What got Hollywood’s D.P.s Excited about the Canon 5D
Excerpt from the Canon Boot Camp Manual
The main reason was that it had a big sensor, so it can deliver a very shallow depth of field (depth meaning how much of the picture is in focus).
So the BIG DEAL was that most video cameras had such small sensors that almost everything was in focus (like the picture on the right above). But the Canon 5D sensor is huge. It was the first to deliver that shallow depth of field that could focus just on Hugh Laurie’s right eye and put the other eye out of focus.
One inch depth of field.
SHALLOW depth of field—that’s the BIG DEAL.