Which camera is best for low budget show to cover with 4 cameras? DSLR a no no?

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draven4

Well-known member
Hi all,

It has literally been years since I've been on this site but back and need your help. I've fallen out of current knowledge of the latest cameras.



The performance:
I need to film an event in a theater that will involve 4 cameras. It is a 2 hour show.

What I have and how I am thinking to use it:
I currently own a 5D MkIII and a 7DMk1.
I am a bit nervous about using a DSLR since they tend to overheat and stop. So I am ruling out the 7D for sure but if
I go the DSLR route I was going to gather several 5D mkIII's connected to NINJA2 recording devices since they can run a long time. Still worried about stops and overheating.



Other option:
The other option would be to use a lower end "video camera" but I am totally blank to what is the best choice for a long form show. Rental places recommend
the Canon XA10. I want as high as quality possible but the budget won't be huge for this thing. So I am trying to gather what I can or downsize the number of cameras.

What would you all recommend?

Or I can even go the cheaper cheaper route and find some consumer camera but it has to be able to look good enough.

Do you guys have experience with something like this running DSLRs? Any issues to look out for?

Thanks in advance, much appreciated.
 
I think youridea about 5Ds and Ninjas is great. Mainly because you already own one so you know the camera. Plus the 5d looks perfectly fine and you know what kind of image to expect.

Recording to Ninjas is probably the best bet for long form. SSDs are the cheapest medium per gig, and I have never really ever heard of them overheating or stopping for no reason.
 
Cool. Yeah I don't normally do events. I have but it has been years and that was back with a........DVX ;)

I am going to run some tests. I might buy up another used 5D Mark III for a b-cam. Been aiming to phase out the 7D and get rid of it also because I do notice the quality difference in low light video compared to the clean image of the 5D MarkIII.

One thing though, when I shoot with the 5D Mark III it shuts off sometimes with the Ninja. It only will do it every 30 mins. I looked in the menu and can't find an auto shutoff to change it to not do that. Is there something to avoid this? If so I could be golden in this idea and it could work for what I need.

Appreciate your quick reply DPStewart!
 
Scratch that I found the auto shutoff. Ok well I've been shooting with my Ninja for months now and every 30 mins the 5d MkIII shuts off even though I have auto off - Disabled. So not sure why.

Just to add I never get an overheat warning from the 5D MkIII so I guess I will run tests to see what's causing it.
 
When the 5D shuts off - is it in RECORD? Or are you just passing through to the Ninja? And when you say it shuts off - do you mean it kicks the Ninja out of record? Or do you mean the 5D actually turns itself off and powers down?
 
Not sure how dark that theather event will be but I have had great results with a sony ax100 while shooting in 4K, you could even set it to cover the stage and do all the zooming and panning in post and still retain more detail then what a 5d or a 7d will be able to provide, dslr's are not camera's to cover a 2 hour event with, unless you like to make it difficult for yourself. Even better would be to get a bigger videocamera with a parfocal lens and a motorised zoom, something like a dvx200.
 
Cool.

To answer questions on there the camera shuts off when passing through to the Ninja 2 (not in actual record on the canon itself) I have auto off shut to disable so not sure why it is still shutting off even though this is disabled. If it didn't do that I would be good with doing the event this way. I shoot stuff for my youtube channel and film long sessions and the Ninja 2 does a great job especially doing ProRes directly and then quickly going to edit.


Question about the DVX200 - would it be more expensive to do it that way with 4 cameras? Reason why I ask is because of the media storage cards needed. Where as the Ninja 2 might be a cheaper route. Also I would have to rent 4 of those as opposed to renting 3 or 2 canon 5d's which are easier to find. Problem though is getting multiple zoom lenses. I just got my hands on a 24-105 f4 and plan on renting or buying up more. So I plan to run tests with this. This will be an interesting thing to learn.


Lastly I've been doing research and the GH4 looks like another option.

Maybe I should check with wedding videographers on this site to see what luck they've had doing events.

In the meantime keep the thoughts coming and thanks for all the help so far.
 
I do exactly that kind of work with GH2s GH3s and now a NX1 - although the NX1 is proving to be a bear with the 30 minute limit. A GH4 might be better for what I use the NX1 for - shooting a wide that can be cropped into in post. You can actually achieve quite a bit with just two cams, one of them 4K, using this technique. I can get a lot of bang for the buck as a one-man band, shooting this way. One GH3, manned, following the action, and one 4K nearby, set to cover the whole stage, which can be cropped into in post for medium shots. I experimented with the GH4 and the Sony AX100 before getting the NX1, though, and found that the quality when cropping in was far superior in the NX1 and bought it despite the drawbacks of a 30-minute time limit and the h.265 recording format. I'll definitely be first to order a GH5 when it comes out, though.
 
draven4 said:
Maybe I should check with wedding videographers on this site to see what luck they've had doing events.
Click to expand...

A large part of my business is weddings and I do a few dance recitals a year, I do have a gh3/4 which I only use for weddings and have the ax100 and a few smaller cx730 that I use to cover longer events. if I would be doing more long events I definitely would buy or rent another semi professional videocamera, one with good audio and xlr, a parfocal lens, a motorised zoom and 3 rings on the lens. Dslr's will only make your life more difficult, you are more likely to have focussing issues, you can't change the iris smoothly, you have a recording limit, you have audio recording limits. A dslr is for taking photo's and for more creative camerawork, this doesn't mean you can't do events with them, you could also shoot events with a few iphones even if they are intended to make phonecalls with but it would be technically possible, so why not :)
 
You might want to take a look at the Black Magic Pocket Cinema and Micro Cinema cameras. The Micro can accept timecode and genlock signals, which are a huge benefit to multi camera shoots.
 
Cool stuff guys. I will look into all your camera suggestions today.

The genlock won't be possible since I will have 4 cameras pretty spread across the theater and running all those cables would be a pain.

I took a look at the theater and it is a cool place.
I heard the battery life on the black magic cameras sucks so not sure if that would be great for doing this kind. I will look into all the suggestions though. Will report back very soon.
 
So I've been looking into the GH4. Seems like even shooting 4K is an option. As for limit on file size just seems as though the GH4 shoots with broken up files but pretty much doesn't overheat and can probably do what I need. I won't be moving around just shooting a theater stage. So what do you think? Seems like the GH4 works for you.

NOA said:
A large part of my business is weddings and I do a few dance recitals a year, I do have a gh3/4 which I only use for weddings and have the ax100 and a few smaller cx730 that I use to cover longer events. if I would be doing more long events I definitely would buy or rent another semi professional videocamera, one with good audio and xlr, a parfocal lens, a motorised zoom and 3 rings on the lens. Dslr's will only make your life more difficult, you are more likely to have focussing issues, you can't change the iris smoothly, you have a recording limit, you have audio recording limits. A dslr is for taking photo's and for more creative camerawork, this doesn't mean you can't do events with them, you could also shoot events with a few iphones even if they are intended to make phonecalls with but it would be technically possible, so why not :)
Click to expand...
 
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