Camera Choice for Movie
by Brad Froman
on
Aug 13, 2009 at 7:07:25 pm
I will be shooting a very low-budget feature in the spring and am looking for some camera gear recommendations. I shoot a lot of commercials and corporate projects with Panasonic Varicam and the HDX900 -- both usually with the Pro Adaptor/Primes.
My question is, is there a comparable or better-quality HD camera package out there that would allow a easy workflow in Final Cut?
Re: Camera Choice for Movie by Emre Tufekci S.O.A. on Aug 17, 2009 at 9:04:47 pm
Have you considered P2 workflow? You can stay native to Varicam and shoot tapeless. The FCP workflow for P2 is pretty well established. You can also take advantage of AVC-I codecs for your film and still use your 35mm adapters.
Re: Camera Choice for Movie by Brad Froman on Aug 18, 2009 at 2:14:18 am
I had misinterpreted your comment about the lack of 35mm-like depth-of-field. That's a shame it's not comparable. That is, for me anyway, what makes the primes so desirable. Would you say it's significant difference?
Re: Camera Choice for Movie by Todd Terry on Aug 18, 2009 at 7:12:23 pm
Just swapping the zoom for primes on those cameras is not going to make any difference in depth of field.
I started to say "zero difference," but that's not entirely true... because you can get primes that are a bit faster than your zoom you might be able to see a slight difference in DoF when the lens is wide open, but not much.
Your potential DoF is still firmly tied to the sensor size... so in the case of the Varicam the 2/3" sensor is going to be the limiting factor. Considering that a 2/3" sensor is roughly the same size as a 16mm film frame, you could expect a reasonable comparison. Of course, 16mm will typically have much much deeper DoF than 35mm since the 16mm frame only has about one-fifth the real estate that the 35mm frame does. It will be a little bit shallower than 1/3" "handcam" video, but not a whole heckuva lot.
Since you already have (or have access to) the Pro35 adapter, using that plus primes would definitely be the way to go if you want really shallow 35mm filmic DoFs.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
Re: Camera Choice for Movie by Brad Froman on Aug 18, 2009 at 7:24:12 pm
I was afraid of that, Todd. I've used the Pro35 Adaptor many times, but never digi primes. I'll be shooting in Kenya near the Serengeti and wanted to avoid the potential of the Pro35 Adaptor failing in the middle of nowhere, then have the PL mount primes sitting in a case useless. I hadn't thought much about the fact that it's not a failure of digi primes themselves...but the issue with the small chip size.
