Death of the Cinema camera (clickbait!)

M

morgan_moore

Major Contributor
Ive just ordered a canon R6v

Ive spend a year thinking about getting a £8 grand canon cinema camera or the five grand C80. The truth is that the market is probably best served by a small nimble camera that is both modern (with super good auto focus) and 'open gate'.

As a non cinema camera it is missing some elements, Time-code and XLR audio. But the saved money means I have bought a diety XLR sound recorder and a TC1 device to 'jam' the time-code to the camera.

This external sound means the recorder can be fed from a sound desk or worked with rigged placed microphones or held by a reporter with stick mic while the image making box is free to roam to the ideal spot for making images.

Another financial win is the saving also enabled the purchase of a 24-105 lens - incredibly versatile for recording actuality.

Another win from the cost savings is that I was able to get a Holyland wireless monitor which means I can feed the director an image with no cables.

This small camera is unusual for a Canon in that it has a built in cooling system and will not overheat when used for long form work. I’m not too sure here but I think there is also a h264 10bit codec that will not need transcoding and will be a huge speed boost for delivering content to a deadline.

In tough times do you want..
camera
XLR recorder
24-105
wireless monitoring

or
a camera with outdated AF and no open gate that is four times more massive.
 
As I own a jib and other remote toys I am interested in remoter operaton of these cameras.

Sony or Canon could have sold me a cinema camera if they could have demonstrated functional remote via app control of zoom and ND,

I tried at shows, personal visits renting an FX6.

I never got a solid app connection.

A couple of cheap apps seem to operate the canon mirrorless camera in a solid manner via USB. No ND though.

As for remote zoom, the sad reeality that a FIZ system will work across any of my lenses or any client lenses. Sony and canon PZ lenses are expensive and single use.
 
I took a hard look at the r6v before deciding on an fx5. Canon is definitely not crippling their lower priced cameras in favor of their upper tier cameras anymore which is great to see. The r6v is basically a c50 without the xlr handle and shutter angle.
 
As I own a jib and other remote toys I am interested in remoter operaton of these cameras.

Sony or Canon could have sold me a cinema camera if they could have demonstrated functional remote via app control of zoom and ND,

I tried at shows, personal visits renting an FX6.

I never got a solid app connection.

A couple of cheap apps seem to operate the canon mirrorless camera in a solid manner via USB. No ND though.

As for remote zoom, the sad reeality that a FIZ system will work across any of my lenses or any client lenses. Sony and canon PZ lenses are expensive and single use.
 
scorsesefan said:
I took a hard look at the r6v before deciding on an fx5. Canon is definitely not crippling their lower priced cameras in favor of their upper tier cameras anymore which is great to see. The r6v is basically a c50 without the xlr handle and shutter angle.
Click to expand...

Moving to Sony would mean a ton of lens changes - I decided that too costly.
Also the Sony app (FX6) is not solid .. FX2 seems to have the best app.. I guess the FX5 will.

Bottom line.. whatever the budget Sony cannot deliver 24-105 PZ and ND in a solid manner over an app (via usb or cat5) right now.

Personally I think the FX5 sounds like an excellent camera as I love an EVF.

As a jib operator I consider the Sony 28-135 lens to be a near miss.. it is not wide enough. Canon win here with the 24-105.

--C50 vs (R6V .. and Diety PR4 recorder) *

As much sound is from a desk I feel an external recorder is the winner here. Also on can run long wild track without burning image data,

C50 is also crippled with the vid-stills reboot time. I like to pop off stills where I can.

Also the stabilisation is better on the R6v, and IMO small handheld need stab.

So for me the C50 is less appropriate than and R6V (and diety recorder)

--0-

The deity recorder is a 'wonder' as it has time-code which it can feed to the camera(s) and is also small and light. My old sound devices recorder sounded great but was as high tech as a Walkman. The deity really lifts the game.
 
I'm thinking in a similar way. The medium sized film lighting van that was guaranteed leverage is now something I need to make sure isn't too burdensome. I'm selling 8x c-stands/trolley, 4x large combo stands and will be likely using fewer matthews new small 33 c-stand, beefy baby stands etc. Still likely in a custom cart, but a smaller one.

The cinema camera is still fine, but it has to be a smaller one. Rather than 7x 4x4 diff frames, I'm, thinking in terms of broader strokes with single 6 foot frame lengths with fabrics hung vertically rather than in full frames. There's still the need for full frames, floppies, small diff frames etc. but they're now more specific add ons in the interest of footprint and speed. I'm applying this way of thinking across the board.

Maybe you could have a 3 camera set up on the jib, each with different strength ND, then switch to the appropriate exposure!

ATM interviews with the pyxis 6k is perfect for nice image and tiny size. Even manual focus has been fine to go back to. If a certain type of work I'm after goes ahead, the fx5/sony lenses might be undeniable. It's also nice using different camera brands rather than justifying the more expensive investments to fit everywhere.
 
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rob norton said:
Maybe you could have a 3 camera set up on the jib, each with different strength ND, then switch to the appropriate exposure!
Click to expand...

Yes this is not actually dumb at all.

And that is kind of my point that 2 r6v will get you a lot further than 1 c400 (same is probably true for FX3 vs Burano)

I could put two on my jib, or one on the jib and one clamped in the truss. Or just have a spare when I drop the first one.
 
The reason I posted in Cafe is it is really a chat about cost, functionality and form factor.

The gap is really close so the bigger cameras just don’t stand in the/my market.

Also the bigger camera are just a bit sht. The c400 and C80 don’t have nice viewfinders I think the C80 misses some open gate and my app/remote control journey has been poorly supported by canon AND sony.
 
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