MINI CAMS GE AR .
A quart in a pint pot
Technology tends to get smaller over time, but camera sensors have recently been going the other way. Those movements have collided, with some of the most densely packed boxes of pixels around: cameras that can hide in the corner, while offering Super 35 sensors – or bigger
WORDS. Phil Rhodes
T here are lots of very small cameras in the world, often using C mount lenses to cover equally small sensors. Those work nicely for TV production, where cameras can be tucked into the smallest gaps while witnessing what’s going on. For cinema, things are trickier. Simply choosing a bigger sensor and putting it behind a lens mount is one thing; packing in the technology to make it do something useful is another. Let’s look at what some of the world’s leading manufacturers have managed to stuff into the small cubes we often refer to as box cameras. If any company has specialised in this field, it’s Z Cam, offering a range of cameras that seem barely big enough to accommodate a mount suitable for lenses that can cover the sensor. The company’s latest oeuvre is the E2-F6, an inexpensive little cube sporting a 6K, full-frame sensor capable of shooting a healthy 60fps at full resolution, and 120fps at 4K. Lens mounts are interchangeable and, thankfully, Micro Four Thirds is accommodated, lending the
E2-F6 compatibility with a wide variety of lenses. It records to CFast cards in the company’s ZRAW codec which, like Blackmagic’s Raw option, does at least some work in-camera. For anyone who wants bigger numbers, the company’s E2-F8 camera is an 8K, full-frame option, recording at up to 30fps. The broad commonality in mechanical layout between Z Cam’s output makes the bodies fairly interchangeable.
CUBE LIFE Z Cam has some of the best mini cams on the market, like the E2-F6 (above left) and E2-F8 (above). The Canon ME200S-SH fitted with an EF 24-105mm lens (below) is another stellar option
“If any company has specialised in this field, it’s Z Cam, offering a range of cameras that seem barely big enough to accommodate a mount suitable for lenses that can cover the sensor”
83. APRIL 2022
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