that still hasn't been released. Most of the lenses and rig equipment I owned from my 7D days were compatible, so the transition was smooth. The picture quality was much more appealing than the 7D, gone were the days of moiré and the aliasing is as good as it gets for a 1080p camera. With a bit of sharpening in post, the 5D3 finally delivered lush full-frame videos. 

Because of lacks in regards to handling and versatilty, the 5D3 was mostly used for still photography after my short movie shoot. The XF305 was simply the better camera for everyday video needs. The acquisition in a broadcast standard 4:2:2 50 mbps codec gives me footage that wouldn't break apart as easily as the 5D3's h264, so there simply was no reason to pick up the DSLR for motion pictures. 

2013 was packed with on-location audio & video jobs for a variety of different production companies and TV stations. Work got a bit slower in the beginning of 2014, which also gave me some time to re-think possibilities and tinker with the tools I already had in my closet. The one thing I had heard about a lot but never actually implemented was the Magic Lantern "operating system addition" for Canon DSLRs done by extremely talented programmers. While ML adds a ton of useful tools for video acquisition like Zebras and Peaking, it also enables my Canon 5D3 to capture full HD raw video with a color resolution of 14 bit, turning it into one of the only full-frame raw video cameras on the market today. 

And while the workflow is a wee bit complicated, the results are so impressive that my focus for filmic work is back on the 5D3.