Here’s a scene from NBC’s comedy show Parks and Recreation that can give you some ideas on how to direct your subjects the next time you’re doing a family portrait session.

Here’s the first episode of Shutterbugs, the new web series we mentioned a couple weeks ago that’s geared towards photo enthusiasts. Each episode is pretty short — this one is just 3.5 minutes long — and a new one will be released every Tuesday. You can also follow the show by subscribing to the channel through YouTube.

Check out this fictional Nikon DSLR spotted in the British science fiction TV show Torchwood. It looks strangely familiar.

Apparently in some universes, Nikon DSLRs are compatible with Canon flashes.

(via Reddit)

Here’s yet another example of the crazy visual effects found on today’s TV shows — this time it’s from HBO’s series “Game of Thrones“. Just making composites this realistic using still images would be difficult enough, but for video? Wow.

(via Reddit)

You may have heard that the Canon 5D Mark II has been used to film an episode of “House” on FOX. Now NBC is using a 7D for an upcoming Christmas episode of “Community”. On Thursday, Dec. 9th, 2010, they’re going old school and doing a Rudolph-esque claymation epsiode. Check out these behind-the-scenes videos and you’ll see a Canon DSLR and lens being used.
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Amazing! A TV show finally gets image enhancing right!

It’s a breath of fresh air, given how absurd image enhancing usually is on TV.

Just a reminder: the season finale of the popular TV show House, which was filmed entirely with the Canon 5D Mark II, will be airing tonight. The fact that the show turned to the HDSLR was one of the big stories last month, after the show’s director Greg Yaitanes made the announcement on Twitter and had a Q&A session via the service.

Canon also put out a press release today congratulating the show. Yuichi Ishizuka, the executive VP of Canon USA is quoted as saying,

We take great pleasure in congratulating the cast and crew of HOUSE on completing the first network television episode to be completely shot on a DSLR camera. This milestone marks a paradigm shift in the way professional cinematographers and filmmakers capture HD video.

Will you be tuning in to see how it turned out?

The season finale of the popular TV show House, which will air on May 17th, was filmed entirely with the Canon 5D Mark II. cinema5D overheard the plan last month and Greg Yaitanes, the director of the show, has confirmed it through a tweet in which we made himself open to questions.

We’ll republish some of the interesting questions and answers here, interview style:

@MVRamunno: What is the difference in how it looks on a TV screen compared to a regular camera?

Greg Yaitanes: richer. shallow focus pulls the actors faces to forground [sic]

@oamad0101: How many frames per second and why a Canon 5D Mark II?

GY: 24p and wanted it for ease of use in tight spaces.

@unikissa: Ok, seriously. Can you tell us something about the lenses you used?

GY: all the canon primes and the 24-70 and the 70-200 zoom

@sarabury: Did you have to change any of your working practices to fit in with differences between the 5D and a typical setup?

GY: some. focus was hard with these lenses but more “cine-style” lenses are being made as we speak.

@marykir: were you using CF cards for storage or some sort of mass storage mod? seems like you would need a lot of cards :)

GY: some 18gb or something like that card. gave us 22 min of footage.

@Drdiagnostic: How was the quality as compared 2 the traditional camera used in shooting?

GY: i loved it and feel it’s the future. cameras that can give you these looks

@klizma: How did you manage to stabilize the camera in tight spaces? Any special kind of brackets?

GY: no. mostly gave it a hand held feel. or on a small tripod

This is quite an endorsement for Canon, with a network giant entrusting the finale of one of its most popular shows to the 5D Mark II (which happens to be the first digital camera to take the Presidential portrait as well).

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the popularity of the show:

In 2008, House was distributed in a total of 66 countries. With an audience of over 81.8 million worldwide, it was the most watched television show on the globe and far surpassed the viewership figures of the leading TV dramas the previous two years

If you haven’t yet, check out the short film, The Last 3 Minutes, which we posted earlier today. It was filmed with the same camera.

(via Canon 5D tips)

Here’s a portion of the Judge Joe Brown episode that aired Monday in the US. The case involved a woman who felt cheated when the wedding photographer she hired delivered poor results after using a Canon Rebel XTi, 18-55mm kit lens, and a 70-300mm. What’s interesting is how Judge Joe Brown actually seems to know a thing or two about photography.

It’s funny how the defendant shot “hundreds of weddings” without knowing what the speed of her 70-300mm lens is.