Cameras

Ok….How do we keep up with the constant release of new cameras and do we buy them every year a new camera comes out?!

….the problem is, there is NO right answer.

My very 1st camera was the Panasonic HVX 200 with SGBlade 35 Adapter, back then that was the only affordable way to shoot with shallow depth of field with slow-motion features.

It was a beast to roam around with: (my set up but not my picture)

The second I got used to the menu and best set up, ...the Canon 5DMKII Snuck up on the market, full frame sensor shooting only 30fps at the time but then changed to 24/25p

As you can tell, I sold my HVX set up and bought the 5DMKII, then later added the

Canon 1DMKIV for slow-motion and lowlight features.

Being early in the game back then, I never realised that this constant swapping out cameras would carry on.

What we want!

Most of the time we want new cameras cuz they are new and we love new things, kinda like iPhones and cars….

but lets all be honest with ourselves …..there are now plenty of cameras that do what we need and do it well

hell ....we probably already own them haha

What do we want in our cameras?… good dynamic range, some kind of slow-motion, 4k resolution, good color and good codecs & fairly compact

Company ethic :

Don’t forget a good company ethic is also important... as dealing with a camera company who cares makes a difference, at least to me.

RED is the best at this as they offer trade in/upgrade programs

So if you bought a RED that cost you £15k, you can trade that in plus £15k for the newer RED that cost £30k

I didn't say RED was cheap haha

But they make it less stressful for the user trying to sell their camera before buying the new version.

So….to start with

people interested in buying their first camera I’d suggest an all rounder

To me that is the 'Blackmagic Ursa Mini', 4K or 4.6 K, great dynamic range, raw recording, prores recording and 4k slowmo up to 60fps, with higher frame rates at 120fps in 1080p (cropped in) and good camera audio features at a fair price of  £3,500

but you also have the 'Sony FS5' at £5,388

and the new RED Raven at about £9/12k for a working camera…all great cameras!

But bare this in mind as it will happen…..the day you buy that camera outright, or with a loan or on finance….you can guarantee a new better camera will come out either by the same manufacture you just bought a camera from or from a different manufacture within a year.

For example...

quite a while back I bit the bullet and bought the RED Scarlet, big money for me at the time….literally before I got it, a new company called 'Blackmagic' (Well new in the camera market) came out with the 2.5k cinema camera which looked just as good as the RED Scarlet for a lot less.

Only thing that kept me sane was that the scarlet had 48fps in 3k, much easier RAW workflow and the BMD had no slow-motion

But times are now very different, every camera has slow-motion....before you had to spend big to get big results, thats not really the case anymore.

Just look at the Sony line up, RX100, RX10, A7S etc etc

Also, as you may know….

its much better to invest in good lenses as they will more likely stick around longer then your cameras, if you have a good set of fast lenses and a few zooms, they will be in your bag for a long time.

I usually stick with EF glass as I know they work well on most formats, adapters etc

so…..

Im my mind, to do our jobs well…we need 3 cameras, not 3 £10k cameras, but just 3 cameras

Camera 1 ...an all rounder, frame rates, resolution, dr and color.

Camera 2..... a smaller camera with similar specs for gimbal work and travel/pick up shots

Camera 3....another camera for those 2nd angle interviews, this camera mainly just needs good dr and 25fps, no slowmo needed

Don't forget drones too haha

How To Keep Up Without Losing Money :

So now that smaller compact, affordable cameras can shoot great video & stills

with affordable pricing ...

how do we NOT get stuck spending over £1,000 every 6 months on new smaller cameras that come out with new features every 6 months to a year

well, we can't haha

The trick is to think of cameras like the stock market, you need to know when to sell!

I don't like owning hundreds of cameras, if I don't use it or that type of camera doesn't help my stories....then I sell em

So here is a great example:

Sometimes, camera companies help us out without knowing it.

You will need to know your cameras for this to work in your favour

So say you just bought camera x by company x that you just spent £3,000 on

3 months later that same company brings out a similar camera, not as good but very similar features for only £1,200

you now sell your camera at a lower cost of £3,000 to buy the cheaper camera with anything else you need to match the features of the more expensive camera

my example:

I bought the A7SII for full frame, in body stabilisation with slog 2 & 3

sold it for a6300, cheap speed booster & single gimbal

ended up with the same features for cheaper and pocketing money at the end

worked out great.

But sometimes you will end up losing £200 playing this game, but still a lot better

then forking out another £1,000/£2,000 every time

Thats my tip on making sure you don't get screwed over too much on cameras

How You shoot Will Choose The Camera For You!

Another very, very, very important thing to keep in mind is your clients and how you like to shoot.

This should choose your camera for you.

If you haven't got a client list yet, then just try and picture what clients you want and purchase your camera with that it mind.

For example, someone shooting weddings and docs will not want a heavy camera... thats power hungry and media hungry...despite how great it looks haha

For another example, I like to shoot on small cameras sometimes and move very fast , carry like a billion batteries and cards due to them being so small and affordable ….

but despite the cameras image looking amazing, your client might be biased and think bigger the better, more professional, ''why is he shooting with that small camera, its gonna look like crap''!

(I know, annoying)

So regarding those explanations above, this should give more insight on why I think this day and age we need to have more then one camera

So ....another important thing to know

DO NOT GET TOO ATTACHED TO YOUR CAMERA

cuz your new fancy camera might be gone next year and we need to keep an eye on innovative releases

Some people like to keep all their cameras, but in my mind....get rid of what you don't need fast.

That way you never really lose money in this game...someone will always want a cheaper camera as they will just be starting, or to them....that camera would be their upgrade.

Choose your camera wisely

Don’t let cameras stress you out, enjoy shooting and upgrade when you can

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO HIRE - if you are interested in a camera that cost a lot, try before you buy!

I’ve made it this far from this:

Panasonic HVX with 35 adapter

Set of Canon L Glass

Canon 5DMKII

Canon 1DMKIV

SONY NEX 5N

RED scarlet

Jibs

Sliders

Steadicams

Gimbals

Rigs

Set of Rokinon/Samyang Glass

RED Epic

Blackmagic Pocket Camera

GH3

GH4

Set of Sigma Art Lenses

BMCC

Blackmagic URSA

Sony RX10

Sony A7SII

Sony a6300

Sony E mount lenses

Micro Four Thirds Lenses

More TBC haha

For those just starting ...'Digital Photographer' magazine also posted a piece on me about my 'Five key pieces of Kit for Video Capture'

http://news.dphotographer.co.uk/tutorials/tips-and-advice/five-key-pieces-of-kit-for-video-capture/