puredrifting
Major Contributor
For me, the REDs of any kind are out, they function much better as a crew served camera on narrative production, commercials and music videos. Love the images, hate the ergos, their stupid skulls, etc. marketing image and in my mind, reliability is questionable.
Last time I shot with an Epic Dragon last year, it quit working as we were prepping to shoot. Luckily RED drove us over a replacement but if I hadn't been 40 minutes from their HQ in Hollywood, it would have been a disaster.
If I was doing more corporate/broadcast/event stuff, I would get the Sony, simply because of marketing. It's the FS7 successor and a lot of people have made a lot of money just by owning an FS7 over the past 2-3 years, if you have those kinds of clients.
S-Cinetone is a great improvement and SOOC footage seems to look actually usable.
I just spent a month shooting with the BMD UMP G2. It's a very nice camera. Great slow motion capability, best menus in the business, images are very nice. But the lack of waveform and weird XLR location as well as trying to sell OUR clients on shooting BMD,
which is a name they don't know, would be a tough battle. For my own shoots, I like it. For clients, I think it would be challenging from a business proposition.
That leaves me with the C500 MKII. I think it will be quite a winner for Canon, I wish it was a few thousand cheaper but it is what it is. IMHO and probably Chris', CRL on the C200 is so good, really gets at least in the neighborhood of the Arri look with good lighting and post.
Thw C500 MKII is obviously a much better, more fully featured and versatile camera but as I have lamented, few of our clients would pay any more day rate for it that they will pay for our paid off C200. Which makes it a no go, for me, at least this year. If I need the write off
next year, possibly but would it make me more money? No. So probably not, for me, with where I am, at this time. For you, I think the delineation is, how does S-Cinetone looks to you? Are you willing to keep living with Sony's notoriously bad menu navigation. Does RAW matter
to you at all? Your clients? What lenses are you deep in, if any? For the AF to work optimally on the FX-9, from what I have been hearing, essentially you are stuck with Sony's lenses, which for me, are ho hum, not cheap. I have all Canon glass so the C500 MKII would be better
for my for that reason but for you? I don't know.
Really, all four cameras, in my mind, appeal to pretty radically different users, shooting different things with different client bases.
Tough choice. Assuming you are a pro and this is your living, choose wisely. If you are a wealthy hobbyist, buy whatever you want.
