The standard focusing screen with this camera is rubbish. It shows too much in focus and pictures shot wide-open have very different boke and DOF compared to the viewfinder. But this new focusing screen, the Canon EG-S, appears to fix that. It’s designed for manual focus, insomuch as any focusing screen without a split-prism can be used for manual focus, but it’s much snappier than the standard screen. Focus comes in and out quickly and sharply, and the boke/DOF issue is gone. I’m told it’s dimmer. Impossible to really tell. In any case, Canon viewfinders are rubbish compared to my old Nikon F2 and F3. Cinematic viewfinders you could draw a mural on.

It’s the beginning of the long Easter Weekend, and it’s raining. Time to make a short film. I live opposite my friend Alexandra, a director, who’s brimming with ideas and flooded with actors, and with the new Canon 5D, we’ve been putting it through its paces for a while now, getting used to its foibles and working around its flaws. So myself, Alex, Charlie, Andrei and Lennard spent the day between Alex’s place and mine, making a short with a twist in the tale… Watch this space for the excellent edit. The 5D drops frames if you’re not careful. It seems that whenever the light changes and there’s an aperture shift, the camera drops the frames and uses the previous frame. Very very very annoying. Solution? Manual mode and lock the exposure. Oh, and control the light.

Update: Here’s the short. It’s awesome. http://www.lexitricity.com/film/the-morning-after/