Pro Moviemaker Spring 2018PMM_SPRING 2018

GEAR BUYERS’ GUIDE PART 4

We take a look at some ideal kit for professional filmmakers to suit three very different budgets

BUDGET MINDED – GREAT-VALUE KIT FOR £3500

In the fourth of our new- look Buyers’ Guide series, we investigate the kit you can buy at three very different levels of budget. It’s not necessarily the sort of equipment you could use to shoot your first feature film, rather what kit would set you up to work professionally as a filmmaker. Like every filmmaker with tight pressures of time and money, you need kit that’s rugged and easy to use, and delivers results withminimum set-up time and fuss. In Budget Minded , it’s kit that’ll get you going on a pro level for £3500. Pro Performers gear might cost a bit more, but is workhorse equipment packed with features that provides exceptional value for money. Our whole kit is a smidge under £5000. And, for when money is no object, Dream Buys is where to look. 2 LENS: SONY 28-70MM F3.6/5.6 OSS FE LENS £395/$398 www.sony.com It might not be a superfast cinema lens, but the Sony 28-70mm f3.6/ 5.6 lens is a decent all-rounder that’s made for a full-frame sensor. There’s built-in optical stabilisation to keep the wobbles at bay, too. At 28mm, it’s wide enough at the wide end to get in lots of the scene. It’s portable and light, and can be used for many applications.

1. CAMERA: SONY A7S £1509/$1998 www.sony.com

It might not be the very latest Mark II version, but the Sony A7S is still a very capable camera thanks to its full- frame sensor. When it was launched, it was the world’s first full-frame sensor capable of full pixel readout on 4K video. It only outputs 4K to an external recorder, or else records full HD internally, but this is more than enough for most clients. There’s a 12.2-megapixel sensor that goes as high as ISO 409,600 with very low noise levels, especially at the more realistic settings used by filmmakers. It’s small, light, produces wonderfully detailed footage and is amazing when light levels drop. Just because it’s not the most recent model doesn’t make it any less capable of offering top-quality results.

3 MONITOR/ RECORDER: ATOMOS NINJA BLADE £522/$495 www.atomos.com

The problem with the A7S is that it can only record 4K to an external recorder, and like all mirrorless cameras the viewfinder is not huge and doesn’t have useful things such as waveformmonitors and other filmmaking aids. All that is solved by the Atomos Ninja Blade, a five-inch monitor that unleashes the potential of the A7S. The screen is a bright, 400-nit touchscreen with waveformmonitors, and you can record footage as 4K, ProRes or Avid DNxHD via a cheap HDMI cable. This one device transforms the A7S into a real, working cinema camera.

116 PRO MOVIEMAKER SPRING 2018

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