Death of the Cinema camera (clickbait!)

Small cameras just keep showing up in my daily work. Every time I think I want to just haul out the big guns, I find another reason to roll with something lighter instead.

I just shot a gig this past week on my Canon C50 and was once again reminded how great of a little camera it is.

The job was a pretty heavy ask in my opinion, to capture 2 hosts doing man on the street interviews with just myself running one camera and also handling sound, and a second camera operator getting another camera angle. With that much audio going on I'd prefer to have a sound person 99 times out of 100, but sometimes I just need to take the job and make some money.

4 channels of audio going into the C50:

2 xlr through the handle (shotgun on camera, split to both channels, 1 at a lower level for safety track) for on-camera atmosphere and backup.

2 tracks through the 3.5mm mic input, DJI Mic 2 with 2 transmitters going to independent tracks, so that I could film 2 hosts for man on the street stuff, each with their own stick mic. Also recorded the 32 bit float on the transmitters themselves as backup.

I also put a Zaxcom TRXLA transmitter with a lav on each of the hosts recording to its internal micro SD for the times where they didn't speak into the handheld mic, which was often actually. These were not "professional" hosts.

Shooting 7K, 3:2 open gate in 4:2:2 10 bit Long GOP. Extra height for a vertical 9x16 deliverable and then also outputting a standard 16x9. I need to do some punch-in's on occasion in the edit, so I opted for the extra resolution.

Second camera (C500 II) was just running a shotgun mic on camera.

Timecode to both cameras to help with post-sync. Another example where the C50 really shines with its built-in timecode port.

Who needs an FX5 at this point?

Still waiting on my fx5. ;)
 
Not sure what your issues are. The Sony Monitor and Control app is rock solid with the FX6 and gives you remote control of every single function on your camera. I've used it hundreds and probably thousands of times. And it's not just me. Look at David Morefield and Cranky Cameraman's YouTube channels to see other working professionals using this app. You can use it either wirelessly or via wired USB to your phone or an iPad. It is a little finicky to get set but once you spend the 20 minutes to get it set up and communicating, you will never have to do it again.

(the shoot :car to hero motorbike, on welsh mountain roads, client bbc, SMM car rig operator/head operator)

So I tried and have seen (set by Sony at a show) using it via CAT5 via a router, .. firstly this means a sketchy dongle at both the ipad at the camera end.

The background.. the client specified the FX6 so I 'handed' building the remote control system to them as I’m not a 'sony guy' - I spoke to Sony Basingstoke and invited myself in for a test. No dice.

The setup was done by 'films at 59' who are well known rental house in this locale.

My shoot was for the BBC

All top end stuff

The setup did not fkin work - it was not there or jumping onto WiFi at 3 frames per second.**

My temperament is when I am embarrassed in front of a director* I want to simply stamp on all the kit before throwing it off a cliff.

A rental house and a camera company have one chance with my reputation - im 100% serious.

Maybe usb is the thing.. then why are Sony and Films59 suggesting cat5?

As it happens my best setup at the moment is my canon R6, long USB and non Canon app.

==

My recent south arcade shoot (
)

This was multiple FX3 cameras including one on my jib (you may enjoy the wider shots)

The director told me we would operate by app to have tap to focus.

The wireless app was about 7 frames per second. we swapped to a long hdmi cable in moments. Utter garbage.

Could you set and monitor at static cam with the app? Im sure you could.

S

* we are all strapped into a speeding BMW on a mountain road with the contributor following on a motorbike

** maybe jumping to wifi! the app is not 'pro' with messages like 'switching to wifi'
 
Last edited:
I have a demo coming up with canon. Ill set up some vomit comet rig and see if they can give me picture and control.

Or im just going with trad stuff like Preston an Teradeck

S
 
Back
Top