Indie Entertainment – The Production Hardware 2

In the last article we looked at the rise of the video-enabled DSLR camera and how it set the entertainment production world upside down.

Three years in, a new class of camera has appeared that hopes to become the choice for producers creating media for a variety of mediums. There are some very interesting entries in this unique segment. Please not that I’ve kept my list restrained to cameras that natively allow interchangeable lenses, as I feel this is a must for serious indie producers today.

Panasonic AG-AF 100

This was billed as the first video DSLR to fix the DSLR. It has XLR inputs for audio recording, less problems with moire (artifacts), exposure controls, zebra stripes, a vectorscope and waveform etc. It’s form factor is more what a video shooter would expect. Yet it still has the interchangeable lens system, albeit in the micro four-thirds format which is a little less popular than some of the other formats and has less lenses available. Still the lenses that are available are very good. And there are adapters for using lenses of other types, but you may not be able to use all the features of the lens. For the body of the AG-AF100 you’ll pay about 5K, and as always with lenses you’ll start at about $400 and the sky is the limit from there. So for the entry level of shooting, call it about 6K.

Reviews on this camera are mixed. As you’ll find out reviews on any piece of equipment are always mixed and you shouldn’t let it stop you from making pictures. With the AG-AF 100 you’ll be spared some of the frustrating aspects of shooting on a pure DSLR. Your final images may not look better, but you may get them through your production process faster. And in some circumstances (like patterned backgrounds) your shots may look better.  Point being, with 6K you’ll be out there making some very good quality video, higher production value than much of what you’ll find on the web. One thing you won’t be able to do is shoot nice still images.

Red Scarlet

This camera has me super excited. It’s coming out shortly. The world has awaited this one for quite a while, and details were limited. According to the official blog for Jannard’s company, the Scarlet morphed several times in production as circumstances in the world of cinematography changed.

The Scarlet is described as the “little sister” to the new Red Epic (their ultimate camera). It shoots at 4K with regular frame rates, much higher than necessary for high-definition video bound for self-publishing on the web. So is it overkill then? You have to judge for yourself. If you’re a total beginner in producing entertainment it probably is. But if you’ve been doing it for a while and you’re ready to step up from your DSLR the Scarlet is extremely tempting. In fact it seems to be designed to lure DSLR shooters. With it’s native Canon EOS lens mount, the Scarlet will support the glass already purchased by many 5D MKII and 7D video shooters. It will even take a respectable 5K still image. DSLR shooters should just be aware that they are going to get dinged with some costs they aren’t used to when they do step up, like proprietary batteries, memory, and so forth (or pay for adapters). 64 Gigs of SSD storage will run you…don’t choke…about a thousand bucks. Compared to your CF card, that’s some boocoo bucks.

In keeping with Red’s philosophy of highly modular design, the Scarlet is built to support upgrading as the needs of the video shooter increase. The base cost of the unit is about $10K. In reality you’re going to need memory ($1K per 64 gigs), batteries ($200 per), and a viewing monitor ($1600) or viewfinder ($3K). With this, the base cost goes up to about $13K – $15K minimum, assuming you’ve already got Canon lenses you can use (the indie crossing over from DSLR country). But it could easily push up to $15K – $18K or more. Still, you will be one fine beast walking around with this shooter. Oh ya, don’t forget you may need a computer hardware upgrade to handle the increased resolution RAW footage this camera produces. Perhaps not, but more on that in another article.

Canon C300

This is another camera that gives me chills. Let’s get the tough part over with – straight up this camera will run you $20K without a lens. Unlike the Scarlet, it is not modular and there will be no changing of the sensor in this camera. That said, this is Canon’s first entry into high-res filmmaking, and the images it produces are gorgeous. It has a completely new Super 35 mm-equivalent CMOS sensor, on which the pixels are physically larger than other sensors. The result is an image that in many ways resembles the image produced by film cameras. Many of the unique properties about film that distinguish it from digital video and television are faithfully recreated with this camera.

Unlike the Scarlet, the C300 will record to CF cards, so you likely won’t have to upgrade your memory. You can pick any frame rate you like between 1 and 60fps.

I’ve never been disappointed with a Canon camera product, from very early Vixia consumer cams, right up to my DSLRs, and I have no doubt that the C300 is going to be an amazing piece of kit. Canon seem to have decided that there is still advantage to separating it’s still image cameras from it’s video cameras and only time will tell if that’s what people really want.