29/03/2019
Last week I flew to Tokyo, Japan to film Maison the Faux.
Lots to be said about that project but I'd like to share my two
cents about which camera to use. I brought my trustworthy Canon NederlandC100 alongside with a Canon XC15 rented from Budgetcam.
For serious scenes I will always go to a proper camera like a C100,
ever since I made the switch from DSLR I just can't go back. You have
to be quick with your hands on the buttons a lot of the time, white balance,
ND, ISO, a camera like a C100 will get you there no problem. It's when
you want to shoot B-Roll but you don't know where you're going and if it's worth it, where an XC15 will come into play. Walking around Tokyo with a C100 all day will get you tired very fast, and people will notice you're filming instantly. With the XC15 I managed to grab quick shots of people and places, without making too much of a scene. I got kicked out of buildings and shops a couple of times with my C100, none of that with the XC15. It shoots log, so it's easy to grade alongside the rest of the footage, and it has a lens that can go up to 300mm! That's just amazing for such a small package! The bad part is that you have to rely on autofocus as the lens is
really shoddy to handle, also managing your white balance, ND and ISO, although possible, just takes too long to adjust. So it's shooting auto mode 75% of the time.
I'm curious about filming with a GH5 or a blackmagic pocket, but the fact that this camera just had everything in one package really spoke to me. I didn't even shoot 4k except for shots I really thought would be worth it, because who wants to come home to hundreds of gigabytes of B-roll. So shooting Canon log on an SD would do the trick. Comparing it with 4k I'd say that the 4k is a little bit sharper, but really not worth it for B-roll.
Would I buy it? I'm not sure. I would probably rent it again if I have a job like this, since carrying it around all day, just chucking it in your bag is no problem. But the main thing I dislike is the focus ring. So if Canon works on that for a future model, yeah I'd buy it. I'd love it to death.
If blackmagic has a 24-300mm lens option available and it's still lightweight
I'll take that into serious consideration, but right now this is the baby to take with you if you want to keep it light.
Budgetcam sponsored me the camera, but I'm not obligated to write this nor am I paid for any of it by the brands I mention. This is just my two cents.
