ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

2 years, 1 month ago - Zan Barberton

Hello! I'm a filmmaker in South East London - I've just listed my old cinema camera on ebay. It needs a lens and some good sound equipment but I think it's a great (HD) camera: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305168569810
I'm about to list the micro 4/3 lens that I used with it, and an old GH2 camera too.

There are loads of options out there - this one is not 4K but it is really nice to shoot on and you don't need to buy lots of extras for it.

While I'd love you to buy my camera, and it's a good one in my opinion, I'm not sure though I would recommend buying a camera as a first step - you will need a good DoP to start shooting and maybe they should be the one to advise you on camera choice?

2 years, 1 month ago - John Lubran

The differentials between camera types costing less than £3,000, and megabuck types costing twenty times more, is becoming increasingly moot and immaterial. Meaning that the percieved quality of the camera department on the 'final print' is far more to do with skilled artful camera and lighting skills than it's about the cameras and lenses relied upon.

It's an Emporers new Clothes thing.

However, beware blunt assertions of 4K. Particularly 4K camera phones. Some low cost 4K options really aren't as good as some HD cameras. Apart from pixel count resolutions there's other parameters that define quality, such as;

Bitrate, or processing speed. Below 100mbs (megabits per second) unwanted motion artifacts can spoil ones aspirations. For example EBU (European Broadcast Union) standards that define "broadcast quality", also referred to as "broadcast legal", states that 4K should be at 100mps or faster.

Then there's contrast ratios. Many low end 4K cameras have poor contrast handling, unable to recreate the natural look expected of the minds eye.

Talking of the minds eye. Very few otherwise excellent theatre directors know how to shoot theatre. Typically it's down to the futile aspiration to keep everything that's on the stage in the frame. Frame not according to the choreography of the auditorium but according to the minds eye of it's screen viewing audience. The two audience are entirely different.

Wide shots are boring and two dimensional. Unless one has a complete OB multicamera set up. Single camera theatrical conversions to film or video require a special skillset, that in my decades of experience of such, ought steer well clear of stage directors, particularly if such a director is stridently without practiced skill in single camera drama. Angles and heights also differ from theatrical practices. Start stop single camera direction is a big job. Single camera continuous, or long segmented takes can be excellent, effective and economical, if a skilled self directed camera person is available.

Right now one of the cheapest high quality 4K 100mps cameras rated as EBU compliant is the Sony PXW Z90, about £2,600 new. Figure another £500 - £1,000 for basic grips and audio. Other types are available.