For television commercial shoots, camera equipment is always hired from a rental house. But as a director who would often operate the camera myself, I have a Canon XL-1s Mini DV camcorder, purchased six years ago, that I use extensively for smaller-scale shoots.

A major wave of change swept through the broadcast industry sometime in the second half of those six years. By 2007, High Definition has all but supplanted Standard Definition for broadcast productions. Along with the migration to HD, tapeless acquisition was fast becoming the norm; footage recorded to solid-state memory media as video files ready for editing, eliminating the time-consuming process of digitizing tapes. More and more, I found myself choosing to rent a HD camcorder rather than using my own SD camcorder even for the smaller shoots.

The first sign that my equipment line-up was in dire need of an upgrade was in September 2007, when my workhorse XL-1s finally gasped its last breath halfway through a shoot in Shanghai. I was faced with the unpleasant prospect of investing S$10,000 or so for a HD camcorder, in particular a Sony PMW-EX1.

But making the move to HD meant more than just buying a HD camcorder; the massive amount of HD data meant that I would have to upgrade my entire postproduction workflow. One new workstation here, plenty of high-speed storage there, and I was looking at another S$15,000 easily, a figure I was neither willing nor capable of spending at that point in time.

I held out. In the meanwhile, my stills digital SLR cameras were, likewise, quickly falling into obsolescence. Solid as they were, my two cameras—a Canon EOS 5D and a Canon EOS-1D Mark II—had already been surpassed by newer cameras sporting next-generation features I found increasingly difficult to ignore; features such as 14-bit A/D conversion, larger, higher-resolution and more viewable 3.0″ LCD screens, and Live View had become ubiquitous.

But, again, I held out. So, for a good whole year, there I was, a director in search of a decent broadcast-quality HD video camera, and a photographer in search of a replacement for his two previous-generation digital SLR cameras.

Then the impossible happened. What really convinced me that I could no longer hold back was the one game-changing feature—the second sign—offered by one of those next-generation digital SLR cameras:

Video recording.

Such a development is a watershed moment for someone like myself who has been shooting both videos and stills all his professional life. The significance of a video-recording digital SLR is in the leap in artistic expression I can now have.

These digital SLR cameras, with their large image sensors the same size as that of 35mm film, produce the shallow depth-of-field look synonymous with 35mm motion picture film cameras. Since depth of field increases as focal length decreases, typical camcorders, with their much smaller sensors, simply cannot produce that elusive, shallow DOF look that videographers yearn and go out of their way to achieve (read this article for the physics).

Years ago, to achieve the same look, I had to use a P+S Technik Mini35 lens adapter. It was expensive to rent (S$900/day with accompanying Zeiss Super Speed lenses, or S$12,500 to purchase, camera and lenses not included), and it was bulky; it was actually bigger than the XL-1s camcorder it mounted onto.

Now, the same, if not better, filmic look can be had with a digital SLR camera a third of both the cost and weight of the P+S Technik Mini35. What’s more, since I already own a small collection of quality EF lenses I can use on such a digital SLR camera, I now need to maintain only one camera system, as versus one video camera system and one stills camera system.

Last week, after a series of unfortunate events unfolded on a couple of ongoing jobs—which I took to be the third and final sign from the heavens above it’s time to finally upgrade—I took the plunge and bought an EOS 5D Mark II.

I know, I know… I said I would never get a 5D Mark II because it has the same AF system of the 5D which I find disappointing. In fact, I felt none of the excitement on the day I bought the 5D Mark II that I had felt previously when buying other cameras.

Having used the camera for a week, I still have deep misgivings at just how much better the AF system in the 5D Mark II will perform, as Canon claims it would. Also, I remain unconvinced that the form factor of a digital SLR is at all suitable for video acquisition.

Accustomed to operating 2/3″ Digital Betacam and DVCPRO camcorders, all of which are of the traditional form factor of the broadcast video camera—articulatable viewfinder, zoom grip, top handle, left-handside controls—I find myself constantly trying to press my eye to the viewfinder on the 5D Mark II while the camera is rolling.

Still, I am very heartened by the 35mm look the 5D Mark II achieves. But is The Look worth the various ergonomical and operational shortcomings of this camera? I have a strong suspicion this is going to be a love-hate relationship.

Time will tell.

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