For several reasons I’ve recently started to look a bit more seriously at the legality (or should that be illegality) of just placing any music track onto my amateur 5D MkII films. As most of us are making films pretty much for our own pleasure a lot of us don’t think twice of adding a track from our iTunes library. We plan to address this subject in the future on the Cutting Room so I won’t go into detail right now, but just wanted to point out an option for those of you that want to take a very safe approach.
Moby has set up a site (www.mobygratis.com) that allows independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short to download a selection of close to 80 different tracks. Should you subsequently release the film commercially, Moby promises that the licensing fees will be very reasonable and will go to charity.
Check out the man himself introducing Mobygratis:
Kevin Reylek has put together an interesting review article with B&H Photovideo that reviews the leading external microphones available for the Canon 5D MkII. The review focuses on the Rode VideoMic, the Rode Stereo VideoMic and the Sennheiser MKE 400 and includes a set of audio files that allow you to compare the outputs of each of the devices with their various filter options.
The conclusion of the article is that the $199 Sennheiser MKE 400 is the clear winner in terms of compact size and weight, while the Rode Stereo VideoMic at $249 offers great customization options and is the most practical stereo option tested (albeit it was the only stereo mic tested!)
Back in December, Vincent Laforet had less kind things to say about the Sennheiser products and recommended the Rode Stereo Video Mic as a good solution - as long as you don’t want to look through the viewfinder when it is mounted on the hotshoe.
As you might expect there has been a reasonable amount of discussion on Cinema5D about microphones, including some hissing and gain issues with the Sennheiser which raises a few concerns.
Taking all of these views into account as well as looking at the sample videos posted below, right now, if you want a self powered mic to use onboard the 5D MkII then EOScars would lay the cash down for Read more
Shameless self promotion, but if you haven’t done so already, please check out the EOScars’s main site. The EOScars.com aims to provide a central hub for the best Canon 5D MkII movies available on the web. The Canon 5D MkII is providing experienced film makers, as well as a whole tranch of new videographers with still photography backgrounds, a budget route to create high quality 1080p video with all the benefits of a low noise 35mm sensor.
One of our biggest issues (in addition to how to control the aperture, and how on earth you edit the footage once you’ve managed to capture it!) since the Canon 5D MkII was launched last year has been trawling through all of the random video posts made with this camera in order to see the best movies. You know the kind of stuff, “my first low light shots”, “5D MkII color test”, “My cat licks its paws”, etc. are all prevalent on the main video sharing sites such as vimeo, smugmug, viddyou, google video and youtube and make it challenging to find the movies you actually want to watch and learn from.
We’ve basically just put together a site which includes our view of the best Canon 5D MkII movies on the web and allows you to watch them in one place. So if you want an easy way to check out some high quality short films made on the Canon 5D MkII then please check out the site - and don’t forget to rate the films you view.
