One Camera - For Life?

[Liam]

So, for image quality for the most common type of film, I guess, it's very near its peak. We don't need more resolution, nor dynamic range, if you shoot it right. Film was plenty good more than 70 years ago

I don't know how hdr will change things. I haven't been loving the hdr stuff i've seen, but tech for that will get better in other areas too. And plenty of current cameras work alright for hdr. 360 video and vr will advance quite a bit clearly, but it's something I don't care about.

Multiple uses is just a different way to interpret the question, but a good point. Fitting in your pocket is a nice feature, but the lens you like most wouldn't fit in your pocket on its own, not including the large sensor camera. So that's 2 cameras

I'm hoping for a revolution in work flow, I guess. Immediate cloud transfer and teeny files is something that could make us look back and scoff

[Kisaha]

@Beritar GH5 has the advantage of 10bit video and IBIS, but everything else, NX is better. It is even lighter and smaller, something that was the comparative advantage of m43 since its conception. GH5 is a great workhorse camera though, hugely respected and admired!

I do not understand how people have C200 and EVA in this logical excercise, cameras that most haven't even touch yet. I would expect more personal replys (like @IronFilm 's!! +1 ) than "hypothetical" cameras we have seen on Vimeo just.

[IronFilm]

12 minutes ago, Kisaha said:

I do not understand how people have C200 and EVA in this logical excercise, cameras that most haven't even touch yet. I would expect more personal replys (like @IronFilm 's!! +1 ) than "hypothetical" cameras we have seen on Vimeo just.

Wellllllll........... isn't even the concept of "one camera for life" rather hypothetical itself?!

I can understand where someone one would come in being forced to pick "one camera for life" that they might risk it all on one camera like the Panasonic EVA1. 

As frankly there is no camera I'd like to be stuck with permanently for life! Either any that are currently out, or announced but not yet released. 

Panasonic EVA1 (even if the image quality is "only as good" as a GH5) is perhaps the closest camera to a "one camera for life" if I was forced to pick one with a gun held to my head!!

Because it is a bit smaller than a FS7, and much smaller than a F5/F55, which is an important quality if it is my ONLY camera. As I'd need to be able to use it on little mini micro shoots, where it is just me by myself. 

It has low end options, mid range, and high end options. That is important, if it is my ONLY camera. Unlike the C200, which has top end recording and low end, but nothing in between! 

It has time code. Which the C200, FS5, and FS7 lacks (welll.... FS7 has it, but only if you add the XDCA back, which makes it much bulkier). 

Anyway, those are just a few points quickly, explaining why I think it is kinda reasonable if a person mentioned the Panasonic EVA1.

Although I think that the "one camera for life" does not yet exist. So I just mentioned a personal example of my Sony PMW-F3 & BMPCC that I can probably see myself using them for quite a while longer still (but not forever!! An upgrade will eventually happen). 

[Kisaha]

Even 1 camera for a year ain't happening, as most of us use a lot of different cameras per year (and per job).

On such exercises, the easy approach is to choose the latest tech, obviously, as NX1 is a camera from 2014, a not released yet camera will offer all the latest and greatest, it certainly is more futureproof.

But..if we make this question next year, probably EVA and C200 will be surpassed by someone else; maybe Varicam lite for 10.000€, or JVC LS3, a 5.000€ camera that has it all, or Canon C400- which 4 is the lucky number of eastern Asians, or Black Magic Mini Ursa Pro Ultimate edition with 8K sensor and great low light perfomance.

I have no personal connection with any of those cameras yet, they ain't my buddy (well, I know they are tools!), haven't shot with on scorched hot Mediterenean summer days, not in snowy mountains, not in never ending working days, not taking pictures of my newborn baby, my family, myself, my best friend's weddings (as a present). 

EVA and C200 for me are hypothetical tools, such as the camera I AM STILL WAITING FOR, C100mkIII, my hybrids are real and I know what they are capable of, and they have always delivered.

If I was to stay with a human for ever, I would choose my wife, not a model I saw on Fashion TV. My wife is battletested and performed and delivered in the most difficult tasks and life adventures, a real hybrid!

(I could put C100/C300mkII there too, but I choose the hybrid. The camera, not the wife!).

[Cinegain]

I might just pick the GH2. It's what started my journey with interchangeable lens cameras and back then things were so straight forward. These days you're trying to overachieve and things are more complex and the shear amount of options and possibilities are a blessing but it also means more thought has to go into which choices you make. Going back to the roots is definitely something to consider, rather than chasing after all the tech advancements opening up yourself to more creative thinking that needs to make the difference.

Not sure how scared you need to be of lacking quality... remember the GH2 shootouts by Philip Bloom and Zacuto, it held up quite decently to the big boys back in those days. And you'll still watch the IMDB Top 100 etc movies that are probably mostly before 2010. Some movies only ever made it to VHS and people still enjoy those. Wouldn't worry too much about that aspect, if anything it will set your filmmaking apart from everyone elses that has gotten on with the times.

[IronFilm]

3 hours ago, Kisaha said:

But..if we make this question next year, probably EVA and C200 will be surpassed by someone else; maybe Varicam lite for 10.000€, or JVC LS3, a 5.000€ camera that has it all, or Canon C400- which 4 is the lucky number of eastern Asians, or Black Magic Mini Ursa Pro Ultimate edition with 8K sensor and great low light perfomance.

Exactly. 

This question is so vague and broad that it makes it tough to realistically answer, not without some more context/limitations to it, to narrow down the options. 

However....  I think there could be a reasonable chance that the Panasonic EVA1 might still be my "one camera for life if forced to choose at gunpoint". But it won't still hold that position in five years time, not a chance. 

Because just look at the time which was pre-EVA1 announcement. Well gee, if you look around at all the options, I think I might be forced to pick going with the Sony FS7 with an XDCA back? And this would have held true for a few years as my #1 choice, ever since the FS7 was released. (when the Panasonic Varicam LT came out, it would have tempted me to switch my choice away from the FS7. But if I'm stuck with only one camera then I think I'd prefer having the option of the smaller FS7 bare body)

As ideally I'd have wanted a FS5/C100 camera with FS7 specs, but no such thing existed. But now it does.....  the EVA1?

Anyway, not saying the EVA1 will be my "one camera for life if forced to choose at gunpoint" next year as well. Or even that it is likely, just that it is very possible. 

1 hour ago, Cinegain said:

I might just pick the GH2.

You really would pick the GH2 over the GH5, as your only camera for the rest of your life?

Are you feeling ok, is everything alright, are you not going to live much longer? 

[Cinegain]

lol, well, maybe it's the sentiment of being the first real learner camera for me if you will... but one day we'll be capturing stuff by neural links that tap into our brain, sees what we see, knows what we're trying to capture and how we want to portray that to an audience. You just have to think it and you can make it. By then 4K and everything doesn't mean much anymore. Like, I'm not saying that I'd wish to settle for a GH2 right now, as progress luckily is a very real thing and we can ride that wave. But if you wouldn't be able to anymore, don't know, might as well pick the one you bonded with most. I guess it's like wishing back for your first car and creating some more good memories with it... or remembering that sweet or cookie that they had in your childhood that's not around anymore. Though, yeah, perhaps that does sound a bit silly... lol.

[Liam]

Well yeah if the question is "has technology gone far enough that one camera could last you the rest of your life?" It's suuuuper lame to pick the latest camera. Pick a well tested classic that you might still remember next year.

[Emanuel]

The next 10-bit hybrid...

So far, the only one to give you such stuff amongst other goodies in a reasonable package ;-)

 

11 hours ago, Kisaha said:

@Beritar GH5 has the advantage of 10bit video and IBIS, but everything else...

 

[Kisaha]

@Emanuel I totally agree with you. The first and the best, so far. But the next best hybrid isn't here yet.

GH4 was a groundbraking camera back in the day, but it was the first; after a while the NX1 came and it was better in most aspects.

GH5 is great, it is pushing the envelope again, but someone else will bring a better version soonish.

I do not do 10bit, do not have the workflow and I do not need it right now for my projects, do not even do any 4K either.

There are a lot of GH5s around me that I can use whenever I want anyway. We just finished a TV show with 2 of those (and I influenced that decision too) and a very good friend (DP) just bought one last week. 

I would expect Fuji or Canon to deliver a much better camera in end of 2018 and Sony is ready to unleash their new A7 series, while there are a few good video cameras out there. I will play the waiting game with this. I prefer holding on to something and make the most of it, than resell on a year.

[IronFilm]

6 hours ago, Kisaha said:

I would expect Canon to deliver a much better camera in end of 2018

I wouldn't.

6 hours ago, Kisaha said:

There are a lot of GH5s around me that I can use whenever I want anyway. We just finished a TV show with 2 of those (and I influenced that decision too) and a very good friend (DP) just bought one last week. 

Sounds like you're a good influence! :-) 

[noone]

As long as my life doesn't go on for too much longer.

 

I guess the one camera of my life TO DATE has to be my A7s.

 

Adapts just about any lens, is excellent in low light/high ISO and can shoot in both FF (stills and video) and APSC (for video and smaller web size photos).       Can use fast primes as short (2x) zooms with little if any loss.

 

I don't need more than 12mp 99% of the time and I don't need tracking AF or AFC at any great speed.     For my limited video use, I can at least use it for 4k if I ever need that via an external recorder.

I would think I will upgrade in a year or two if I can afford to but so far, the A7s is the camera I always wanted.

[tugela]

On ‎10‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 9:21 AM, Liam said:

So, for image quality for the most common type of film, I guess, it's very near its peak. We don't need more resolution, nor dynamic range, if you shoot it right. Film was plenty good more than 70 years ago

 

Glad you think so.

IMO IQ still has quite a way to go on pretty much every camera available to today. General home viewing devices are on an upward tick in terms of size, something that is going to continue going forward, and your "good enough" today is going to look pretty crappy when the average home rocks 80"+ retina screens. The future of general viewing is going to be a more immersive experience, that means much bigger higher resolution screens (so that it covers more of the field of view) but also VR (which will have resolution and precision requirements way higher than what we have today). The cameras we have today are inadequate for that, their IQ is too crude.

We are not done equipment wise by a long shot. If you think that you are being short sighted and don't get where the industry is heading.

Contemporary equipment is all you need for the past, but not enough for the future. We don't live in the past and are heading for the future, so the answer is that todays cameras will NOT be the end camera for anyone.

[Liam]

1 hour ago, tugela said:

General home viewing devices are on an upward tick in terms of size, something that is going to continue going forward, and your "good enough" today is going to look pretty crappy when the average home rocks 80"+ retina screens.

Oh no! 80 inches??

Show me a flaw in the image of The Wizard of Oz on a 50 foot screen

1 hour ago, tugela said:

Contemporary equipment is all you need for the past, but not enough for the future. We don't live in the past and are heading for the future, so the answer is that todays cameras will NOT be the end camera for anyone.

On the contrary, sounds like even your future's future is the past of my current present.

[Dave Maze]

I mean if we are saying “one camera to rule them all forever” cmon guys... Arri Alexa!? Duhhhhh ?

its been the one camera to rule them all for the last 8 years and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere even in this 4k world we live in. Crazy ness. 

But I guess if the question is, which camera THAT YOU CAN AFFORD would I pick... I guess I’d go with Digital Bolex :))))

[IronFilm]

Just because the Arri Alexa has been ruling the roost for the last few years, does not mean it will be the smart choice for the years and years to come! (rest of your life!)

The past is not the future. 

[mercer]

4 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Just because the Arri Alexa has been ruling the roost for the last few years, does not mean it will be the smart choice for the years and years to come! (rest of your life!)

The past is not the future. 

I think people are overthinking this fun hypothetical exercise. I believe the point is... if tech stopped now and we were left with what is available now, then what would people choose based on what is on the market now.

[noone]

17 minutes ago, mercer said:

I think people are overthinking this fun hypothetical exercise. I believe the point is... if tech stopped now and we were left with what is available now, then what would people choose based on what is on the market now.

Exactly the same as now, A7s for me.       Maybe I would add an A7sii and a A9 if money was no object but I would still be happy in a year or two as is.

A7s is still about the best for low light for stills and video (unlike an Alexa), it has both FF and crop modes (unlike an Alexa), it adapts many lenses well (unlike an Alexa), it is quite small and I can take it and a few lenses on a plane as carry on (unlike an Alexa).

[Ty Harper]

54 minutes ago, mercer said:

I think people are overthinking this fun hypothetical exercise. I believe the point is... if tech stopped now and we were left with what is available now, then what would people choose based on what is on the market now.

Missing the point of the exercise and more tragically the point of a camera.

[mercer]

3 hours ago, noone said:

Exactly the same as now, A7s for me.       Maybe I would add an A7sii and a A9 if money was no object but I would still be happy in a year or two as is.

A7s is still about the best for low light for stills and video (unlike an Alexa), it has both FF and crop modes (unlike an Alexa), it adapts many lenses well (unlike an Alexa), it is quite small and I can take it and a few lenses on a plane as carry on (unlike an Alexa).

I am sooo tempted to buy an a7s for its amazing lowlight 1080p and then some external 4K ProRes. But it’s still a few hundred away from a must buy for me. When I can get a like new one for $1000 or less, I’m on it. 

With that being said, I would stick with my 5D3, unless I could afford a C200 or an Alexa Mini. 

I’ve also been really impressed with a lot of the LS300 footage I’ve been seeing lately. I’m just waiting for an indie film to use that camera. I can’t believe nobody has yet. A friend of mine sent me this link and it looks amazing...