Test Subjects: My Selection of Cameras
As I’ve explained in detail in my last blog entry “Exposure: Of Camera Sensors and Dynamic Range”, I wanted to acquire further knowledge in regard to exposure and dynamic range of certain cameras so that I would be able to make an informed decision about the cameras that I will be using for my camera tests.
The Cameras I’ve Worked With
Over the last couple of years, I’ve personally worked with a range of cameras. Starting out on a Canon Eos 600D, and occasionally working with an Canon 5D Mark II, my knowledge of camera systems expanded with my enrolment at CCAD – now The Northern School of Art – by being exposed to Panasonic AVCs and P2s, an Arri 16SR 3, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5k and the Blackmagic Mini Ursa Pro 4.6k, and through work experiences I was happy to obtain, which led me to working with Sony FS7s and even an Arri Alexa Mini.
The Cameras I Considered Testing
Of this vast array of cameras, I immediately decided that I was not going to bother working with the Panasonic AVCs/P2s and with the Arri 16SR3. The first two cameras did not make it purely because of my personal dislike of them. While I learned a lot using them, I neither liked their handling nor their image output enough to consider it for further testing.
In addition to this, and for more practical reasons at hand, I also refrained from using them since our LVL4s – in total 27 people – will shortly be filming their Me, Myself, and Is on these cameras, which means that they will be difficult to get a hold of.
In terms of the Arri 16SR3, I refrained from filming with it due to the fact that it requires film stock which not only was a cost factor, but also a time factor in obtaining. While it would have been nice to have footage on actual film stock to compare with the results of the digital cameras, neither my funds nor my research was in place by the time to make an informed decision. Also, I feared that the different procedure and handling of film stock would distort the results.
Looking at the DSLRs I’ve worked with so far, I do own a Canon EOS 600D from 2011 with an APS-C sensor, capable of filming 1080p with 25fps, which would make for a good case in terms of having a DSLR contender in the mix. In terms of easier obtainment, time and budget, this means that despite the technical advantages of the Canon 5D Mark ii, I would prefer my own camera.
Looking at the other end of the spectrum, the Arri Alexa Mini seemed like a hell of an attractive option to experiment with. Ever since my work experience during the last week, I was fascinated by the quality of the image. As such, I heavily considered renting it for one day of camera testing. The same went for the Sony FS7. But where to obtain them from?
Film Production Rentals
Being a foreigner, and still very much being a stranger to all the facilities the North East of England has to offer, I decided to research some companies in the area. Since I did not have a single clue, which rental companies do exist and which would be available to me, I ventured onto Google and gave it a good search.
Immediately, I realised that the bulk of rental companies where located around Cardiff (duh!), London (double-duh!), and Manchester (uhu…). Some more companies were based to what seemed to be exclusively online, whereas only very few were based in the North East.
These more distant and/or online companies – such as e.g. Shoot Blue in London – were too far away for my purposes as the increased distance would either require me to hire the cameras and lenses for a longer period of time or to travel down and fetch them myself.
While it would make for a nice road trip, neither the travel budget, nor travel time would fit into my pressurised schedule of the Minor project. Furthermore, why would you travel across an entire country twice to fetch and return equipment, which could easily be resolved with another company right around the corner?
From the companies, which I found close to home – namely in Newcastle – Picture Canning was the most prominent one. Having worked with their equipment (and a former member of staff) recently, I recognised the brand and ventured onto their website.
However, I was not able to quickly ask for a quote without creating an account that needed to be approved first before I could access it. Since I only wanted to access the info quickly, I decided that I would instead keep looking for other companies and their daily rates to stay on top of my time schedule.
Which led me to another five minutes of my online research in which I encountered the rental companies Pannyhire, Video Europe and Broadcast Services. From these three companies, Video Europe did not offer me the option to show their daily rates online and Broadcast Services seemed very restricted in their offer. Pannyhire, however, offered all the information that I wanted to access:
Here, I was able to get a rough estimate of what a Sony FS7 and an Arri Alexa Mini would cost for a daily rent. Looking for the daily rental price of the Sony FS7 first, I was not too concerned about the average of £150, as I found it a decent price for the camera itself. The matter however was entirely different for the Arri Alexa Mini.
For I did not find a daily rental price for the Arri Alexa Mini below £400… I mean, I knew that this camera is truly special… But that is nothing I can afford spending at this point in time, most certainly not as a student. I mean it’s not even including the lens kit that I would require to go along with it. Seemed I was too eager at the prospect of working with that one.
The Preliminary Result
So far, four different cameras were still in the race:
Canon EOS 600D
Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5k
Blackmagic Mini Ursa Pro 4.6k
Sony PXW-FS7
Whilst I would love to apply the test to four different cameras, I realised that this was not feasible given the time constraints for the module and the rest of research that would have to go along with it. Which is why I needed to strike off at least another camera from that list. But which one would be the obsolete one? I had to conduct more research.
Camera Specs
Thus, I had the idea of founding my decision on the technical specs of each camera in question. I think that it would be nice to have a variety of cameras at my disposal as I hope that this might also produce a variety in results. Having three cameras that would then have roughly the same sensor size, for example, could prove to be counter-productive.
Because of this, I decided to settle on the following parameters and criteria (in no particular order):
Year of Release
Sensor Size
Dynamic Range
Native ISO
Rental Price and
Accessibility
And here are the results:
Canon EOS 600D
The 600D is the oldest of all contesters, having been released on 7 February 2011. It comes with an APS-C sensor featuring dimensions of 22,3mm x 14,9mm and a conversion factor of 1.6 compared to a full frame sensor. Its dynamic range encompasses 8,8 stops and its native ISO is reported to be at 100. Because of the age of this camera, I was unable to find a rate for a daily rental price, which did not surprise me. But since I do own this camera, I would have it at my disposal for free.
Blackmagic Cinema Camera
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is the second-oldest camera of the entire bunch, having had its release on 4 September 2012. Even though it is only a year younger than my own camera, it can still be rented for a daily rate of about £70, which I found astonishing given its age. However, since I do have access to this camera at university, I would not have to pay anything towards renting it.
In addition to this, this camera comes with a dynamic range of 13 stops and a native ISO of 800. However, one very surprising finding I did make with this camera was the size of the sensor. It did not only take me ages to find the resemblance of a piece of information on the sensor size, its actual size was also surprising. Turns out, this sensor is closer to a 16mm sensor (but not truly a 16mm sensor) with dimensions of 15,6mm x 8,8mm, leading to a conversion factor of 2.8 compared to a full frame sensor, thus making this the camera with the smallest sensor size out of the entire bunch.
Blackmagic Mini Ursa Pro 4.6k
Moving onto the younger sister of the Cinema Camera, this one was released on 17 March 2016, making it the newest one in the list. While it shares the same native ISO as the Cinema Camera, it however comes with a Super 35mm sensor and a whooping 15 stops of dynamic range. Surprisingly enough, the daily rate for this camera would only be £150, much like the Sony FS7.
Sony FS7
Speaking about the FS7, this camera was released during November 2014. Apart from the daily rental price, this camera shares another commonality with the Mini Ursa Pro 4.6k: the Super 35mm sensor. However, it features one stop less of dynamic range with a total of only 14 stops. What came as another surprise though was the fact that the native ISO of this camera was reported to lie at 2000, which seemed really far out compared to the other ISO values mentioned here.
The Unofficial Competitor – Arri Alexa Mini
Lastly, I once more decided to give into temptation and looked up the technical specs of the Arri Alexa Mini. Thus, and according to my research, the Arri Alexa Mini – which had been announced on 24 February 2015 – comes with a so-called Full Frame+ sensor that features the dimensions of 36,7mm x 25,5mm, a native ISO of 800, and a dynamic range of 14+ stops. Surprisingly enough, apart from the bigger sensor size, the Arri Alexa did not prove to be much different from the Blackmagic Mini Ursa Pro 4.6k (at least in the specs that I’ve listed here).
And the Winners are…
With the technical specs unravelled and listed separately, the choice seemed fairly obvious. Thus, I finally came to the decision to try and test the following three cameras (in no particular order):
Canon Eos 600D
Blackmagic Cinema Camera
Blackmagic Mini Ursa Pro
The reasons for my decision ended up being based on three criteria: First of all, with these three cameras, I managed to incorporate three different sensor types and sizes, one of them being even close to 16mm. Second of all, my choices incorporate the cameras with the smallest, the average, and the highest dynamic range of all cameras presented. Last, but not least, all the camera options I’ve chosen are free for me to rent and thus easily and quickly to access; a feat that I should not underestimate given the overall constraints on time, studio space, and equipment.
With this, I think I got my equipment sorted.
References:
Blackmagic Design (n.d.) Product Technical Specifications: Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF [PDF] Available at: https://www.videoexpert.eu/f/docs/49396/Technical-Specifications---Blackmagic-Cinema-Camera-EF.pdf [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Blackmagic Forum (2012) Optimum ISO for Ursa Mini 400 or 800? [online] Available at: https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=46199 [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Blackmagic Forum (2013) APS-C sensor ration & Face Recognition Focus [online] Available at: https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12246 [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Blackmagic Forum (2017) Ursa Mini Pro Native ISO [online] Image taken from:https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70254 [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Broadcast Services (2019) Homepage [online] Available at: http://www.broadcast-services.co.uk/index.php/video/equipment/ [Accessed on: 26 October 2019]
CameraStuffReview (2012) Review Canon 600D [online] Image taken from: https://www.camerastuffreview.com/en/canon-camera-review/review-canon-600d [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
CreativeCow.Net (2017) FS7 Grain [online] Available at: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/54/865142 [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
CVP (2019) ARRI Alexa Mini LF - Body [online] Available at: https://cvp.com/product/arri-alexa-mini-lf-body [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Digital Camera Database (2019) Canon EOS 600D [online] Available at: https://www.digicamdb.com/specs/canon_eos-600d/ [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Digital Photography Review (2012) Native ISO Sensitivity (which typically offers the highest image quality) [online] Available at: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3164538 [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Koo, R. (2012) BlackMagic Design's Cinema Camera is a 2.5K RAW Shooter with Built-in Monitor and Recorder for $3K [online] Image taken from: Available at: https://nofilmschool.com/2012/04/blackmagic-designs-cinema-camera-2-5k [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Miller, J. (2015) Sony PXW-FS7 Review [online] Image taken from: https://www.videomaker.com/article/c22/18084-sony-pxw-fs7-review [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Pannyhire (2019) Homepage [online] Images taken from: http://www.broadcast-services.co.uk/index.php/video/equipment/ [Accessed on: 26 October 2019]
Picture Canning (2019) Homepage [online] Available at: http://www.broadcast-services.co.uk/index.php/video/equipment/ [Accessed on: 26 October 2019]
Shoot Blue (2019) Homepage [online] Image taken from: https://shootblue.tv [Accessed on: 26 October 2019]
VFX Camera Database (2015) ARRI Alexa Mini [online] Image taken from: https://vfxcamdb.com/arri-alexa-mini/ [Accessed on 26 October 2019]
Video Europe (2019) Homepage [online] Available at: https://videoeurope.co.uk [Accessed on: 26 October 2019]
Wikipedia (2019) Blackmagic Cinema Camera [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmagic_Cinema_Camera [Accessed on 26 October 2019]