A new kind of movie?

Appropriately on the day after Thanksgiving, here's an item about new consumer products: High-resolution digital SLRs that can shoot video. The Nikon D90 seems to have been first with this capability, but the Canon 5D MkII, which just hit U.S. stores this week, is making waves with the remarkably high quality of its video.

This may be not just a new product category but a whole new medium. The quality is extremely high, with a 21-megapixel sensor that's as big as a frame of 35mm film. It can take any standard Canon lens and take full advantage of their optical quality, including very wide angles, low-light capability and selective focus. The result looks as bold and slick as cinema itself but somehow different, too. Watching it is almost an immersive experience.

You can see examples here, here, and here. Granted, these were shot by professional photographers, and an average consumer's results probably wouldn't look quite as good despite having the same technical quality. But that's partly the point. Professional (and just really good) still photographers can now apply their vision to images that move. Think of it as a merging of vacation videos and high-quality vacation photos. Of course, the key will be judicious editing.

A downside to this stunning quality is stunning storage, download, and playback requirements. Before trying to watch these videos, let them finish buffering. Even then, they may not play in full motion if your computer isn't powerful enough. The 5D MkII can only shoot video for about four minutes at a time, which is fine unless you're Tsai Ming-Liang, but I don't even want to think about what kind of disk space they take up. But once the rest of the world catches up, we may see some very interesting things.