This season’s last episode of House has been shot on HDSLR: with a Canon 5D Mk II and Canon lenses (including a 50mm f/1.0 – talk about shallow depth of field!)
The feedback of Vincent Laforet was very positive:
1. The lens sharpness was phenomenal. Why? The lighting. Sure we all caught some glimpses of people/faces falling out of focus at times – something all 5D MKII and HDDSLR operators are well acquainted with… I’m sure this could be remedied with many of the newer 3rd party lens options out there today. I am told this episode was shot with Canon EF Lenses – including the 24~70mm 2.8 and 70~200mm 2.8 – lenses that are particularly difficult to set focus marks with, as they were never really intended to be used as cinema lenses.
2. The image quality was phenomenal. No noise. No artifacting whatsoever. No blocking up of shadows. Why? In my opinion: The lighting.
3. The lighting throughout was phenomenal. Basically – it was lit in a very similar way if not identical way to the high standard that House has been filmed in the past. DP Gale Tatersall understood something that I have formulated over the past 2 years with the Canon 5D MKII: While the camera does produce incredible results in low light – you still need to light for it carefully – and often, you’ll end up lighting it in very similar ways to how you would light for just about any camera out there. The difference is that you may need 1-2 stops less overall in lighting at times.
So if you thought an HDSLR didn’t need proper lighting, think again.
