The best camera for low budget filmmaking?

27 June 2016

 

What’s the best camera for low budget filmmaking? It depends what you mean by ‘low budget’ and what kind of filmmaking you want to do. But for most filmmakers, I’d recommend the Canon 80D.

What is it?

It’s a DSLR: a stills camera which can shoot video. Its video looks much more ‘film-like’ than shots from camcorders. That’s because of its big APS-C sensor, which is about the same size as the frame in a 35mm movie camera. Big sensors have less depth of field than smaller sensors, so it’s easy to get creative with shallow focus.

The 80D is an interchangeable lens camera, and Canon have a great range of high-quality lenses. You can also use an adapter to fit old manual focus lenses by makers like Nikon or Olympus, which is a cheap way to get really good glass.

Why the 80D?

Canon cameras are known for their good colours, and they’re easy to use; the higher-end Canons are the most-used DSLRs in the pro TV and film industry. The combination of Canon’s fast ‘dual-pixel’ autofocus and good colours, plus a fold-out touchscreen, made the previous 70D model very popular with vloggers. The 80D has even better autofocus than the 70D, and also has a headphone socket and full HD slow motion (1080/60, or 1080/50 in Europe).

Drawbacks?

Like all DSLRs, it’s mainly designed for stills, so handling for video shooting isn’t that great. You’ll need accessories to get the best out of it. Canon SLRs also suffer noticeable moiré when shooting detailed patterns, though this is better on the 80D than previous models.

No 4K

Unlike many of its competitors, the 80D can’t shoot 4K Ultra High Definition. But 4K takes up a lot more space and needs a faster computer for editing. If you’re shooting for the web, you almost certainly don’t need it.  If you’re really sure you need 4K, I’d get the smaller Panasonic GH4 or the fixed-lens Canon XC10 instead.

Cheaper alternatives

The 80D isn’t cheap. The previous 70D is almost as good, if you can live without a headphone socket. But if you’re on a tight budget, I’d get the cheaper T5i/700D instead.

Pros

• Large sensor for ‘film-like’ shallow focus
• Wide range of lens choices
• Easy to use with full manual control
• Very good autofocus
• Good colour rendition
• Weather sealed

Cons

• Fairly large and bulky
• Only 1080p HD, not 4K UHD
• Not that sharp, with some moiré and aliasing

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