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- Good morning and a welcome to Keno City.
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So we've been here in the Yukon which is a territory,
I believe it's a territory not a province,
in Canada.
I should probably know that.
It's in like Northern Canada.
I've never been this far north in Canada.
Super cool place.
Beautiful scenery.
Beautiful place.
And then we're in this super tiny town of Keno city.
And it's one of the coolest little towns
that I've ever been to.
So many interesting buildings
and even more importantly really interesting people.
Super nice people.
Interesting characters.
It's been amazing following the people here getting to them.
Just getting a glimpse into their world.
And I've been posting some of the BTS stuff on
Instagram stories if you don't follow me on Instagram
you can follow me now if you want to.
I do a lot of kind of behind the scenes stuff
on Instagram stories.
Shoots like these for example.
But one of the things that's been asked a lot
is about the gear that I'm using because
it's not the kind of gear that I normally use
for especially YouTube videos.
So thought today we would talk about the difference between
cinema cameras and DSLR mirrorless cameras.
And here is what I've been using for this project.
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So for this doc project I am shooting on
the Canon C300 Mark II.
So this is, that's the brains of this set up is this
C300 Mark II.
That's this portion of the camera.
And this is a Cinema Camera.
I guess they're maybe like second highest model, third?
It's kind of in the middle of their Cinema line of cameras.
But then I have a whole bunch of other stuff
kind of built around this camera also.
First off, super important for me,
this camera does come with an LCD screen,
but it's not the best.
It's not the best LCD screen in my opinion.
I don't know like it that much.
It's okay, it works, it works fine.
But I really like the small HD 502 monitor.
I've had this thing for like
at least three years and I really like this monitor.
It's got everything I need from putting on a LUT,
to wave form, false color, peaking.
Anything and everything you want
in a really easy to manage way.
You can make these things called pages which
basically means you can customize what tools,
are being shown at that time.
You can just flip through the different customizations.
Then a super super important thing is the lens
and this is probably one of, if not my favorite lens.
It's the sigma 18-35 f/1.8
and it is just
a really really nice lens.
It's super fast and it's a zoom lens so like
you're covering a really nice range
and anywhere between 18-35 is usually where
I like shooting anyways.
So this is pretty much the perfect lens for me.
The only down side is that it only works on
cropped sensor or super 35 sensors.
So it doesn't work on full frames.
So I can't use it on my 6D Mark II
or my 1DX II.
But this lens I really like this lens.
Then we have the microphone.
We have the RODE NTG3, with this little dead cat thing.
That's probably not the best windscreen
but it works for now.
But the NTG3 mic really good.
High quality mic.
This is the mic that I use in my studio set ups
all the time.
And then If I'm doing something like a documentary like
this we want some audio coming in the camera.
Johnny is doing audio but,
we want this camera to kind of have a,
it's almost like backup plus we can also use it
to sync and just figure out what's going on.
So that's what's happening here.
And then speaking of audio,
something that a lot of you might not know,
especially if you've just gotten into film stuff,
what we're doing here,
because we're shooting so much stuff
and we have Johnny recording audio
and then we have this camera recording video.
And then Johnny might be also recording video,
we want all those things to sync up perfectly.
We don't wanna have to deal with using some sort of
third party plug in or having to just fiddle around.
Having manually match things.
We want everything to sync up so how do you do that?
It's by time codes.
So you can actually force time code,
a time code into this camera which corresponds
to the time code on the audio that Johnny is recording
and how that's done is through this little
tiny box here,
it just jams into the time code here,
and through that we're putting the same time code
into the camera, into the audio,
so it all syncs up when you're editing.
And then lastly I kind of forgot to mention
I'm using this.
I actually don't even remember what company this is
but it's just like an articulating arm,
so I can put this small HD monitor wherever I need it
to be whether it's me filming down low,
I have kind of in this position
or if I need to be up higher I can tilt it down.
I don't know if this is the best articulating arm
but I do like this one cause you can replace
a lot of the parts and you can also build it out
you can make it bigger or smaller depending on what
camera's you're using.
And then with respect to stabilizers,
we actually chose to shoot hand held for this documentary.
But this is pretty heavy, it's a pretty heavy set up.
I don't know exactly how many pounds,
but it's pretty heavy.
It gets tiring after a while.
Plus it's a bit shaky to just film handheld.
So how do we fix that?
I have the answer.
This contraption right here.
So this thing is called the easy rig,
and it's basically like a backpack,
you put it on your back and then you put
on the camera here,
you strap on the camera here on the handle
and then instead of your hands taking all the weight
of the camera your back or your whole body essentially
is taking the weight of the camera and you can shoot
for way longer have more stable footage.
This will not only make your shooting
experience way more enjoyable, way more fun.
But it will also payoff in the long run
when you've saved your back.
When you're like 40 and you don't have all these
crazy back problems.
So this is my set up.
This is what it looks like when we're out there filming
this documentary.
This is kind of my go to set up,
if I'm shooting handheld,
you can see I can just go lower,
I can do hands off,
obviously I'm not going to do that
but I could, I could do that.
If I wanna go higher I could just lift it up.
And my hands are not lifting the camera really at all,
they're just stabilizing that's it.
Just stabilizing and moving around.
I love this kind of set up for handheld stuff.
But let's talk about cinema cameras versus DSLR
mirrorless cameras.
So Cinema Cameras are built just for video.
That's all they're for.
They're built entirely for video,
all the functions,
the ergonomics.
Everything is built with video in mind.
And then there is DSLR mirrorless cameras
which are photography cameras.
They're photo cameras,
which more recently have been able to do video.
And nowadays the video capabilities are really impressive
even in the DSLR mirrorless cameras.
So Cinema Cameras is like Red, Arri.
Some of the Canon cameras.
Some of the Sony cameras.
Black Magic.
There is a lot of different Cinema cameras.
And then DSLR mirrorless like Canon, Sony, Panasonic,
Fuji Film, Olympus.
The list goes on.
Nikon.
There is a lot of them.
So why would you choose a Cinema Camera that can only
do video and usually they also cost more?
Well, sometimes you actually shouldn't.
But other times you definitely should.
So let me explain.
Cinema Cameras are built for a certain kind of filmmaking
where as the DSLR mirrorless are kind of built,
maybe not built but they
because of their form factor and the things they include
they're kind of used for a different kind of filmmaking
and these are not hard fast rules or anything like that.
But because of the way they are they kind of fall into
these different categories.
So for example if I'm doing YouTube videos
blogging and stuff I'm not gonna be
I'm not gonna have a set up like this.
It would be ridiculous.
It would not be smart.
So I'm using a DSLR,
I'm using a 6D Mark II right now.
But then If I'm shooting a higher end commercial
or a documentary or something like this,
it doesn't make sense to shoot on something
like the 6D Mark II.
There would actually be way more pain points
to using in this camera than this,
even thought this looks kind of ridiculous to use.
And then there's other projects like weddings for example,
that you could really go either way.
There is benefits and negatives to both sides
of using Cinema Cameras or DSLR mirrorless cameras.
So it's not cut and dry.
There are advantages to both sides
and there is disadvantages to both sides.
So why don't we actually go through
kind of the pros and cons
of using DSLR's and Cinema cameras,
because in the end that's all that actually matters
is that you know why you're using the tool
that you're using and that you know that it's the best tool
for you and for your project.
That's all that matters.
It really doesn't matter what camera you're using
as long as you know why you're using it.
So let's start off with the pros for Cinema.
The quality of the video is definitely the best quality.
It's going to be way better than the DSLR cameras
for the most part.
The colors, the image.
The dynamic range is way better.
There is so many different things
with the image that are just a lot better
with Cinema Cameras because they're built
specifically just for video.
There is also usually more options for recording
with a Cinema Camera.
So you could have different flavors of codec
so you can have a really beefy codec that stores
a lot of information.
And you can have a lighter one somewhere in between.
There is more options for the recording codec
which also means that there is better codecs
on Cinema Cameras that's a really big thing.
The codec is better so that's going to be better
for color grading.
It's going to look better overall.
The codec is also going to be most like better for
editing most likely but again,
these are not hard fast rules.
Another big thing is the audio capabilities
on a Cinema Camera like this are a lot better
So you have XLR inputs so you can put
real microphones on here and not just like
small microphones into the audio jack.
You can jam time code things like that.
You could never do on something like
a DSLR which again is a very specific use thing
but it is another capability that Cinema Cameras
have and DSLR's mirrorless cameras don't have.
And then lastly, there is a lot of pro features
in Cinema Cameras,
things like zebra, peaking, maybe there is false color.
You can monitor,
so you can film in a flat log profile
you guys know that's the best way to film.
But then you can monitor.
You can add a LUT on there that's not actually being
recorded but you just see the footage through a LUT
so it doesn't look all gray and desaturated.
No contrast gross.
You can actually see what it might look like
afterwards once you've color graded a little bit.
There is all these little Pro features.
And you can kind of see all these buttons on the side here.
There is all these Pro features
that are in Cinema Cameras that you don't get
in the DSLR mirrorless.
And then the pros for the DSLR mirrorless side
I would say.
First of all size,
they're really small which has a lot of
really nice benefits.
Secondly they take photos,
so if you need video and photo.
Obviously you wanna go with a DSLR Mirrorless camera.
That's a big bonus.
Smaller file sizes because the codecs
usually aren't as beefy.
You're going to have smaller file sizes,
which can be a really good thing,
when you don't actually need all that information.
They're cheaper in price in general.
They might have in body stabilization,
which Cinema Cameras I don't think any of them have
in body stabilization.
And then lastly one of the really big pros I would say
is that you don't need as big a stabilizer,
or support systems to make this camera move
or do different things.
It can be a lot smaller in size,
whereas if your camera is this big
then you're gonna need a bi gimbal to handle
this thing.
And then the cons side, Cinema it's expensive.
They're really expensive usually and
a lot of times it doesn't even make sense
to buy them because they're that expensive.
They can be up to 50, 60, 100, 150 thousand dollars.
Super expensive.
That's a big con to Cinema Cameras.
They're big and heavy.
This is really big,
compared to this set up,
which again needs bigger stabilizers.
Those are big cons,
depending on what kind of projects you're
doing it can take up so much more time
when you need bigger stabilizers to do the movements
that you want with a camera like this.
Usually there is no auto focus.
This one does but a lot of the Cinema Cameras
don't have auto focus.
And then no in body stabilization,
which is I feel like they should start incorporating
that but so far they haven't.
A truck just pulled up,
I hope that's not going to mess up the audio.
Let's go to the cons of the DSLR mirorless.
So first off, I would say that the image isn't
as good as on the Cinema Cameras.
Because they're not just built for video,
they're also doing photography.
You're having to compromise on some things.
The codecs are a lot worse.
They're going to fall apart,
faster when you're color grading and all that stuff.
Less dynamic range usually.
If you don't know what dynamic range is
look it up but dynamic range is
massive for having a really nice image.
Limited audio capabilities.
Usually there isn't XLR inputs
and all that kind of stuff.
You can't jam time code in.
And then lastly it's a lot harder
to build out a DSLR like I've built out this Cinema Camera.
Their ergonomics are kind of made
so that you can add a monitor, you can add microphones,
you can add all of this stuff,
whereas it would be really hard to attach
all of these things on a DSLR.
You'd have to have some sort of cage
and it would just get awkward really fast.
And actually Johnny who is directing
but also shooting some of this tuff,
he's on a very different system,
so why don't I actually go ask him what he's using
for his doc shooting.
Guys if you don't know this is Johnny.
- Hello.
- He's kind of the creator behind the documentary.
Director.
What are you shooting with?
- This is the URSA, Black Magic URSA.
- Cinema camera, cinema camera right?
- Yeah, this is Cinema camera.
Kind of heavy.
- Why did you choose the URSA Mini?
- I love the picture of Black Magic Cameras in general.
But the URSA is.
I just like the Cinema Cameras so much.
Just because it's,
with an Easyrig.
This is not heavy.
I can just walk around like this and drink coffee
and stuff so.
- All day long.
- Yeah, all day long.
The image quality is so nice.
The dynamic range.
Just the ND filters built in,
it's an easy camera to do cinematic style filmmaking with.
- So why would you,
why are you not,
you're using this camera the GH5 for blogging.
- Yeah, this camera it's sturdy but,
it's not as sturdy as like a cinema camera.
It's like.
- It can break pretty easily.
It has happened.
It's known to happen.
- To some.
At times.
- Sloppy people.
- But if you were to blog on this thing.
- That is possible.
I've been there done that.
No worry it's like.
- So wait this is a blogging camera.
- Yeah this is a blogging camera.
This is the best blogging set up.
You could do this all.
- So everybody is going to have a different opinion
about cameras and don't worry if someone says
that I don't like your camera.
Or I don't think your camera is good.
Doesn't matter.
It's not the equivalent of someone saying,
that I don't like your kid.
It's not the same thing.
It's just a camera.
I don't also believe, buy the cliche
it's not the equipment it's the person behind the camera.
I think it's more choosing the right cameras
and choosing the right tools
for your project, for your style.
That's really what matters.
But it does matter what gear you choose.
But it's not saying that one camera or one tool is
the best tool for everything.
Bigger more expensive more resolution
is not necessarily better.
You just have to find the right tool for your job
for your style.
Alright we gotta get back to filming the dock.
Last night we got some super really incredible footage.
How you know if you're getting really good stuff
is when you're watching what you're filming on
the LCD screen and it already feels like
you're watching a movie or a documentary.
That's when you know you have some really good stuff.
And one of the coolest things I think about
filmmaking is the fact that you get to meet
and talk to the most interesting people
that you would never ever get to talk to
or meet in person.
And you just get to have these
really cool conversations.
I just really like that part of documentary
filmmaking especially.
You just get to meet the most interesting people
that you would never ever get to meet otherwise.
Alright, for real I gotta get back to doc filming
so I'll see you guys later.
I don't know if I'll film anymore videos here
but I'll see you guys back in Toronto if not in the Yukon.
Bye.
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