En
FrTest of the Canon D5 Mark II
by Jean-Marie Dreujou, AFC
We filmed a few shots in Paris, which we watched in the big DI room at Digimage with Laurent and Guillaume. Despite many flaws, the Canon, thanks to its large sensor, proved very interesting, and greatly impressed us.
I went location scouting in Guyana for Eric Besnard’s film with an Arri 235 to select the film stock for the project, and took advantage of these tests to shoot a few shots with the Canon.
On my return, Olivier converted the data from the compact flash card of the camera into DPX files and gave them to Eclair Laboratories. With Marjolaine, we graded the four stocks I shot on the Colorus, as well as two shots taken with the Canon.
We then did a film-out of this grade to 35mm anamorphic. During projection, after choosing the film stock that suited the project, we were incredibly surprised at the look of the Canon, and it seemed obvious that we could use it in certain situations. This impression was confirmed when, returning from Guyana for a second location scout, we graded several shots taken with the Canon (improved with new software).
Director Jean-Jacques Annaud took the Canon location scouting for his next film, and shot a few scenes in the desert with it. On his return, we made a small selection which I graded with Fabien at Dubois.
These scenes were filmed out to 35mm anamorphic and projected in the big screening room at LTC Laboratories. While the wide shots revealed defects (difficult to analyze because I did not shoot these images), the medium and close-up shots were very satisfactory.
The Canon D5, because of its small size and light weight (4 kg with a 24-70), is a new tool at our disposal which has its place on a shoot (stunts, unusual shots, VFX plates, etc.).
With its 24x36 sensor size, the depth of field is very interesting (to be carefully matched with other media), and the result once recorded to film is very good.
You should know that even with accessories (viewfinder, follow focus, shoulder mount, etc.), the Canon D5 remains very difficult to use, and it can not replace a camera.
I’ll shoot with it on Eric’s film, and use it for VFX plates, stunts and explosions. The images we’ll shoot will be processed by the Blue3ds company, which transforms the data on the compact flash card file into 24 or 25 fps DPX files, ready to be submitted to the lab and editing.
To be continued...
