VF48Hours Lockdown Forum

Currently Shooting mostly on 5dmkiii (shot 99% of our short on 5dmkiii and sigma 35mm 1.4 art lens) and some GH3 will keep both and maybe look at adding GH4 or super interested in this if it reviews well: http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicursa

Shot our film on a Nikon D3100.

Currently have a 18-55mm that we used.
I also have an old Minolta 75-300 that I use via converter. Didn't end up using it for the weekend.

in reply to Craig:

the new Sony (what's that, the 7s or something)

A7S, that's what I was trying to say...

Sony PMW-350. It was a joy to use and produced excellent footage and sound.

A bit hefty for the casual still photo shoot though lol.

I just beg or borrow a camera every year. Luckily having worked in the TV industry for the last decade or so I've been able to get some pretty good stuff.

This year we had a Sony F5 with Canon Cabrio 19-90mm zoom.

2013 was a Sony FS700.
2012 was a Sony FS100.
2011 was a Sony F3.
2010 was a Canon 5D Mk2.
2009 was Sony EX3 and F700 cameras.
2008 was a RED One, 2007 was Sony I think.
2006 was a Sony DVW709.
2005 was a Panasonic DVX100.
2004 and 2003 were with a Sony Betacam SP camera (probably a UVW-100)

Clearly I prefer Sony :)

Depending on price,
I'm strongly considering selling my entire Canon ecosystem
to jump over to the Sony A7s platform.

Everything I've seen about it makes it seem utterly amazing
and it does enough in-camera to suit my needs
with the added bonus of 4K recording if I ever upgrade to an external recorder.

We've used a range of cameras over the years... Canon XA10, JVC HM600, and now using a Sony NEX-EA50. Hoping to have a Canon C100 for next year.

I stick to the theory that it's the camera operator rather than the camera that makes the short. Buuuut.... it does help having a decent camera ;)

in reply to HereForTheBeer:

it's the camera operator rather than the camera that makes the short

It's the story.

in reply to themorgan:

It's the story.

QFT.

We shot ours on a hacked GH2 with a SLR MAGIC 25mm T0.95 and you can clearly see a quality leap from the Canon range. I haven't seen anything from Christchurch that looks like it was shot with anything more professional than a DSLR.

With the new camera annoucements at NAB and the price of cameras like the BMCC, I wonder what beautiful films are to come in the following years.

in reply to themorgan:

This thread is talking about cameras, so obviously I'm speaking in terms of cinematography rather than story.

We shot on a logitech c920 webcam :) But then we do stop animation so it's a lot easier to fit it into and around the scenery then my Canon 60D (plus the 70-200mm lens is probably overkill for a Lego film)

2014 and 2013 - Sony Fs100 with a mix of canon and Samyang prime lenses
2012 and 2011 - Canon 550D with a tamron 17-50 2.8 and an old 80-210 Tamron.
2010 - Sony PD150

I'm quite liking the sony fs100. It is a step up from DSLRs I've used in terms of detail, latitude and especially sound. The Canon 550D was great though. It seemed easy to get a good picture out of. Everything was quite naturally pleasing to the eye, where as with the Fs100, you get a better picture, but it seems to take more care and effort; it's less forgiving of mistakes.

in reply to DylanReeve:

Wow, Dylan, you've got some well equipped friends! How was that F5 to shoot with?

in reply to Giles:

Wow, Dylan, you've got some well equipped friends! How was that F5 to shoot with?

I do. Working in TV helps.

The F5 is a great camera. Sony really knows their stuff. We didn't shoot raw, so I've not played with that, but just the log XDCAM HD422 that we did shoot was nice.

I have shot the last two I have done on a Sony NEX-VG30 with an assortment of lenses. I love that you can stick just about any lens in existence onto an E mount adapter. I have an NEX 5 which will take all the same lenses as a B camera and produces very comparable images to the big camera.

Recorded both AVCHD in camera and Prores 422 HQ in a Hyperdeck Shuttle 2. Didn't end up using much of the Hyperdeck's footage despite the obvious colour and bitrate improvements as I didn't muck around with colour or exposure much in post (you could argue that I should have, but that's a discussion for the reviews :-) )

Used Sony's kit 18-55 on the NEX 5, and a Minolta 50mm f1.8 MD prime on a speed booster for the focus pull. The rest was done on the VG30 with a Sigma 30mm f/2.8 prime and a Sigma 12-24 EX EF-S on a metabones adapter for the wide shots, and the kit Sony 18-200 PZ OSS for the mid shots.

Not as flash as your F5 but it's mine and I like to hoard stuff like this. :)

Duncs! You found the forum!

@DylanReeve, OMG, for a guy who has to "borrow or beg" every year you get to use some epically awesome kit each year!

@Kawiti, awesome, another fellow hacked GHx user here! :-) I used a hacked Panasonic GH1 myself for this year and last year.

in reply to IronFilms:

for a guy who has to "borrow or beg" every year you get to use some epically awesome kit

That's because he's basically talking shit. It's true that it's all borrowed, but it's about 195000% easier for him to borrow that gear than for you or I to do so. He's balls deep in the industry.

in reply to themorgan:

Talking of balls (and hijacking my own thread) - wasn't a certain line of dialogue missing from the FR short this time? Or did I blink & miss it. FWIW I thought you guys (Dylan) were robbed in the audience favourite in Heat 6.

On borrowing stuff, I'm happy enough with my camera situation so as not to feel too jealous but wouldn't mind being able to borrow sound gear because renting it is a bit annoying...

Back to cameras, this thread is pretty inconclusive. I guess the gist of the small sample above is that the DSLR guys are getting on with it and if you're into more serious hardware chances are you might already be shooting on something more fully featured for video. Personally I guess before I get anything that shoots at a higher data rate I would probably need to get a new computer as well which I can't really be bothered with (afford/justify). So, Wait and See.