New camera kit!

After many hours of research, reading reviews and trying to get my hands on as many of the hundreds of cameras currently on the market, i have finally settled on my cameras of choice for the next couple of years at leased.

Sony PMW-200

First up is the newly released (September 2012) Sony PMW-200. This camera is a very welcome and long awaited addition to the XDCAM family of Sony cameras. Building on the success of the very popular Sony EX1R, the PMW-200 features a very similar body size, shape and weight. The lens is the same as the Ex1r as far as i can tell which will come in handy when it comes to ‘run & gun’ type situations.

There is one new feature of this camera however that does stand out and put this camera (in my humble opinion) at the top of the pile of cameras in it’s class. It is the only semi-shoulder mount / handheld camera that shoots 50mbps via 3 1/2 inch CMOS sensors.

What does this mean? Basically, it means that this camera qualifies to be used for broadcast acquisition without the need for external recorders. It also means that when it comes to grading the image, i will be able to push the Dynamic Range a bit further due to the extra bits of data available.

Most broadcasters (such as the BBC) require a minimum of 50mbps quality on the image to be considered as a main camera shooting for broadcast. The EX1R records at 35Mbps.

The fact the the sensors are 1/2 inch in size means that they can handle low light situations quite well compared to other cameras in it’s class. This results in less noise and grain in the image during low light situations.

Sony FS-700 Super 35mm 

I have had my eye on this highly anticipated and very modular camera since it was announced back in April 2012, It has kicked up quite a fuss in the global camera community for it’s superb features at such a reasonable price point of around $10k (body only).

The Sony FS700 features a super 25mm sensor which is very close in size to sensors found in DSLR’s such as the Canon 7D and Sony A77, this means that with the right lenses the camera is capable of producing beautiful smooth ‘Bokeh’ (blurry backgrounds when the subject is sharp in focus). It gives the video a very filmic look and opens up loads of different shooting styles and looks. The camera comes ‘4K ready’ which means that sometime in the future the camera will be able to get a firmware upgrade which will allow me to shoot 4k (RAW?) video but seeing that it’s not available yet and nobody knows what the details are i’m not worrying too much about it.

I will be using primarily Sony E-mount and my Sony A-mount lenses as well as a few prime lenses i plan on getting in the near future. Being such a versatile lens mount i am able to use all my current fast lenses and swap very quickly from DSLR to FS700 allowing for quick set-ups of interviews where i can use my DSLR as a second camera.

One of the highlights of this new model is the capability to shoot Super Slow Motion at up to 240 frames per second in full HD(!!) This is truly a first for any camera in it’s class and after seeing some test footage i am very impressed. I plan on shooting some test footage in the coming months to put up on this blog.

After i set this up with a small lightweight rig and Alphatron Electronic Viewfinder i think this camera will serve me very well over the next few years.

I hope to get some photos and vision on this post soon