The Camera of Choice?

By Mike Thomas. I had an interesting chat with one of my customers last week about cameras of choice and it sort of boils down to three at the top. One tried and tested but has been around over three years so people are wary of investing in technology that might be superseded. The next has the right badge and is simple to use, plus Production ask for it. The third is new. You can have a guess at this point Camera 1. The Sony F55 has been around three and a half years. As above tried and tested and very, very rarely has a problem. Shoots MPEG2, XAVC, ProRes, DNxHD, RAW, XOCN. A vast array of frame rates. HD, 2K, UHD and 4K and will record 120fps 4K RAW with V8.00 and a AXS-R7. Everybody asks when the replacement is coming. I ask, what do you want the replacement to do? Media has come down in price and unless you’re shooting 4K or high frame rate you don’t need the more expensive Pro+ cards. Cons…. It’s a Sony which isn’t that fashionable anymore. Camera 2. The Alexa Mini was launched early last year. Originally aimed at the Gimbal & Drone Market it found a following with operators who liked building a rig around a small camera body. Funnily this was everybody’s moan about the Canon C300 but it seems to be ok with the Mini.  I’ll hold my hands up that I don’t know a lot about the mini except that it seems quite popular. I’m told it’s simple and easy to use. I know it’s not full 4K or UHD and it’s very expensive compared to the Japanese equivalents. So, on the Pro side it has an Arri badge which is very fashionable. Camera 3. The Varicam LT. I wasn’t a fan of the last Varicam purely on the basis that it was too heavy and too expensive. The LT however has come in at the right price level and weight, retaining the picture quality of it’s big brother. It lacks some of the 4K frame rates but more importantly keeps the two Native ISOs, 800 and 5000 to give some very good low light images. The media price for the LT or any other Panasonic P2 based camera is an objection you constantly hear, and yes it’s about twice the price of the C-Fast equivalent (capacity wise), but media is a long term investment, and let’s face it. If your media goes wrong, so does your life! Camera 2’s popularity is somewhat based on the badge and its connection to the film industry. What people tend to forget, when film was the given format, people used different film stock but retained the same camera. Now, video cameras are like different film stocks, but people are unwilling to try out alternatives. DoP’s don’t have time to test and Production stay safe with their spec. Now, there are pros and cons to all cameras, but our industry seems very blinkered with what cameras to choose. Sony make amazing sensors, Panasonic manufacture Cameras that last forever, Arri make simple easy to use Cameras. Pick a camera for the job, they’re not handbags, the badge doesn’t matter, the pictures do!