New technologies are bringing more options for online video creation. Here are the questions to consider when shopping for a camera.
Picking the right camera is like picking the right car. There is no one car that's right for every driver and every situation. Likewise, there's no perfect camera that will serve the needs of an online video producer on every job. Each camera has certain features and capabilities that make it a better choice for certain shooting situations. So what aspects should you consider when determining the right camera for the types of video work you do?
Camera Size
Do you need a tiny camera to mount to a helmet or the outside of an airplane in flight? Or do you need a feature film-sized camera with easy access to multitudes of parameters to fluidly manage all of your production's needs?
Perhaps you need a mid-size prosumer camcorder with audio, monitor, and zoom lens integrated into a compact package. Or can you break the system apart and leverage the advantages of a large-sensor, interchangeable-lens camcorder, using prime lenses and separate audio recording?
No one camera is perfect for everything. But many cameras can handle multitudes of situations. Carefully consider your needs and what camera best serves those needs as opposed to what is the coolest gear on the market.
Sensor Size
Large-sensor video cameras exploded on the scene when Canon's EOS 5D Mark II DSLR was enabled to shoot video. It wasn't the easiest way to shoot video, but the look and feel of the video it produced was completely different from video produced by any small-chip prosumer camcorder that cost about the same.
The GoPro Hero3 HD Black ($399), a Wi-Fi-enabled ultra-portable, versatile-mount HD cam with a vast range of applications.
The large sensor provides for a shallow depth of field that looks more like feature films and professional photography than traditional digital video. You can isolate a single person from the background quite easily. The large sensor also provides for better low-light capability compared to a tiny sensor.
The Sony NEX-FS100 ($4,200, body only), along with the Panasonic AG-AF100, was the first large-sensor camcorder to offer the full lens interchangeability and image control of a DSLR in a conventional camcorder chassis.
On the other hand, small-sensor camcorders can have a much longer zoom range in a smaller lens than a large sensor camcorder. You can carry around a 20x optical zoom with image stabilization in your hand with ease.
Why is this important? For live event video and certain types of documentary production, there is seldom time to constantly change lenses or physically move around to get the appropriate focal length. Having a long zoom built-in to the camcorder means you can get the framing you want (closer or farther) in a second. You can even adjust framing (zoom in or out) very smoothly during the shot.
The Canon EOS 5D Mark III ($3,500, body only), recent successor to the EOS 5D Mark II that set the prosumer video production world on its ear.
Needed Accessories
Also consider the camera's ecosystem. With a small-sensor camcorder, almost everything is built into the camera except for wireless mics and lights. With a large-sensor camcorder, you need to consider various other important items that are more necessary than accessories.
LENSES
The ability to swap out lenses and use very high-quality prime lenses can give you amazing images that pop. Unfortunately, buying a lot of high-quality glass can also cause a bank account to pop.
Alternatively, using a couple of high-quality zoom lenses gives you all the focal lengths, but usually not with as low an f-stop/depth of field. The intent and content of your work determines the type of lenses you need to get.
AUDIO
When the Canon 5D started to be used for video, producers had to go back to "film-style" dual-system sound recording, which requires a second device dedicated to recording audio. The video and audio devices are usually not connected together.
The reason: DSLR audio systems did not provide the same quality of audio acquisition as prosumer and professional camcorders, which typically include XLR inputs rather than the simple stereo inputs found on DSLRs and consumer camcorders. Nor do a DSLR's audio inputs provide the ability to easily adjust the level of different sources, providing monitoring of the audio while shooting.
Today's large-sensor camcorders now have quality audio recording integrated into the cameras, but many shooters still prefer to take advantage of the quality and reliability that dual-system audio provides.
Recording Formats
Another aspect to consider when purchasing a camera for professional online video production is the recording format, or codec. It's far easier to edit video that hasn't been compressed using a Long Group of Pictures (LongGOP) codec such as HDV or AVCHD. While certain post technologies make native editing of these codecs easier, there is still value to using a lightly compressed, high-bitrate video format for ensuring the highest quality final product.
To serve this need, a market of external recording devices has blossomed, providing a multitude of options for shooters who want to capture the uncompressed video stream captured by the camera before it's compressed in-camera and stored on flash media or whatever internal storage medium the camera uses.
Whether they take in video from HD-SDI or HDMI outputs (and the availability of these outputs will vary with the camera you purchase), the purpose of these devices is the same: to preserve, as much as possible, the cleanest, highest-quality video from the camera.
The Atomos Ninja 2 ($995), an external digital that records a 4:2:2 Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD stream directly from a camera’s HDMI output.
So if the camera internally records a color-reduced 4:2:0 codec such as HDV or AVCHD, the external recorder can be used to capture a clean 4:2:2 (double the color resolution) feed from the camera before it gets compressed and recorded in the camcorder itself.
Monitoring
While almost any device for recording video comes with a display, the initial limitation with DSLR video camera screens being small and unmovable LEDs spawned the release of external, production-handy monitors of all number of sizes.
These monitors are designed to handle the often wonky video outputs of the DSLRs, and they provide additional features, such as focus peaking, waveform scopes, zebra, audio meters, and more. Even when used with a camcorder with similar features, an external, high resolution 7" screen makes it far easier to assess the shot than the camcorder's built-in 3" screen.
Filtering
Not all cameras and camcorders have built-in neutral density (ND) filters these days. Pay careful attention to the specifications and features of the camera you select, because it also determines whether you need external accessories to help handle and manage the light.
A DSLR and even some large sensor camcorders will need on-lens filtering or even a matte box system to provide ND filtering. If you're shooting outdoors in summer daylight with a light-hungry camcorder, you'll need a way to reduce the light coming in to the lens to make use of those low f-stops without cranking your shutter speed into the stratosphere.
Usability
Lastly, when you've done all your research and feature comparisons, consider usability, which will depend not just on how a camera is configured (and how it's been reviewed by other shooters) but on your own shooting style, comfort zone, and familiarity with how a given camera's controls are organized.
There was a time when every video shop used an on-shoulder ENG camcorder. You could walk into any studio, pick up any camera from any manufacturer, and pretty much be able to fully use it without thinking.
Today's cameras are vastly different from each other. Operating one DSLR for video has almost no correlation to operating another DSLR for video. While today's prosumer camcorders are largely the same, large-sensor camcorders from different manufacturers vary widely.
Also, the amazing capabilities and customizability of today's cameras creates a challenge. The menu systems have become labyrinthian, an unfortunate byproduct of the manufacturers' need to give us access to the camera's many features, settings, and adjustments. It will take you time to learn and understand each camera, and how to adjust its settings to best serve your needs.
Try a rental to get some hands-on time and learn how a camera works before adding it to your arsenal. This gives you the ability to test-drive these new, very different systems to determine which one you want to drive off the lot.
Five Questions for Camera Buyers
What's more important to you in a camera lens: shallow depth of field or long, smooth zooms?
How important is low-light performance in your camera of choice?
Do you have the time and flexibility in your shoots to switch lenses on-the-fly?
Do you need professional on-camera audio controls, or does your workflow accommodate dual-system audio?
Do you do enough outdoor shooting to require a neutral-density filter on the majority of your shoots?
By Anthony Burokas
This article appears in the 2013 Streaming Media Industry Sourcebook.
