So the news of the c300 and Scarlet-X got me thinking about gear again, and how those cameras stack up to the specific needs of a documentary filmmaker. That got me thinking about if I could design a camera, what sort of features would I want it to have? Here's my list, what would YOU want?
(Note: this is pretty tailored to my style of shooting, which is all natural light, and requires portability and some sturdiness)
Sensor: Ideally, I'd want a full-frame sensor like the 5dmkii, because of the low light capabilities, but I could certainly live with an APS-Cish sensor as well as my 60D has done great for us in low light with fast enough glass in front of it.
Codec: I don't much care about this, not much of a pixel-peeper, but I do like the relative file-size to record-time ratio of AVCHD (and the final quality is still quite good). H264 is fine too, anything better than that is just icing on the cake, but not necessary.
Audio: Obviously it needs XLR inputs, ideally two of them w/ phantom power, and live audio monitoring via headphone jack. But it'd also be nice to have a built-in mic that produced acceptable quality sound, for times when there wasn't time/it wasn't possible for whatever reason to plug in something external.
Form Factor: Something small, and geared towards handheld shooting rather than shoulder mounted. It'd need to be a bit bigger than a DSLR, but I'd want something small, unostentatious, and easy to handle. (Note: an EVF would be great, but I'd be willing to live without one and/or attach a third party EVF IF the built-in flip-out LCD was good enough)
Body: Built of something sturdy, not plastic. That makes it a bit heavier, but I need something that can take a little punishment. If it were possible to make it wate/dust proof that would be amazing but I doubt it'd be possible because...
Lenses/Mount: I want interchangable lenses. Sorry, but the fixed-lens thing just doesn't make much sense these days (and this is coming from someone who owns an HMC150). I'd much rather have an interchangable lens camera that maybe came with a good kit zoom lens that could serve as the "fixed" lens most of the time but could be easily switched out for special situations. And as long as I'm dreaming, let's put a Canon mount on there, with electronic controls.
Storage: SD cards, or CF cards. Not interested in paying a billion dollars for P2 or Red's SSDs. In fact, as far as doc work goes, it would be great if in addition to having, say, an SD card slot, it had a built-in SSD, even a small one (at least 64 GBs maybe)
Other stuff: Built-in ND filters. Just too useful to leave out. Obviously, onscreen audio monitoring and all of that jazz as well. Would love some feature that highlights what's in focus, i.e. the red outline on the sony cams (I haven't used this myself but it sounds v. useful) so that there's no need for an external monitor.
Price: Well, obviously my preferred price for this is $0, but speaking more realistically, I'd say maybe $6k or a little more? What I've described is basically an AF 100 or FS100, but with a larger sensor and a few other little tweaks. But they put an APS-C sensor in the Canon t2i, so it can't be that expensive, and those cameras are already around a year old....
So, uh, yeah, Panasonic, want to help me out with this?
(Note: this is pretty tailored to my style of shooting, which is all natural light, and requires portability and some sturdiness)
Sensor: Ideally, I'd want a full-frame sensor like the 5dmkii, because of the low light capabilities, but I could certainly live with an APS-Cish sensor as well as my 60D has done great for us in low light with fast enough glass in front of it.
Codec: I don't much care about this, not much of a pixel-peeper, but I do like the relative file-size to record-time ratio of AVCHD (and the final quality is still quite good). H264 is fine too, anything better than that is just icing on the cake, but not necessary.
Audio: Obviously it needs XLR inputs, ideally two of them w/ phantom power, and live audio monitoring via headphone jack. But it'd also be nice to have a built-in mic that produced acceptable quality sound, for times when there wasn't time/it wasn't possible for whatever reason to plug in something external.
Form Factor: Something small, and geared towards handheld shooting rather than shoulder mounted. It'd need to be a bit bigger than a DSLR, but I'd want something small, unostentatious, and easy to handle. (Note: an EVF would be great, but I'd be willing to live without one and/or attach a third party EVF IF the built-in flip-out LCD was good enough)
Body: Built of something sturdy, not plastic. That makes it a bit heavier, but I need something that can take a little punishment. If it were possible to make it wate/dust proof that would be amazing but I doubt it'd be possible because...
Lenses/Mount: I want interchangable lenses. Sorry, but the fixed-lens thing just doesn't make much sense these days (and this is coming from someone who owns an HMC150). I'd much rather have an interchangable lens camera that maybe came with a good kit zoom lens that could serve as the "fixed" lens most of the time but could be easily switched out for special situations. And as long as I'm dreaming, let's put a Canon mount on there, with electronic controls.
Storage: SD cards, or CF cards. Not interested in paying a billion dollars for P2 or Red's SSDs. In fact, as far as doc work goes, it would be great if in addition to having, say, an SD card slot, it had a built-in SSD, even a small one (at least 64 GBs maybe)
Other stuff: Built-in ND filters. Just too useful to leave out. Obviously, onscreen audio monitoring and all of that jazz as well. Would love some feature that highlights what's in focus, i.e. the red outline on the sony cams (I haven't used this myself but it sounds v. useful) so that there's no need for an external monitor.
Price: Well, obviously my preferred price for this is $0, but speaking more realistically, I'd say maybe $6k or a little more? What I've described is basically an AF 100 or FS100, but with a larger sensor and a few other little tweaks. But they put an APS-C sensor in the Canon t2i, so it can't be that expensive, and those cameras are already around a year old....
So, uh, yeah, Panasonic, want to help me out with this?
