By site editor Dan Chung:

The Canon EOS-6D with Mosaic engineering VAF filter

Canon’s full-frame EOS-6D has been largely ignored by most keen DSLR video shooters, mainly because it has bad moire and false colour artifacts in its video image. This was ably demonstrated by Dslrnewsshooter contributor Johnnie Behiri a few weeks ago when he shot this video using the camera. The camera also lacks a headphone jack despite its nearest competitor – the Nikon D600 – featuring one.

Even so, the camera does have a few things going in its favour. It has a reasonably sharp video image and at least a third cheaper than a 5D mkIII, depending where you are in the world. It is also smaller and lighter than its big sister.

But image quality is often what counts and to fix this, Mosaic engineering have launched a version of their VAF anti-aliasing filter specifically for the 6D, which should help turn the 6D into a better tool. For those unfamiliar with the previous VAF filter for the 5D mkII, this is a small unit that fits right inside the camera – fixing the mirror in the up position.

What does it do? Simply put, the filter blurs the image just enough to match the video resolution of the camera’s sensor. The aliasing and the moire are caused by the camera’s processing making errors downscaling the image to HD from the much larger 20 megapixel image captured. By adding a VAF filter the result is much improved.

To prove just how well it works Mosaic have posted the video below. Please log in and download it from Vimeo to get a better idea of the image quality.

VAF-6D & Canon 6D – Initial Demo Video from Mosaic on Vimeo.

As you can see the aliasing is not entirely gone, but the difference is obvious. I am confident that after tweaking the picture profile of the camera, the end result with a VAF filter should actually be pretty nice.

As with previous VAF filters it should not be used for stills as it softens the image far too much. That means removing it between stills and video shooting, which might put multimedia shooters off.

There is also a shift to the back-focus setting of the lens, which means that the distance scale will be rendered inaccurate. Early versions of the filter for the 5D mkII also had very soft and dark corners with wide angle lenses. Mosaic claim to have improved both back-focus shifts and wide angle performance with a new second version for the 5D mkII. The 6D version should share these improvements but I haven’t tested it.

At $365 US this filter is not cheap, but it does seem to do what it claims.

Side note: 6D audio improvements
One thing that has also been mostly overlooked is that the manual audio levels on the 6D have a nice feature letting you switch on a mic-input attenuator to allow direct connection to the output of an audio recorder. This is great in a dual system sound setup because you can monitor the audio from the recorder as well as sending it to the camera (although you might need a headphone splitter cable or recorder with both a line out and a headphone jack). In some cases the audio sent to the camera might even be good enough to use as primary audio.

Conclusion
So where does this leave the 6D? It will be interesting to test the quality of image out of the camera with VAF filter against the 5D mkII and mkIII. Until that is done it’s very hard to say. One thing is for sure – I’m not expecting miracles, so don’t expect it to beat a Canon C300.

However, if you are a student, on a budget, or are an EOS video shooter who wants a full-frame camera, then it is certainly one of the least expensive ways to go. Add the price of the VAF filter and it is a slightly different proposition. Other options at a similar cost include a new or used 5D mkII, or one of Sony’s NEX cameras with a Metabones EF to NEX Speedbooster adapter. Of course adding the VAF gets you much closer to the price of a new 5D mkIII.

Let’s see if the 6D with VAF will have the best image of them all – it is entirely possible.

You can find out more about the VAF filter range on the Mosaic engineering website. There is a full FAQ here.

Guest post by Jonah Kessel:

Censorship Incites Protests in China from Jonah Kessel on Vimeo.

I was trying to remember how to pack my bag for a still assignment, when I decided I couldn’t do it. I go on some shoots where I need to be prepared for stills and video, but the large majority are video only. It had been a long time since I had been on a “still only” shoot.

The New York Times sent me to Southern China to go take some pictures at a protest over censorship. When I got the call I had a few hours to make a plane headed from Beijing to Guangzhou. While packing in a fury, I envisioned what the scenario might look like and just couldn’t help myself – I had to bring at least something to put a camera on to record video.

So I did what I normally avoid — I decided to shoot stills and video of a breaking news event, on a deadline in the opposite hemisphere.

Free speech and anti reformers clash in front of the Nanfang Media Group compound Tuesday.

This is pretty tricky because Eastern Standard Time deadlines are in the middle of the night for China folks. If you shoot into the evening or later hours of the day, edit and then transmit, it will likely be the next day for you (most likely at a time when you have to start working again).

To make things more tricky, transmitting video from China to anywhere is one of the more painful things one can do in life. We lack bandwidth like the desert lacks water. So if you are shooting breaking news, you need to allow a fairly large buffer time to transmit on deadline. Editing stills, writing captions and cutting a video on top of that is just not a wise decision, if you don’t want to sacrifice the quality of your work.

To make things as simple as possible given this tricky equation (and given the fact that I was only sent to shoot stills) — I brought only three items to shoot video with. A Manfrotto Video Monopod, a Rode VideoMic Pro Compact Shotgun Microphone and a Canon 24-105mm f/4 L.

Free speech advocates and communist party supporters clash in front of the Nanfang Media Group compound, Tuesday.

This was the smallest kit I’ve ever used to make a video, be it a small news clip.

With a Canon 5D Mark III attached to a Blackrapid’s RS-7 Strap on one side for stills and a Canon 5D Mark III mounted on the Manfrotto Monopod on the other side for video, I lost some sleep but was able to hit deadlines for the International Herald Tribune (which has Hong Kong deadlines) and The New York Times photo and video department (EST deadlines), filing photos three times and video once within 24 hours.

A group supporting the Communist Party of China confronts free speech activists. Fights amongst the politically polar idealogical groups continued on through Tuesday afternoon.

As I’ve been moving away from DSLRs, this was a good reminder of their versatility and utility for visual journalists. I feel that by making the decision to shoot both stills and video, I created a larger understanding of the situation for readers, but didn’t sacrifice so much quality of the photographs or video that I wasn’t happy with the product.

This exercise also helped remind me what our basic tools are actually for. In the video, my shutter speed never changes from 60 (NYT standard video is 30fps), but I didn’t use any NDs and therefore didn’t waste time changing them. While I love my cine primes, a Canon zoom works really well for docs on deadlines and I never had to change a lens. While I love the stability of having three legs, a monopod can really be nice if you are multitasking and need to move quickly and perform multiple tasks.

A free speech advocate wears a mask outside of Southern Weekend Tuesday afternoon. The mask shows the characters “Mo Yan” which is the name of China’s recent and scrutinized Nobel Prize winner. The characters can also be translated as “Don’t Talk” or “Keep Quiet.” In the middle of the mask, the symbol V, referencing the movie “V for Vendetta” which recently aired for the first time on Chinese state run television.

There are some scenarios where the product and the deadlines are more important than our desires as filmmakers. And this in many ways is the challenge of shooting video of breaking news: what you can achieve given limited time in an uncontrolled situation.

Its a fun challenge — and a tiring one.

You can see more stills from the 24-hour shoot at my blog here.

–- Jonah M. Kessel is a Beijing based freelance visual journalist working with the New York Times. See his web site here and follow him on Twitter here.

Reported by Mat Gallagher:

The bew Canon CN-E 14mm T3

Canon is certainly keeping a fast pace with the expansion of its Cinema EOS System, announcing two further lenses to the collection in the form of a wide-angle CN-E 14mm T3.1 L F and a CN-E 135mm T2.2 L F. This brings the range to a total of nine lenses designed for use with its EF mount 35mm and super 35mm cameras. Both new prime lenses feature 11-blade apertures, large aspherical elements and are optimised for 4K video capture. Canon offers six dedicated EOS Cinema cameras in addition to its DSLR, professional camcorder and broadcast ranges.

The new CN-E 135mm

From the manufacturer:
“The Cinema EOS System is designed to support creative expression, and the launch of these new wide-angle and telephoto primes means our EF Cinema Lens line-up now offers the broadest focal length range in its class¹,” said Kieran Magee, Marketing Director, Professional Imaging, Canon Europe. “These new lenses truly reflect the vision that the Cinema EOS System is based on – combining industry-leading technologies with professionally-optimised designs so videographers can tell stories exactly as they intended to.”

Class-leading design
Designed for the working professional, both new models feature a high-grade professional design offering advanced operability. Compact form factors are optimised for motion picture production, with unified front lens diameter and gear positions that provide easy operability – eliminating the need to adjust rig set-ups when changing lenses mid-shoot. Widespread compatibility with standard third party accessories also offers outstanding flexibility during use, whether on-set or in the field.

Both the CN-E 14mm T3.1 L F and the CN-E 135mm T2.2 L feature markings on angled surfaces on either side of the lens barrel, making focus and aperture settings easy to read from behind or either side of the camera. A focus rotation angle of approximately 300 degrees facilitates precise focusing adjustments during shooting, while the focus markings can be switched from metric to imperial labelling as required. Innovative glass constructions also counter barrel expansion and contraction to avoid temperature-induced marking discrepancies, making each lens ideal for use in a range of different conditions.

Reported by Mat Gallagher:

Reuters once again turned to DSLRs for its latest Reuters Investigates: How education lost its role as the great equalizer. The piece we reported on last summer, Stop and Frisk was its first outing with the Canon EOS 60D, while this time it mixed footage from APS-C and full frame models. With a Canon EOS 5D mkIII used as the main camera, the EOS 60D was used as a B camera. Despite shooting consistently in 24p and using the Stu Maschwitz Prolost settings in both cameras, senior producer Ayana Morali, says the difference in results was still significant.

The Reuters Enterprise desk was tackling income inequality and the reporters wanted the video team to come up with something special for the series launch. At the same time, ReutersTV was seeking to start creating narratives with a more cinematic feel and higher production quality says Morali. Together with colleague Jon O’Beirne she decided to distinguish the package by approaching establishing shots and detailed B-roll shots in a more stylized way.

She writes: “We were very careful to consider how we could build sequences with what was shot. In every B-roll opportunity we worked our way in and out of the subject to give us options and we used tools like a polarizer on the 17-40mm f4L to make our wide shots and landscapes pop.  We also shot video portraits of our two main subjects to try and give an intimate feel to the interviews. We also brought our small inexpensive Indislider along to give Jon some camera move options when shooting B-roll – between that and the cowboy studio we got some really great camera moves for very little money.  At the last minute, I decided to bring my Gopro Hero 2 for the car shots.  I’ve heard the Hero3 Black is far superior but, the 2 still seemed to do the trick.  I just stuck it on the dashboard and had no issues with any shaking.

“The entire piece was shot in 24p. For the students, Jon used his 5d mkIII as our primary camera and the 60D as a “B” camera for our first shoot. We shot everything using Stu Maschwitz Prolost settings so were better able to grade the two cameras in post.  Additional interviews and B-roll were shot on the 60D. The difference between two cameras in remarkable, the quality of the image that comes from the 5D mkIII is noticeably superior. This was especially true in the latitude in exposure that we were able to get in the student interviews. The 60D lost a bit of information at the top end where a window was visible. We used two Flolight 512 LED panels and two Litepanels Sola ENGs for lighting. We also used a reflector as a fill for Tanner’s shot.  As far as lenses – for the interviews, we used a 50mm f1.4 and alternated b/w a 70-200MM f2.8L, and a 17-40MM f4L for the B-roll.”

Taking a slightly unusual step, the sound was recorded in-camera from a Sennheiser lavalier mic, rather than an external Tascam DR-100 unit. “This worked out really nicely and we had no audio issues in post.” Morali adds. “There is nothing like getting that cinematic look and not having to worry about external audio.”

The team did encounter a stuttering effect when they slowed some of the shots in post, she notes: “This may have been because Jon used a high shutter speed to compensate for the bright sun we were shooting in. In theory, it should be the reverse, and we’d love to hear from anyone who has encountered this or has further thoughts.”

She adds: “In post, we played a lot with Magic Bullet Looks and tried to give each section a treatment to differentiate it from the others. We also added slow moves in FCP to the landscape shots.  The wide shot of the school was an especially exciting moment in edit.  I sped it up to 250% to get the windmills going, but since there was no other movement, it still looked like a beautifully composed still until you notice that subtle movement.  I added the filter ‘Miami’ in Magic Bullet to make the clouds pop even more than they already did from the polarizer. There – a purely artistic moment.”

It is interesting that even as many pundits are calling time on the use of DSLRs for professional video, some large news organisations are still using them.

Reuters investigates team were -
Reporters: David Rohde and Kristina Cooke
Senior Producer: Ayana Morali

Senior Post Producer: Jon O’Beirne

Ayana Morali is a Brooklyn-based producer/shooter/editor. She is the Senior Producer for Reuters Investigative and Special Programming Unit.