When I started in the film and video business, virtually no one made their living doing both photos and filmmaking. You shot stills or you made movies, and there was no crossover.
Then a camera arrived that changed everything, the Canon 5d Mark 2. What follows is an over simplification, as historically there were always some filmmakers who also shots stills, and some still photographers who also dabbled in video.
But the 5d Mark 2 was the first time you had one camera in your hands that could do both at a profession level. It was a better still photo camera than a video camera (at least on paper). But what this thing could do with video…! For the first time filmmakers could shoot high definition video with a full frame sensor, a sensor twice the size of 35mm cinema cameras - it was a sensor closer to the size of an IMAX camera!
We filmmakers purchased the thing in droves.
And in the meantime, some of us woke up to realize that we also had accidentally invested in a remarkable cutting edge DSLR. What exactly was a raw file?
Thousands of moviemakers now owned a professional still photo camera. And we started to experiment. We started using the camera for both the ridiculous video mode, and it’s intended purpose as a still photo camera. And sometimes we were doing so on the same job.
Fast forward a few years and many thousands of “content providers” were shooting stills and video on the same shoot. Panasonic, Sony, Canon, and Nikon all battled for this new segment of shooters, a market that was hard for the old camera makers to understand as this kind of hybrid work had never existed before. They would release new gear, hope for the best, and then improve quickly if they stood a chance in this fast changing market.
These days it’s normal and commonplace to do stills and video. In fact, I think for younger content providers, they never think about being a “hybrid shooter.” They just produce content.
So thank you to the Canon 5d Mark 2 for initiating this change. Here’s to more changes and disruptions, as we continue to find tools to show off the exquisite world that surrounds us.
Below are some of my favorite stills from the past few years. A couple of these were even shot with the 5d Mark 2!
