Suggestions for Videocamera/Camcorder to Mix with Canon 5D MII or MIII

[Bill Bruner]

Hi Steve – my first thought would be to recommend the Canon C100 Cinema EOS Camcorder. It meets all of your criteria, can easily share lenses with your 5D Mark III and produces footage that is easily matched to the 5D3 as seen in this short film:

https://vimeo.com/90720015

That said, the C100 is pretty expensive, at $4999 for the version with fast dual pixel autofocus and $4499 with no autofocus (these are sale prices, the camera is usually $500 more).

So I guess the question to you is: what do you mean by “mid-range”?

Cheers,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

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[Steve Crow]

Hi Bill,

Yeah I was thinking more like the $850-1200 range for the interview camera, not much I know.

The organization that asked me about this isn’t looking for super great quality for the green screen interviews, they are more interested in purchasing a reliable and simple video camera that will still do the trick for them.

So I was thinking maybe a camcorder might be a solution and this should also allow me to get around the 12 minute or half hour recording limit because the interviews will be of young technical people, not professional actors and so I would anticipate many takes being necessary.

The only thing I worry about with those camcorders is if I can get a clean enough image to key well. I know people used to shoot green screens with mini dv camcorders so maybe I am worrying about nothing.

The C100 would be fantastic for the beauty shots camera but that too would be out of their price range, the 5D I think they already have.

Steve Crow

[Todd Terry]

I was going to heartily second Bill’s suggestion of the C100 until learning your budget.

Not to be a killjoy, but you (or the organization on whose behalf you are inquiring) will need to reevaluate either the specs needed for the camera, or the budget. I do not believe you will find one with interchangeable lenses and XLR inputs in that price range, or even fairly close to it. Both of those features (especially the XLR inputs) are only going to crop up on cameras a step or two (or three) above that budget range.

The higher-ranged cameras are obviously going to have better color sampling than the bargain basement ones, which is what will allow for clean keys. But then again you said you are not “looking for super great quality,” and considering that, almost any camera in your price range should do fair enough, as long as the greenscreen scenes are well/correctly lit.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Bill Bruner]

Thanks for the clarification, Steve.

In this price range, if they want a clean key, I recommend the $850 (on sale, as of this post) Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera with an $18 XLR to 3.5mm mic adapter and a $31 Canon EF to MFT adapter with manual aperture control – recording to 10-bit ProRes. This setup may not be the “simple video camera” you’re looking for, though.

Here’s a BMPCC key example – the actor isn’t lit or focused very well, but the edges of the key are pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEAEIUZzPnA

If they want something that’s easier to use, with interchangeable lenses and hours of continuous recording and don’t really need a 10-bit key, I recommend the $798 (on sale as of this post) Panasonic GH3 with the same XLR and Canon EF adapters.

This is excruciating to watch, but will give you a pretty good idea of how well the GH3 can key when compared to the 5D Mark III and the C100:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xuEYYGXy7s

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the GH3 and the BMPCC in an interview setting: https://vimeo.com/74435711

I have both of these cameras plus the Hosa adapter, and there is no traditional camcorder in this price range that can beat them for image quality.

Again, hope this is helpful!

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

[Steve Crow]

Thanks guys for all the input…gave me lots to consider! 🙂

Steve Crow

[Richard Herd]

Canon XA10