Film is Dead

New Kodak Ektar film stock

Well, not according to Kodak!  Kodak has announced a new low grain ISO 100 film stock.  I guess I’ll still have something to use in my old film bodies for awhile longer (I’m running out of refrigerated Ektachrome!).  This new stock is suppose to be very low grain and therefore quite sharp.  More details can be found on the Kodak site at http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/ektar/ektarIndex.jhtml?id=0.2.26.14.5.14&lc=en.   Once I’ve been able to get my hands on a roll, I’ll publish my opinions here!

Canon 5D MK II HD Video

Laforet video shot with Canon 5D MK II

Canon recently announced their update to the aging 5D, the new 5D MK II.   Normally I wouldn’t get too excited except Canon added a new feature (likely inspired by Nikon’s latest release) and added HD video capability to this 21 Megapixel camera.  Since I have a background in filmmaking as well as still photography, I find this addition quite interesting.  However, just adding video capability isn’t a big deal, if the video is an after thought with low quality, jerky footage.

But, that isn’t the case – Canon added 1080P HD 30 fps capability!  What makes this so exciting is the fact you achieve the same (or similiar) look and depth of field as the ‘big guys’ do with their 35mm motion picture cameras!  Will the actual video live up to the hype?

Take a look at the following website – http://www.vincentlaforet.com/ and see what you think.  I was amazed at the quality of the video shot with this pre-production camera.  Vincent Laforet is a New York based photographer (and one of Canon’s “Explorers of Light”) who managed to get his hands on this camera for a weekend and put together some sample video that is simply incredible.

I read somewhere that National Geographic want their photographers to be versed in video as well as still photography and now one camera can do it all.

I think I want one!