So what camera did media73 choose the Canon XLH1 or the Sony Z1 and why?
Initially I must admit I was a little confused with the whole jump to High Definition, sure it was exciting wow up to 12x higher resolution my clients are bound to want this, and everything we film will look fantastic right?.. Well not quite.
Sure all these Hd cameras produce amazing visuals, but put in the wrong hands the results can be average, you see many film makers take too many things for granted, there is art and technical knowledge that has to be learned through experience and practical applications before the true beauty of these cameras becomes truly evident.
I learned the process by working with more experienced film makers and agencies, and without their knowledge the learning process would of been near vertical, those early years truly were worth there weight in gold. Do you know there is a difference between HD and HDV? I am guessing not.
With still only a small majority of people adopting Plasma and Lcd HD tv's, the rush for HD content is here, but not quite yet. media73 film all our projects in HD as this gives us the best possible visuals available meaning any post production and color correcting will be to the best source possible, all post production done to the film actually degrades the quality, so the better in, the better out.
The Sony Z1:
I used this camera on several live events and a couple of documentaries. The thing I immediately liked about this camera was it weight balance, it feels comfortable when held in your hand, you cannot really should mount this camera unless you purchase an extra shoulder mount. Having used this camera for 3 hours straight it became obvious this camera is very adaptable and movable in a non restrictive way. I was running around on and behind stage and the nice clear large lcd screen was a joy to use.
The main controls once memorized were easy to find without having to look at the camera and iris and focus wheels all moved with a nice glide. I also like the zoom peg which enabled good crash zooms. Battery life was good around 4-5 hours on constant Hd setting. The only thing for me that let this camera down was the lack of should mount which I have mentioned before. After 3 hours my ams and wrists were aching the camera is quite heavy to be hand held for so long.
Footage wise, it looked very good, clean and capturing via final cut pro was easy. The camera only shot in 50i and I felt it looked a little too much like 'video' this could be altered in post, but the option would of been nice. Overall I did not spend enough 'real' time in different situations to get the most from this camera, It is probably better that the XLH1 for documentaries as you can run and gun quite easily.
Highly recommended for Documentary makers.
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The Canon XLH1
Initially I had seen the XL2 around and many people spoke about how great it was for film making. Sure it looked uber cool and I thought yes we need one or two, but I really didn't know much about this camera either. I spoke to a few film makers I knew in London to gauge their thoughts on this camera, many people spoke of the amazing visuals, and that the new XLH1 was a must. The XLH1 is the big daddy of the XL1 and XL2 which was one the best cameras around for serious film makers involved in the corporate world.
I decided to ask for some sample footage, the benefit with this camera is it has its own 25f mode, which is similar to 25p, I wont go into technical details, needless to say it looks like film. I popped in the sample dvd and nearly fell off my chair, this was astounding it looked like a hollywood production, I immediately asked how it was shot what other kit was involved, it came down to knowing the camera inside and out, proper knowledge of lighting and a few post production tricks. I was sold totally.
The price tag was steep over £6000 and the Z1 was around £3000 thats a hugh difference, but this truly was an eye opener for me, the XLH1 was so beautiful not only in its footage but also the way it felt and handled.
The footage I had just watched included an m2 35mm adapter which had been added to the camera, I talk about the m2 in another of my blogs. The XLH1 is a high end professional camera and you really feel this when using it, it feels a step above the Z1. You can shoulder mount it and still run and gun although it has a few problems here which I will mention later. One of the biggest advantages with the Canon is removable lens, which you may not feel is a big deal, well actually its a massive deal for media73, it enables us to use different lens such as wide angles, telephoto lens ect. This open up a whole new ability to be creative, something the Z1 is stuck with.
Having used this camera with 35mm adapters it amazing, the camera basically becomes a film camera and with that all the plus's and minu's that come with it (discussed in another blog). The camera is not all rosey, this is a heavy beast and is very front heavy due to the weight of the amazing canon hd lens. Using this camera in your hands in run and gun style shoots soon becomes tiresome and this includes should mounting at times, the weight digs into your right hand, I recommend using pistol grips on mounting bars.
The weakest aspect of this camera is the lcd viewfinder, Canon what were you thinking? seriously? its tiny! and makes focusing difficult, focusing in hd is critical as even small deviations become massively obviously when viewed back on a hd tv. There are tools built in like view zoom and focus aids but the viewfinder tools would never replace a good sized viewfinder. In this aspect the Z1 wins hands down, the XLH1 is not really suitable for run and gun shooting.
The XLH1 has many other great features, a booster pack for ease of attaching xl leads, the ability to output uncompressed hd via its sdi cable and many other features like sync time code for multiple cameras, custom shard presets on memory cards and a whole host of other cool features.
So which did we choose:
media73 decided on using the Canon XLH1 for all our filming projects, if only one thing could be said it was the end example for the footage, the Canon blew us away it was truly a step in our film making journey we wont forget in a hurry. The ability to swap lens out and use 35mm adapters was also a big plus, sure the price tag is vastly different but it all seems worth it when the final product looks so amazing. For live events and documentaries in the future we would probably go for the Z1, its a great camera for this field, but for everything else we would recommend the Canon XLH1 in a heartbeat an amazing camera. Very highly recommended.
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