top gear from yesteryear saw the demise of the DSLR. But if you want the ultimate Canon EOS 5D DSLR, the Mark IV is as good as it ever got. 2016 From the first to the last Specs that matter Price now: Around £800/$700 Sensor: 30.4-megapixel, full-frame Exmor CMOS Formats: Up to DCI 4K/30p, FHD/60p Motion JPEG Movie length: 4K and Full HD, max duration 29mins 59secs AF: Dual Pixel CMOS AF with face detection and tracking AF, Movie Servo AF Frame rates: 60p for UHD, 180p HD, 240p via external recorder Storage: 1x CF slot, 1x SD Weight: 800g/1.76lb body only The EOS 5D range went from video pioneer to being phased out two generations later f ever there was one camera that democratised high-quality filmmaking, it’s the Canon EOS 5D series. The 2009 5D Mark II was the first affordable full-frame camera to shoot HD video and sparked a whole revolution. It also turned legions of stills photographers into wannabe filmmakers. When the EOS 5D Mark III was announced in 2012, it was an upgrade with more resolution and faster speed. Four years later and a new 5D Mark IV arrived. Not many thought it would be the very last in line before mirrorless took over. It had a brand-new sensor with more resolution, up to 30.4 megapixels and Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus that allowed you to refocus while shooting movies, using the LCD touchscreen. It had DCI 4K at up to 30p, along with 60p in HD. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV For its 4K images at 4096x2160 pixels, it took a 1.6x crop from the middle of the 6720x4480 sensor. This is roughly a 1.6x horizontal crop, so similar to an APS-C sensor. The 4K video was encoded using 500Mbps, which fills cards up fast at 4GB a minute. But the advantage of such mildly compressed Motion JPEG means that good- quality eight-megapixel stills can be pulled from the footage, making this camera useful for newsgatherers who can film an event and take a decent-quality screen grab afterwards in camera. However, with 4K limited to 30p, chances are you won’t be shooting at high shutter speeds, so the still grab may not be 100% sharp due to subject blur. It was limited technology like this that
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