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Looking to purchase my first professional camera
Hi there,
I’m looking at the prospect of investing in my own professional camera for the main purpose to give me freedom and flexibility to shoot my own documentaries. (an absolute passion of mine)
My budget is roughly £1000, which I appreciate is low and whilst a brand new camera would be preferred, purchasing a second hand camera will probably be a better idea as I could get more out of it. Ideally i’d want it to become a good investment which I can build upon, and should I need to replace the camera, I can continue to use the accessories.
I’ve been looking at the Black Magic Pocket Camera but not convinced yet and was wondering what the creatives here would suggest to purchase.
Chris
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2 Replies
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Hi Chris,
While I haven’t used the pocket camera, I own a BMPC 4K and have used the 2.5K and love the image they put out. That said, with Blackmagic you are really just buying an imaging block; you still need lenses and a good audio setup. And in the case with the BMPC 4K, a cage, monitor and other accessories to really make it practical.
I would suggest renting one from BorrowLens.com and see if it would work for what you want to use it for. While it may put out a great image, it might not be practical or easy to use for what you want to do with it.
DCJ
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BMPCC has great value especially if you need to shoot in places where you can’t look like you’re handling a professional camera.
BMPCC support Panasonic Lumix lenses with Image Stabilization. Otherwise you’d need to get Metabones Canon EF to BMPCC mount which also supports Image Stabilization and tears through batteries though.
Consider that the BMPCC with a Panasonic Image Stabilized Zoom lens could push you over budget. If you go Metabones and Canon EF that might push even further… unless you already own lenses.
If you’re doing in door shooting and indoor interviews you may want a very fast lens, especially if you want a shallow Depth of Field. In that scenario you might want Metabones EF to BMPCC and maybe a Sigma f1.8 18-35 (not a stabilized lens). That combo would also put you over budget I think.
With your budget you could get BMPCC and inexpensive (but not very fast) Panasonic Image Stabilized Zoom lens. Zacuto Pocket Z-Finder, 6-8 Blackmagic batteries. Consider tripod and/or monopod as well. If you need really light for travel, Benro has some light and inexpensive travel tripods and monopods.
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