Posted 10/20/09 at 04:04:06 PM by Bart Salisbury

On the very day that Canon introduces the EOS-1D Mark IV camera, filmmaker Vincent Laforet releases the first movie produced on the camera: Nocturne. What’s amazing about Laforet’s short movie is that it was shot at night, in an urban setting, making use only of available light. On his blog Laforet writes: “Here is the main point that I hope you take into account: the short film you are about to watch was shot in pretty much the very worst light that I could possibly find in an evening urban landscape. I did not chose “pretty lighting” in a mall or under neon signs. That would have been cheating in my book.” The result is impressive.

But then so to is the EOS-1D Mark IV. It comes with an Advanced Photo System High Definition (APS-H) sized 16.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, dual DIGIC 4 image processors, and--wait for it--ISO speeds from 100 to 12,800. The ability of the camera, which is primarily for taking still pictures, to handle low-light situations and provide high quality noise reduction is evident from Laforet’s film. (Although Laforet does confess to cleaning it up a bit with Stu's Magic Bullet Colorista software.) The EOS-1D’s video ability includes HD movies with manual exposure control, shooting between 1080 at 30 frames per second, down to 480 at 60 frames per second.

Equally impressive is the EOS-1D’s price-tag. Canon’s suggested retail price is $4,999, and that’s only for the camera body. I’m thinking my hidden Scorsese is going to have to remain hidden a bit longer. In the meantime a 1080p version of Nocturne can be found at SmugMug.

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