7D for paid work or upgrade to F3

Hi. I wanted to get some of your opinions on what I should do.
Without giving my life story, I am in my mid 30's and I am looking to setup a 1 man production company. Weddings/Corporate/Commercial/Shorts etc. To fund this I am going to sell my house to free up some cash for gear. So, I currently have a 7D and my options are as follows.
Use the 7D and get some really nice lenses, stabiliser gyro rig (Legacy 3), shoulder rig etc..

or

Buy a used Sony PMW F3 with stock lens and cheap rig.

So 7d and nice accessories and lenses, or Sony F3 with not much else.

Bearing in mind this will be for paid gigs. Will the 7D be good enough or does the beauty of the F3 blow that all out the water.
Just curious what you would do.
Many thanks in advance.
 
Depending on the environment you're in, the 7d can shut down due to overheating (as any camera I suppose, I just see it a fair bit here in a warmer city). If you're in a somewhat hot or humid area, the client may not be too happy with the camera shutting down mid shot, mid speech, mid-super special moment.... "Do you take this man... OVERHEATING". Not sure if there's be too many weddings that you could pause when that happens. Might be worth considering.
 
Hi Aerm - I'm guessing your budget is about £3000? If so, you can get a much better camera than the 7D (with SLOG) without breaking the bank.

Here is a brand new Sony A7s for £1599, for example. Or you can get one with a Metabones EF to NEX Mark IV smart adapter for £1899 and continue to use your Canon lenses.

Unlike the 7D, this is a modern camera with a headphone jack, multiple frame rates, a viewfinder that works while you are shooting video, a better codec (XAVC) and superior low light sensitivity (plus SLOG).

And, unlike the F3, it will be upgradeable to 4K, when you are ready.

Here is what the A7s can do:

Lit entirely by moonlight: http://vimeo.com/105690274

More examples here: http://vimeo.com/groups/243026/videos

Hope this is helpful!

Bill
 
I've shot movies with the 7D and the 5D3, and I've only had the 5D3 shut down due to heat. 7D does pretty well. Of course, the images are better with the 5D3.

That said, the form factor and ergonomics of the sony movie cameras makes them much better for full-time movie making, especially run & gun. I find DSLR rigs to be poorly balanced and generally uncomfortable compared to cameras designed for it. The first time I used a Sony PMW-something on a shoot, I was immediately struck by how much nicer it felt instead of all the jury-rigged DSLR stuff I'd been using. It felt nicer, sturdier, and handled better handheld. The controls were where they needed to be, because it's a completely different style than still images.

DSLRs, with their limitations, do seem to have better light gathering ability and far more adjustability, along with a huge array of mostly-affordable lenses (in comparison to cinema lenses). Using the sony, I felt that I didn't have the control I wanted, but that could be because I wasn't as familiar with it. DSLRs also have the huge advantage that you can upgrade much cheaper bodies and keep the expensive lenses, giving straightforward upgrade avenues. They suffer greatly from rolling shutter.

I've heard good things about the C300, which is pretty much a dslr without the still camera aspects. It's not a low-light god like the sony a7s and doesn't shoot 4k, but I'm not sure that's an issue for your purposes.

Lastly, you might kick around the GH4. It doesn't have the exposure range of any of the above cameras (I don't think), but is a solid performer from everything I've seen and heard.
 
I'm an audio guy, and, to use one of my favorite jokes, I don't know an F-stop from a bus stop. But I'll chime in anyway; you want to invest in capital improvements to your business, and I do know something about that.

For quite a large portion of my career as a touring musician I always seemed to be the guy who never had the latest, greatest toys. But I was always well regarded by my peers, especially for my "sound." Even when playing some of the most prominent stages in the world (Carnegie Hall & the Apollo, for example) I was using five and even ten year old tech with my latest purchase. It follows a pattern that I haven't changed much in well over 30 years; I push my gear to it's very limits and beyond. I would spend many hours exploring, experimenting, programming and tweaking my synth and sampler programs. Every four or five years or so I would make a major purchase of a keyboard or outboard sound module. I never got whatever just came out; I would talk with my peers (no internet back then, and cell phones were "bricks"), read reviews and test the contenders thoroughly. Then I would make my choice and my purchase*, and explore, experiment, program & tweak until I knew the beast inside out.

My point is that your knowledge of your gear (how to use it to it's fullest extent), your knowledge of your craft, your skills & experience, and, of course, your talent, that make your art attractive to others, not the specific tools used to create your art. So it's great that you want to give your clients a more professional look. At the same time, make sure that you give them a professional experience; you want to know that piece of gear intimately, no fumbling around, reaching for the manual, etc. Make sure that you make a sound investment, because this is an investment in your career. Consider options carefully; get advice from sources that you trust; do lots of solo research; then take a deep breath, cool off for a while, then go back and review everything. Do a plusses and minuses list for each piece of gear - don't forget to list all of the needed accessories and changes to the rest of your rig.





* Even in 1989 a keyboard or module would set you back $1,500 to well over $2,000; I would also get a heavy duty road case (about $500), and whatever pedals and accessories would be required ($200 to $500). It would be a few weeks before I introduced it into my stage kit, and only at some of the "smaller" shows. You don't step onto the stage at the Beacon Theater with new untried toy. It takes a while to get the feel of a new piece of tech, not to mention learning to program it and integrating it with everything else. One nice thing is that, when you are a professional, items like this are a tax deduction.
 
7D vs a PMW F3 for these choices? Seems pretty strange to me.

If you're shooting weddings then just one camera isn't great. I'd suggest multiple cameras and if pushed would go with a couple of used Sony VG10s (very cheap, super long battery life) you can pop onto tripods and something like an FS100 or similar on a shoulder rig you can take around. But any multiple camera setup will be decent.

For short films, definitely the F3. Blowing up footage to a cinema screen is crazy and 7Ds won't do anymore. The last festival I had a short in was all Epics and even the occasional Arri! We didn't dare mention we'd shot everything on a D800.

Corporates: I'd go with the 7D and a raft of kit. Sliders, fig rigs, monopods, steadicam, shoulder rig, jib etc... If it's shown on the small screen, then why bother with the F3? And let's not forget you'll have to figure out lenses. A full frame cinema lens will set you back 3 grand sterling. Something for a crop with a 7D will set you back £350 (Samyang cine lenses). So the F3 will pile on the pain.

And if by 'commercial,' you mean television commercials, my choice would be to hire gear and the DoP.

Also, if you want to do some freelance DoPing in the UK, the Sony and the 7D are both the wrong choices. You need either an Epic or a C300 as these are the cameras most in demand (with freelancers). Don't take my word for it, just check out the freelance jobs.

In fact, for an all-rounder, I'd probably go with a C300 and a couple of cheaper Canons, lenses, rigs etc... These would give more options.

Just my £0.02 GBP
 
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