Amazing Canon 5D MkII HD video footage!!
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Vincent Laforet got his hands on a Canon 5D MkII for a weekend. Rather than shoot some quick stills, he rounded up an entire film crew and put them to work using the amazing 1080p video capture it offers – in helicopters, no less! When SmugMug heard about this, we went bananas and offered to host both the short film itself, Reverie, as well as the behind-the-scenes footage:
See it auto-sized for your screen & browser, view it in Hi-Def, or embedded below. Your choice.
Also, you can see the Behind the Scenes footage (want it in HD?):
Then we went a little more bananas, and ponied up $25K to sponsor a community-created film led by Vincent, with another $25K to follow if other sponsors get on the train. We think this camera is truly a game-changer and we’re thrilled to help visionaries like Vincent prove it to the world.
Now, the astute geeks in the audience will note that Reverie isn’t hosted in 1080p, but instead is at 720p. I wish it weren’t so, and we’re actively trying to get our hands on the 1080p footage right out of Final Cut so we can let everyone take a peek – but it’s not our footage, so I don’t actually have it. I believe Canon may be putting it online themselves, but if they don’t, I’ll do everything I can to put it up – so stay tuned to Vincent’s blog as well as my own.
Man I love this industry! Thanks Canon!
SmugMug's Don MacAskill 
Awesome video and quality, I am absolutely impressed by Canon’s new 5D and that means a lot as an avid Nikon shooter.
These pictures look fantastic. I want one!!!
This is only just a snippet of why Smugmug rocks!
You’ve outdone yourselves, Don and Smugmug. It’s one thing to host the most awesome photo service in the industry; it’s quite another to make that “meta-leap” and underwrite excellence from others. Forget ROI, forget marketing–the speed at which all this happened makes it obvious that the love of the technology and the art that can be made with it is what the focus was here. It’s why I’m proud to be here and live vicariously through the accomplishments of our community.
Got your tweet regarding the Canon video footage on FriendFeed today. A lot of controversy over what should be a non-issue. Now following on Twitter.
Haven’t been this excited over a camera since I unwrapped my 1D Mark II. Kinda doused the enthusiasm.
Still looking forward to getting my hands around one but c’mon Canon!
What do you mean by the update??? Please clear things up.
I thought Vincent’s blog said Canon’s David Sparer specifically told Vincent that anything he did over the weekend was to be “completely independently from Canon”?? Trigger-happy incompetent guy at Canon forgot that in this day n age, once the viral PR genie is out of the internet-bottle, there ain’t no way to stuff ‘im back — big announcement schedule be damned…
Wow. I don’t know if I’m more impressed with the “Game-changer” camera, or the way SmugMug is run. I should be used to that by now, but you guys are the best! I’m only sorry we waited so long to become customers!
That was just plain stupid of Canon. Glad I saw the HD video before it was taken down. 🙂
Great post. I cant wait to get my hands on this camera!
Canon FTL. I'll never buy another one of their camera's. This seals it. Peace.