Digital BW, The Print

Bruce Watson wrote:
> 
> 
> The camera does have "motor drive" mode at something over 3 shots per
> second at full resolution (RAW mode) IIRC. If I'm wrong about that I'm
> sure someone will correct me! ;-) If that's not good enough to capture
> the "perfect moment," perhaps one should work more on one's timing. ;-)))
> 
> What you are suggesting is using a 21MP camera to capture a 2MP still
> (1920 x 1080), but at a rate of 30 frames per second. This to me is a
> poor use of this camera; a 2MP sensor would be much cheaper to produce
> than this 21MP sensor for example.

Certainly, if the goal was to build a video camera, the 5D MkII
is obscene overkill.

> To get the video capability they had to do a fair amount of work to the
> hardware as well. They had to get it to move the data this fast inside
> the camera for example. It took a fair amount of software work as well.

What makes you think they didn't have to do those things in
order to build a 21MP camera that sustains 3.9 frames/sec?
Let's just do some really rough estimation; 21MP * 3.9 frames/sec
= ~82MP/sec.  2MP * 30 frames/sec = ~ 60MP sec.

Doesn't sound like Canon had to much (at least in terms of raw
bit twiddling) to enable high-res video capture.  Sure, there's
some software NRE.

> None of this is a value add for me, but it drives the price of the
> camera up as if it were. In the end then it makes the camera a lesser
> value to me ([value = needed functions / price] in my definition).

I doubt Canon drove the *cost* of the camera up appreciably in
adding video, but they have increased the *value* of the package
in general, so they may charge more for it.

Alternatively, all of the high-end DSLRs may soon feature video
capture anyway - so omitting it would be a disadvantage in the market.

> I didn't buy a 5D because it was missing some things I really wanted
> (automated sensor cleaning being one of the biggies). I may not buy a
> 5D2 either, because it costs too much for what it is. It's too early to
> tell because we don't know the real street price yet.

Agreed.

Dana