Hi all, hope you are well. Affordable camera technology has come a long way in the past several years. If you had to recommend a camera for a beginner, what would that be? Considering price, ease of use, quality, etc. Also, when you were starting out, what was the camera you used?
Cinematography : Best camera for starting out? by Jethro Randell
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Can anyone help Jethro? I’m bumping this post up with a comment hoping some people in my network can help you out.
Hi Jethro, this is not a short answer.... haha....it really depends on your budget and location, and of course, what type of work you do..... .... i'm from argentina...we have crazy taxes for electronics, so it is not the same 500usd here, that in the UK, however i will give you some choices so you have an idea... the Sony alpha line its pretty good for begginers (e mount) the a6600 its pretty good camera, it has ibis 4k, log, and tiltable screen, however, for that price you can get the blackmagic pocket 4k, which is a much better camera, thing is ,for the pocket you need a bunch of extra accesories which are not cheap (for example, on the pocket you need to record into a solid state drive... with the sony you can just record into sd cards) other pretty good camera is the panasonic gh4 and gh5, these cameras do it all... you should always look for reviews and comparission between cameras in youtube... you should also keep in mind sony cameras are 8 bit... and blackmagic is 10 bit... with the gh4 you can record 10 bit externally, with the gh5 is internal.... also.... sony a6600 it has in bodi stabilization (ibis) as well as the gh5, but the pocket and the gh4 do not have.... as you see.. there are many factors to consider while recommending a camera.... if you are gonna use a stabilizer such as a gimbal "maybe" the best option is to get a gh4 used... i think that would be the less expensive choice.... as i said...depending on your budget...
as you may see i left out 2 of the big brands...canon and nikon.... i'm not a nikon guy, for many years nikon mainly made cameras for photography only and in the past years they started releasing cameras with video functions, however i never looked into them.... canon has some good cameras for video...but the "entry level camera" are behind its competitors.... they don't bring log or ibis , however there are some cameras with a crazy tracking focus.... which would work for something like sports, but not that much for film... and their pro line is way too expensive for the functions it offers...
Well it all depends on what you want to use the camera for. My partner and I were thinking about replacing my old Nikon DSLR with something newer in 2018 and it took me half a year to decide what would be best.
I was considering everything and anything from super expensive RED cameras, which would have been a complete waist of money, to mirrorless cameras that give a pretty descent image.
But in the end we ultimately decided to get a Blackmagic Pocket 4K because we do mostly film stuff and the raw filming ability was a real asset to us.
At the same time it is a cinema camera and not a conventional video camera and this has a few drawbacks. Files are huge, battery life is not that great and you always need to work with the image to get something usable. Plus the camera is not great when you're trying to shoot something fast because it's all manual.
All that being said if all these thing work for your type of shoots then I still believe that the Pocket 4K or even the upgrades are the best bang for the buck.
But if you just need to shoot something every so often and ultimately don't shoot films and music videos or something then you're gonna be frustrated with a cinema camera.
All that put together I'm very happy that when my partner and I got started out doing music videos we had to use a DSLR because we learned how to do stuff right, as in get the right exposure and white balance right and when we bought the Pocket 4K it was a breeze to use because there's always a safety margine and we never worry if the footage is OK or not anymore.
Also for bigger paid stuff we usually rent equipment because it doesn't make financial sence to keep buying equipment when you can rent high end stuff affordably.
Hope it helps.
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It depends if you intend to shoot film or video, but generally I would say get something used with three prime lenses, and one zoom lens. The glass will make it look way better than it really is. I've shot with a T6i and a 50mm prime before and the lens immediately elevates everything.