MOVIE MATTERS THE DSLRDEBATE
STILL IN THE GAME
WHYTHE DSLR IS STILL RELEVANT Ambushed by mirrorless cameras and Super35 cinema cams, the DSLR can still cut it for moviemaking
WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
Y ou’d be forgiven for thinking that the DSLR is largely yesterday’s camera. Despite the Canon EOS 5DMark II opening up the moving-imagemarket to a whole new breed of wannabes at an affordable price, it’s been the use of mirrorless and cinema-style cameras that has exploded. The intuitive handling of cinema cameras is one big reason, and mirrorless cameras like the Sony A7 series and Panasonic GH5 have largely taken over fromDSLRs for those who want the smallest form-factor and the highest quality, alongwith shallow depth-of-field. Unlike DSLRs they don’t need a stick-on loupe to see the screen, and often have Log profiles, built-in stabilisation and uncompressed video outputted over HDMI. Cinema cams have XLR audio inputs, waveformand vectorscopemonitoring and often higher bit rates for smoother colours. Some even offer the holy grail of Raw video output. No DSLRs do that. But that doesn’t mean the DSLR is history, as they can produce amazing results despite their handling quirks. Andwith the very latest crop of DSLRs really getting serious about video spec, theymay be coming back as a serious filmmakers’ camera. They say the best camera is the one you have with you–or at least the one you actually have! Andmore people own “DSLRs can produce amazing results despite handling quirks”
58
PRO MOVIEMAKER SPRING 2018
Powered by FlippingBook