Why choose mirrorless camera + accessories

 

For users who choose mirrorless cameras + accessories, there are two main reasons: "budget" and "degree of freedom". Everyone knows about budgeting, so I won’t go into detail here. What I mainly want to talk about today is “degree of freedom.” First, let’s talk about the differences in product form between cameras - camcorders - digital movie players.

 

The camera was designed for the "hand-held" use scenario from the beginning, so it needs to be as compact and compact as possible + a comfortable handle. This optimized "handheld" shape is very convenient for daily use. At the same time, if you want to mount a stabilizer, the bare metal without accessories is light and small enough, and it is more in line with the requirements of the stabilizer for mounting equipment.

 

But for cameras, the usage scenarios are different. After all, everything from home DV to business machines to digital cinema machines are essentially cameras. The miniaturized video camera/business machine will use the same handle + top handle as the camera to facilitate quick viewfinding. If it is a fixed lens camera product, it will generally have better optical anti-shake capabilities, so that a simple handheld shot can produce a more usable picture.

 

If more professional specifications are required, the size of the camera needs to be further enlarged, and it will become difficult to hold it, so shoulder-mounted cameras appear. Such models appear more often in TV stations, and have now become niche + products that are gradually being phased out.

 

Going a step further, you will find that most of the digital movie cameras used to shoot movies are in the shape of a "box" and can be expanded through various accessories. If you need special shooting/stabilization, then get fewer accessories; if you want a tripod, get all the accessories; if you want to hold it handheld, get the shoulder kit. The original intention of this type of "modular design" is actually to give the product a large enough "degree of freedom." At present, both RED, ARRI and even domestic kininfinity and Z-CAM have such designs.

 

If you think about it carefully, the main body "box" of a digital movie camera is very similar to a mirrorless camera, but the performance is different. Therefore, if you want to imitate the working methods of the top digital movie cameras, the "degree of freedom" of mirrorless cameras + accessories is higher than that of professional camera products. This is also the biggest reason why many users with abundant budgets still choose mirrorless cameras as their main models for video.

 

Why choose a professional camera

 

For some professional/quasi-professional teams, there are also many reasons for choosing cameras. I think the core reasons are "efficiency" and "stability".

 

Let’s take the Sony FX6 as an example. Its sensor is the same as the Sony Alpha 7S III, but there are a large number of physical buttons on the body that allow users to quickly change parameters without having to enter the secondary menu to adjust. It has a stepless electronic ND filter that can automatically adjust exposure, while mirrorless users need to manually rotate the variable ND filter. It has an SDI interface that can be quickly connected to broadcast-level video systems, while most mirrorless cameras only have HDMI interfaces. These functions can greatly improve efficiency for professional teams and can form stronger productivity.

 

At the same time, Sony FX6 has a large enough cooling module and fan, so there is no need to worry about overheating. The battery can be small or large and even supports DC power supply. This level of reliability can only be provided by a few flagship mirrorless cameras, and the price of FX6 is actually not much more expensive than this small number of flagship mirrorless cameras...

 

Which one do we choose?

 

In our many years of video creation, our new imaging force has not only used cameras such as Canon EOS C200 and BMPCC 4K, but also various SLR/Mirrorless cameras for a long time. In the past two years, due to the rapid development of mirrorless cameras in video specifications, the final result is the daily use of mirrorless cameras, the pursuit of convenience, and the use of camera creation for some key projects to ensure reliability and high efficiency.

 

Because we are an imaging media company, we do have enough mirrorless cameras on hand and they are powerful enough. It would be a pity not to use them to shoot programs based on their video capabilities. But we can’t just switch to a certain series of cameras, because when facing different image manufacturers, we need to use the products of that brand to shoot the programs of that product out of respect for the brand. This is our little bit. persistence.