Top Cinematographer, Indie Guru Praise and Critique Canon’s HD Video DSLR

I was fortunate enough to attend the second year of a panel at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas this week where Director of Photography Rodney Charters (24, Dollhouse) and Stu Maschwitz (co-founder of The Orphanage, blogs at ProLost.com) spoke about shooting a million dollar feature on a thousand dollar budget.  The panel was moderated by Brian Valente, partner of Redrock Microsystems, LLC who specialize in anachromatic lens adapters for camcorders like the Canon HV20 and HV30.

Both panelists lauded the new HD Video /DSLR camera – the Canon 5D MK II for its “why didn’t they think of that before” adoption of HD video capabilities in a unit that inherently features a larger optics chip and shallow depth of field – in addition to the ability to use Canon or (with the right adapter) Nikon optics via pro lenses – something only possible before with lens adapters that run over a grand in themselves (from such companies as Redrock Micro).

The only gripe?  The camera, in its present incarnation does not support 24p – shooting instead at 30P.  Also, they both begged for more manual control – as of now, one has to do a “Nikon Lens Trick” in the vein of the olde Cell Phone Trick for the HV20 – the Nikon trick involves using a Nikon adapter half-screwed on to pull off some important manual adjustments.

I will be stopping by the Canon pavilion here at NAB 2009 to ask about any developments in the direction of a 5D MK IIa or MK III…

If you have any questions you would like me to ask, shout at me in reply to this post or on Twitter @ConstantChange