Movie Mode Questions

1/ If movie mode can be provided at no significant increase in cost and with
no downside to general camera performance, what is the harm in it?

2/ Digital cameras often have features only a few care about ... what is it
about movie mode that sets some folk's hair on fire?

3/ The 5DII has it and some are shocked! Is it not reasonable to assume that
this camera is aimed at professional event photographers and they can now
offer bonus video clips to their customers without carrying a camcorder?

At one time, many held automatic transmissions in great disdain (and a few
still do).

In article , Charles
wrote:

1/ If movie mode can be provided at no significant increase in cost and with
no downside to general camera performance, what is the harm in it?

none. once they got live view working, the jump to movie mode was
minor. it's essentially just storing what is shown on the rear lcd.

2/ Digital cameras often have features only a few care about ... what is it
about movie mode that sets some folk's hair on fire?

many see it as a gimmick.

3/ The 5DII has it and some are shocked! Is it not reasonable to assume that
this camera is aimed at professional event photographers and they can now
offer bonus video clips to their customers without carrying a camcorder?

At one time, many held automatic transmissions in great disdain (and a few
still do).

some people still manual focus and use a handheld meter.

"Charles" wrote in message
. ..

1/ If movie mode can be provided at no significant increase in cost and
with
no downside to general camera performance, what is the harm in it?

2/ Digital cameras often have features only a few care about ... what is
it
about movie mode that sets some folk's hair on fire?

3/ The 5DII has it and some are shocked! Is it not reasonable to assume
that
this camera is aimed at professional event photographers and they can now
offer bonus video clips to their customers without carrying a camcorder?


But how can a photographer capture worthwhile video footage and still get
the still shots he or she was hired to get?

"Charles" wrote in message
. ..

1/ If movie mode can be provided at no significant increase in cost and
with
no downside to general camera performance, what is the harm in it?

2/ Digital cameras often have features only a few care about ... what is
it
about movie mode that sets some folk's hair on fire?

3/ The 5DII has it and some are shocked! Is it not reasonable to assume
that
this camera is aimed at professional event photographers and they can now
offer bonus video clips to their customers without carrying a camcorder?

At one time, many held automatic transmissions in great disdain (and a few
still do).


I think most people buy DSLR's to take good still photos beyond the level
that they can with normal P&S cameras and so are of course quite into still
photography. So, they would prefer the development time to be spend on
other ways to improve still photography. For example, the ability to shoot
at low ISO speeds as well as high, so that they don't need to use ND
filters. Better positioning of the AF points in the view finder, so that
they are in more useful places (or even something a bit more radical where
the user can select a focus point anywhere in the viewfinder. Even better
if this can be done accurately by eye!). Aperture bracketing. 100%
viewfinder. Built in image geotagging. Built in pocket wizard trigger. The
list is endless, basically anything that will make things better for still
photographers. Video was never something DSLR users thought of as being the
next thing they wanted on their camera. So, in the case of the 5D II, quite
a few people thought they were going to get the pro AF system like the
Nikons did, but then they get some movie mode instead, which is a bit like
an enthusiastic pianist getting a built in xylophone mode on their new
piano.

I also think that many people are so used by having consumer products
bombarded with features for marketing purposes, that the initial thoughts
were that the video would be like the crappy video you get on your mobile
phone and put on there just for marketing purposes.

Although video is somewhat a surprise feature, I think it's something that
may grow on people in time, IF it works well. After all, it's here now and
like you said, you don't have to use it. I must admit, I wasn't something
that particularly excited me, because that's what a camcorder is for, but
the idea has grown on me as a 'toy' function, especially when you think
about what lenses you can use for video. I'm not particularly into macro
photography, but will be interesting to see some insects through a macro
lens in HD, I bet it will be a bit freaky.