Bill Bruner
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Michael – I presently use my recorders with Sescom cables as preamps (Zoom H1
/Sescom LN2MIC-ZMH4 and TASCAM DR-40
/Sescom LN2MIC-TASDR100).
But I am saving up for a JuicedLink Riggy Micro RM222
.
Here’s why:
– I never use the safety track from the recorders anyway
– It is sometime a challenge to have a recorder hanging off the camera: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-N2fhpkBqQyA/UlAwzPz9p8I/AAAAAAAAIKA/Cr572sFRSW8/w723-h542-no/P1120289.JPG
– The Zoom, with no XLR inputs, has a physical rocker switch for output level control. The more expensive Tascam, with XLR inputs, has no output level control that I can discern. Maybe it’s in software somewhere, but I can’t find it. I want an output control with a physical knob or dial (Pretty sure this is not a problem with the H6
).
– Juicedlink preamplifiers are quiet – competitive with much more expensive preamps, such as the Sound Devices Mix Pre-D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VmOQjpTWlA
Robert from Juicedlink is biased, of course, but he gives a pretty fair comparison of his product, the DR-60
and the H6
Since your 5D Mark III already has meters and a headphone jack, I would save the $70 over the $399 cost of the H6
Hope this is helpful and best of the holidays!
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Hi Dean – Paddy has done an excellent job of answering your technical questions, but if you’re going to be shooting narrative shorts and, eventually, a feature, the cameras you’ve listed may not be the best choice.
Motion pictures that most people are used to seeing on TV and in theaters are shot with Super 35 cameras (with a sensor size of about 24.9mm x 18.7mm).
The cameras you’ve listed all have 1/3″ sensors (about 4.8mm x 3.6mm).
The difference in size is illustrated here: Sensor Size Comparison Table
Without going into a long discussion of optics, the bottom line is – the “blurred background” look you see in most movies (to include indies) is very difficult to get with a small sensor camera, and most people aren’t using them for narrative motion pictures.
For theatrical projection, you will also want the highest resolution possible – at least 2K, although this is arguable.
The cameras on your list all produce a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 or “1.9K”.
Several theatrical features have been produced at 1.9K, but this is the exception, not the rule.
Depending on your budget, more appropriate cameras for a low budget filmmaker might be the:
– $7450 (body only) Super 35 Sony NEX-FS700 1.9K resolution, upgradeable to 4K
– $5449 (body only) Super 35 Canon Cinema EOS C100 1.9K resolution
– $4825 (body only) Super 35 Sony NEX-FS100 1.9K resolution
– When Available: $3995 (body only) Super 35 Blackmagic Production Camera 4K resolution
– $1995 (body only) 15.81 x 8.88mm sensor (somewhat smaller than Super 35, but still sufficient for shallow depth of field) Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5K resolution
There are a host of other, even less expensive, large sensor DSLR and DSLM (mirrorless) cameras that people are shooting movies with these days (e.g., indie film Upstream Color
, which was shot on the Panasonic GH2
DSLM), but there are serious tradeoffs that come with shooting with these cameras.
All of this said, if you still need help with figuring out the basics (e.g., sorting the advantages of solid state media over old-fashioned tape) you might want to start with a couple of books (I recommend a $23 hard copy of “The Filmmaker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age: 2013 Edition
“) – or perhaps a cinematography class or two at your local community college.
This might be a good place to start before you spend thousands of dollars on a camera.
Hope this is helpful and best of the holidays!
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Here’s what this lens can do on the BMCC EF
(I didn’t shoot it):
BMCC Quick Test w/ Tamron 24-70 2.8
Very very nice for an $860 lens
!
Cheers,
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Hi Ali – as with the Super 35 sensor in the Canon C300, some crop sensor EF-S lenses may cause vignetting with the Super 35 Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. To quote Canon’s warning on their Cinema EOS FAQ page regarding the Canon C300, “there may be some visible vignetting with certain EF-S lenses”.
I would buy full frame glass, if I were you.
Good luck!
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Hi Tom – I’d probably stretch a little and step up to the $5449 Canon C100
and save up for the new dual-pixel sensor upgrade, available in February 2014 for $500.
As a former Canon shooter, this camera fixes almost all of the limitations I found so frustrating with Canon DSLRs – it has no clip length limit, it has a real video viewfinder, it’s moire-free, and now, with dual-pixel, it will have fast video autofocus.
It still has no power zoom, and it’s limited to an 8 bit codec, but it is a real shooter’s camera and produces high quality Canon 1080p video:
Five Minutes Till Noon by John DeVries
If you need higher bit depth or resolution on a $2-5K budget, your only real choice is the $1995 2.5K 12-bit RAW Blackmagic Cinema Camera
now – Short Film by Louis Mayo (shot in 10 bit ProRes)
The Baseball Card by Michael Boylan (shot in 10 bit ProRes)
Ostium – Short Thriller by Sergey Zavarykin (shot in 12 bit RAW)
Pigeon! (Turkey’s first Blackmagic Cinema Camera film) by Muratcan Gokce (shot in 12 bit RAW)
I just bought a $995 Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
, and it is really liberating to push 10 and 12 bit images around in post and not worry about “breaking” them. It doesn have the 2.5K resolution of its big brother, but this little camera produces some pretty amazing 1080p 12 bit RAW video:
First RAW video from Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera by Ron Stratton
Hope that’s helpful!
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Hi Matt, I use Sescom cables with my Zoom H1 and Tascam DR-40 external recorders in precisely the same way.
As you describe your setup, your 7D
‘s AGC is not disabled, and should be bringing the gain up during quiet portions of your soundtrack. That said, if you’re listening to your in-camera track through headphones, and you don’t hear elevated room noise during gaps in dialogue, and you can save some time in post, I’d say go for it.
It may not be good enough for theatrical projection or broadcast, but it’ll definitely be good enough for YouTube or Vimeo.
Cheers,
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I agree 100%, Jim. I started in Super 8 in film school and moved up to 16mm magazines. In Super 8 at 24fps, a 50′ cartridge was 2 and a half minutes!
But now that I can shoot for hours without interruption, a camera that requires a restart every 12 to 30 minutes seems like a throwback to the last century, and interrupts the flow of the work – especially an interview or a play.
Good luck with your doc – it sounds like a great project.
Bill
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Jim – This is the dirty little secret of mirror box DSLRs, which the manufacturers don’t mention in their advertising. They are all 30 minute (or less) “video clip” cameras, not video cameras.
Instead of going back to an HD camcorder, you might want to trade the 60D
in for a mirrorless $998 Panasonic GH3
for long form interviews, if you can. It has better resolution than the Canons, more depth of field control than your camcorder, more codec flexibility and more frame rates than any DSLR, virtually unlimited continuous video recording outside of the EU, manual audio gain, LCD sound meters and a headphone jack in a water-resistant body below $1000 (body only).
Here is what this camera can do in an interview setting (sound recorded in-camera):
Hope this is helpful and good luck!
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Hi Keiichi – I would get the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera (£885 at Amazon UK as of this post)
and a £224 Rokinon 7.5mm f3.1 Micro 4/3 mount lens
.
Here are the results you can get with this camera/lens combination (ungraded, and compressed for YouTube – please watch at 720p):
“Raw footage Blackmagic Design Pocket Camera w/ Rokinon 7.5mm 1st Test Flight”
Add a £53.50 External Battery
, a £268 Juicedlink RA222 preamp
and a £155 EVF
, and you will have a very capable wide angle cinema camera for not a lot of money.
Hope this is helpful and good luck with your project!
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You were right to be skeptical, Gary. I posted that answer while I was away from the camera. I came home this evening and put manual Canon FD 50mm f1.8
and auto Olympus 4/3 11-22mm f2.8-3.5
lenses on the BMPCC and was able to use the focus peaking feature with both:
Photo of GH3 and BMPCC with auto and manual lenses
As the manual says:
“When using Pocket Cinema Camera with an autofocus lens press the FOCUS button for focus peaking or autofocus. Press the FOCUS button once to autofocus. Press the FOCUS button twice for focus peaking.
When using a manual lens, press the FOCUS button once for focus peaking.”
Apologies for the confusion, everyone.
Bill
