ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Blurring the lines between mirrorless and cinema cameras There’s been a revolution in technology that makes smaller cameras a serious rival to full-size cinema cams
OPINION BY CARL YATES HEAD OF TECHNICAL
MARKETING FOR PROAV I n the last few years, everything has changed. Let’s start by rewinding to roughly three years ago. Plenty of people were using mirrorless cameras for video work, probably just as many as today. But the products available were very different in terms of video functionality. Canon had the EOS R, with its 1.7x crop for 4K video. Sony had the A7 III, which was limited to 8-bit 4K XAVC S at a data rate of 100Mbps. Both are great cameras that many people are still using. However, they fall significantly behind what today’s models are capable of, especially regarding video. Of course, there were brands that were pushing video features forwards. Blackmagic had just launched the Pocket 6K, and Panasonic had its S1H – which still stands up today in terms of image quality. But for the industry as a whole, moving to a small mirrorless for video from a cine or a dedicated video camera – like the Sony FS7 and FS5 – meant a big step down in recording quality. Where are we now? To say that the technology has moved on in the last few years would be a complete understatement. Features like 10-bit All-
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Is it worth upgrading then? If you make a living from this equipment, absolutely. In my opinion, the current models of cameras from each brand like the Sony A7S III, FX3 and FX30, or Canon R5C or R7, are so much more advanced than the previous generation that upgrading is absolutely worth it for nearly every pro user. It’s not just about the technical specifications either. They also bring huge improvements to creative aspects like dynamic range and colour performance. Then there’s the practical improvements, like superior autofocus performance and – in some cases – significantly better menus and ergonomics as well. There are enough advances across the board here, particularly for Canon and Sony users, that upgrading to a newer model will bring significant improvements to your work. How close to cinema cameras are we? A lot of this depends on your definition of a ‘cinema camera’. If you mean a camera designed for high-end solo operator or small crew video production like the Canon C70 or Sony FX6, then I think we are perhaps as close as we will ever be (or at least ever need to be). There will be situations where people choose each one over the other, and they are both viable tools. However, if you mean a camera that is regularly used on high-end narrative
Intra recording at a high bit rate are now commonplace among most mirrorless cameras at all budget levels. Even features like 4K/120p are on most flagship models in each manufacturer’s range. Some cameras like the Canon R5 C and R5 can record Raw internally, and many others can send a Raw output over their HDMI port to be recorded on an external recorder from Atomos or Blackmagic. This is something that many of us – myself included – had assumed for many years was far beyond the limits of HDMI technology. Most brands have an option for adding XLR inputs, and some even have internal neutral-density filters, or the ability to add a variable ND into a lens mount adapter. These are all features that just a few years ago would have been reserved for specific video cameras – and not just any video cameras, the high-end ones like the Sony FS7 or Canon C300 II. Neither Canon’s C200 or Sony’s FS5 could do 10-bit 4:2:2 All-Intra recording for example, and only a few select cinema cameras could manage 4K at frame rates above 60p.
“Features like 10-bit All-Intra recording at a high bit rate are commonplace among most mirrorless cameras now at all budget levels”
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