How To Choose The Right Camera For Your Film
INTRODUCTION
Even in the world of high end cinema - with budgets of tens of millions of dollars - we’ve seen cinematographers select what would previously have been called a ‘consumer camera’ - aimed at your average content creator. Like the $80 million film The Creator which was shot on a Sony FX3. Or the $75 million 28 Years Later which was reportedly filmed on an iPhone.
With this in mind, let’s break down all the different factors that may influence what camera cinematographers decide to shoot on - and which may also help you to select a camera for your next film, whether it be a low budget, self funded short, or an industry level feature.
BUDGET
Cameras come in all shapes, sizes and perhaps most importantly budgets. The starting point when choosing a camera should always be what is affordable for your budget.
You may want to shoot your short film on an Alexa Mini, but if it’s going to take up 90% of your total shooting budget just to rent the camera, then that’s not a tradeoff worth making.
The camera budget of your film will normally fall into one of three categories. A low budget camera - which is aligned with a mirrorless or prosumer camera, like a Sony A7s III, a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera, a Sony FX3 or a Canon C70.
A medium budget - which aligns with a broadcast style or entry level cinema camera like a Sony FX6 or FX9, a Canon C300 or a Red Komodo.
Or an industry budget shoot on a high end cinema camera like an Alexa, a Venice, a Red V-Raptor, or even a film camera.
BUY VS RENT
If you’re working in the world of corporate videos or broadcast documentaries another question will be whether you would like to buy a camera, which you can rent out to productions, or rent a camera for each individual project from a gear house.
The finances of this would be up to you and whether you get enough work to quickly pay off the camera so that you can start making money on it, before needing to upgrade.
Another question when buying is how often the camera you select will be the right choice for all of your shoots. For example, there may not be a point buying a Sony A7s if most of your jobs require a camera with timecode, internal NDs and multiple XLR inputs.
If it’s an industry level job on a professional cinema camera there’s a good chance that you’ll be renting, rather than using a camera you’ve bought, due to the excessive prices of these machines.
FORMAT
After you have your budget and know what cameras are in your price range, another factor is the format you want to shoot on. There are three popular formats which are most commonly chosen. Firstly we have Super 35 cameras, like an Alexa Mini, a Red Komodo, or even an actual 35mm film camera.
These cameras are compatible with a large selection of spherical lenses from stills lenses to cinema primes and zooms. In post production the image from these rectangular sensors can be kept as is or cropped to get either a widescreen look, or a narrow aspect ratio like 4:3.
Our second format choice is a full frame or large format camera. These bigger sensors range in size from a Sony a7S’s full frame, to an Alexa LF’s large format, or even the enormous Alexa 65 format.
As these sensors are bigger they’ll capture a wider field of view than Super 35 cameras, but need to be paired with large format lenses that have enough sensor coverage to avoid seeing the black vignette of the inside of the lens.
It’s important to note that the sizes of camera sensors are not standardised to one exact measurement, but will instead be slightly different depending on what model you chose.
Finally we have the anamorphic format - which uses special lenses that squeeze the image vertically onto a taller 35mm sensor, which can later be de-squeezed to get a widescreen aspect ratio. Not all cinema cameras have a sufficient sensor size to properly shoot anamorphic, or monitor the image by de-squeezing it for viewing.
So, if you want to shoot on anamorphic lenses, you’ll need to pair them with a camera which supports anamorphic recording.
RECORDING SPECS
Now that you’ve chosen a budget and a format, the options should be narrowing down a bit. The next important consideration is the camera’s recording specs. Some broadcasters, such as Netflix, may have very specific technical guidelines and requirements. For example, only choosing cameras that can natively record at a 4K UHD resolution.
Beyond this, DPs may have a preference for how a certain camera resolves colour, want something capable of recording a high dynamic range or be able to record in RAW and get more flexibility to grade and manipulate the image in post.
PRACTICAL SPECS
While the format and internal recording specs will determine the look of the footage, the other side of selecting a camera is on its practical merits. This will change depending on the kind of shoot you’re working on.
If you’re shooting run and gun b-roll for a corporate video then your camera may not need an SDI port that can transmit a video feed to a client monitor, or a port to sync the camera’s timecode to an external recorder.
Whereas if you’re shooting a narrative feature, you’ll probably need SDI out ports, the ability to send custom frame lines for aspect ratios to monitors, add .cube files which you can use as monitoring LUTs to view the footage with a specific look on external monitors, multiple power out points from a breakout box that can send juice to different accessories, and timecode for easily synchronising externally recorded sound to the footage.
Solo documentary shooters who need to place a shotgun mic onboard the camera and record their own sound, will likely want a camera with dual XLR inputs and mixing knobs on the camera’s body which allows operators to quickly adjust audio levels with the camera on their shoulder.
ISO
The situation that filmmakers need to capture may also have a significant impact on camera selection. For example, each model may have a different sensitivity to light - which is measured in ISO, ASA, or EI.
If you’re shooting a verite style documentary without crew or lighting gear, in possibly low lit night environments, then you’ll probably want to select a camera which has a very sensitive ISO setting.
Dual base cameras which have both a lower ISO setting that can be used for brighter environments or a high base option that can expose properly in low light situations are great for this style of shooting.
However, if you’re working on a set with a fully stocked lighting truck and an electrical crew to boot, then you’ll be able to set up artificial light sources and give enough illumination to spaces that you can shoot with lower ISO values without any issue.
A final ISO consideration is if you make a creative choice to only use natural light at very low illumination levels like dawn or dusk. Such as this shot from a movie I did which we filmed way after sunset during the very last moments of available ambience on a Sony FX9 in its high base mode of 4,000 ISO.
INTERNAL ND
From having too little light, to too much light, another feature which may influence camera selection is whether they come with internal ND filters. These are pieces of glass which can be placed in front of the camera’s sensor to cut down on the amount of light let in.
Some camera bodies have these internally built into the camera, while others don’t - and need to control light with external ND filters which need to be physically placed in front of the lens in a matte box or screwed onto the barrel.
Manually removing and adding different external ND filters as the light changes takes more time than just hitting a button on the camera and instantly getting different ND strengths.
Even though replacing filters just takes a couple minutes, that time may be very precious in certain situations such as if the sun is setting and the exposure is getting darker minute by minute.
A subsection of this choice is how many internal ND filters a camera has - which is one reason why the eight different ND stops of the Sony Venice initially took off upon its release, compared to the three stops of the Alexa Mini. Having more internal ND stops helps DPs more accurately and quicker set their exposure.
In some cameras, ND can even be scrollable and quickly fine tuned with a dial - which is one of the main reasons I love using the Sony FX6 to shoot documentaries.
FORM FACTOR
Another practical factor is how easy the camera is to operate. Does it sit comfortably and balanced on the shoulder? Is it quick and easy to customise and build the camera into different modes - from a studio build to a gimbal build? Or do you need a lightweight camera that can be rigged in unusual places like an action cam?
On top of this, the durability of the build may be a factor, especially for documentary shooters working in harsh outdoor environments with water, heat or snow.
Aside from the physical design, some DPs may be influenced by the ease of use of the camera’s interface. For example, the Alexa's menu is very simple, functional and easy to use, whereas something like the old Sony F65 was, in my opinion, a bit of an old, clunky nightmare to change settings on.
POST-PRODUCTION
Last, but not least, when choosing a camera it’s important to think beyond just image capture and consider how the workflow and files will be handled in post production software.
An indirect byproduct of choosing a camera, which will affect the budget, is how much storage space will need to be purchased to accommodate the recorded media. For example, recording Arriraw on an Alexa 35 will create vastly larger file sizes than filming on a Sony FX9.
Will you have a DIT or a data wrangler on set to quickly offload footage? Will proxy files need to be created? What tradeoff do you want to make between file size and how much you can push or alter the footage in the grade? Does the camera capture metadata and have an efficient way of labeling clips and roll numbers?
Although these little nuances may not be the primary deciding factor for whether or not a camera is selected. It’s good to consider these amongst all the other factors we’ve talked about in this video when making a choice about the best camera for your next project.