A couple of years ago my eyes were opened to the realm of possibilities. Whilst watching the special features of Black Swan on Bluray, something immediately something struck me about the quality of the picture. The picture was so sharp, the depth of field was brilliant, and the control of the camera seemed effortless. I was intrigued, what camera could have possibly achieved these amazing results? It was the Canon 5D Mark II Digital SLR. So, it was at that point I knew I had found the camera for shooting our film Brain Sick.
Since then, I have done endless research on the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 60D and Canon 7D and found that the choice of which model to suit us is much harder than I anticipated. Hopefully our experience might help you decide the best camera for your film.
Cinematographer Matthew Libatique, ASC using the 7D for Black Swan
Even though it had initially sparked my excitement, the 5D Mark II was eliminated early in the process. Although having a full sensor and great low light performance, it was mainly due to the frame rate choice only being 30fps. As a stills camera, it seems amazing, but I was purely looking at a video level.
After rumours of a 5D Mark III might emerge, I waited…and waited, until early 2012, it was finally released. The camera has everything you would need, a large sensor for low light shooting, full frame rate options and much more. For us, if money wasn’t a factor, the 5D Mark III would have been the number 1 choice, but at $3,999 for SLR body only, it had to be ruled out. However, it could be an upgrade option in several years time.
Can you spot the difference? I can't...
So, that leaves the 7D and 60D to battle it out. After reading some intense debate on the internet, it wasn’t getting any easier, especially when snapsort rated both the 7D and 60D head-to-head as a tie. I may be opening up a can of worms here, but after watching the video tests on YouTube and reading many articles, I got the impression that the difference in video quality was marginal at best, even at low light.
- An Auto Focus with double the amount of points, therefore easier to obtain focus.
- Higher shutter speed
- Uses Compact Flash
- All weather magnesium alloy body, which can be used in all conditions
- Much cheaper.
- Manual Audio controls
- A flip LCD screen
- Uses SD cards
After intense debate (in my mind), the winner and the camera purchased for shooting our film Brain Sick is…Canon 60D. To be honest, it could have gone either way; however the LCD flip screen and manual audio controls were a big factor purely at a video recording level.
Although I bought my camera in store, it is worth bearing in mind that if you buy online and overseas you do not get a warranty for Canon in your own country, only a warranty with the store or distributor. So, although cheaper, you may experience delays with your camera should there be a problem, as the camera will likely need to be sent overseas to be fixed.
Hope my experiences helped, but my advice for anyone looking for a camera is to do your own research, and find the camera that best suits your situation. Sounds wanky, but it’s true. Having never owned a SLR before, now I’ve just got to learn how to use the thing!
The camera we'll be using to shoot Brain Sick
