EF adapter?

Hey guys,
I'm considering purchasing the Canon 6D for the full frame sensor (among other features), but I have a couple questions.

1. will an EF adapter mount (in order to use lenses that aren't EF mount) cause the crop factor to change?
2. is buying the 6D just the first step in a long line of necessary (and very very expensive) purchases in order to get the thing up and running (batteries, more lenses, etc)?



thanks in advance!
 
Most adapters won't change the crop factor.

What you want to buy depends a lot on your workflow. I tend to be very minimalist when it comes to equipment and feel that a lot of people over-complicate things in that area. At minimum you will probably want a couple extra batteries and extra sd cards, which aren't too expensive in general.

Lenses of course can get very expensive - I'd suggest owning a couple that cover the most common focal lengths you tend to use, and then renting anything else when you need it. For me that's a wide in the 24-30mm range, 50mm, and 85mm. I love super-wides but the look is too extreme for most common filmmaking situations and they're very expensive, so that's something I just rent. A zoom like the 80-200 f/2.8 is nice too, but again something I don't use frequently enough to justify the expense so I rent or borrow it when necessary. The primes I own are old manual nikon & pentax lenses used with an adapter - the quality for the price is hard to beat with new lenses, unless you're looking for something with autofocus to use for still work as well.

You'll probably also want either a set of ND filters or a variable-ND, each has it's advantages/disadvantages so it's really a personal preference. Also consider support - a decent fluid head tripod and a basic monopod can cover most general shooting situations.

Beyond that you can easily get into spending a lot of money on loupes, external monitors, erector-set shoulder rigs, follow focus, stabilizers/stedicam rigs, matte-boxes, etc. None of that is really absolutely necessary though - a lot is going to depend on what you find lacking once you've spent some time shooting with the camera. I'd say start simple and don't spend your money until you've identified a specific need for a specific piece of equipment that you'll use frequently enough to justify the expense.
 
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Most adapters won't change the crop factor.

What you want to buy depends a lot on your workflow. I tend to be very minimalist when it comes to equipment and feel that a lot of people over-complicate things in that area. At minimum you will probably want a couple extra batteries and extra sd cards, which aren't too expensive in general.

Lenses of course can get very expensive - I'd suggest owning a couple that cover the most common focal lengths you tend to use, and then renting anything else when you need it. For me that's a wide in the 24-30mm range, 50mm, and 85mm. I love super-wides but the look is too extreme for most common filmmaking situations and they're very expensive, so that's something I just rent. A zoom like the 80-200 f/2.8 is nice too, but again something I don't use frequently enough to justify the expense so I rent or borrow it when necessary. The primes I own are old manual nikon & pentax lenses used with an adapter - the quality for the price is hard to beat with new lenses, unless you're looking for something with autofocus to use for still work as well.

You'll probably also want either a set of ND filters or a variable-ND, each has it's advantages/disadvantages so it's really a personal preference. Also consider support - a decent fluid head tripod and a basic monopod can cover most general shooting situations.

Beyond that you can easily get into spending a lot of money on loupes, external monitors, erector-set shoulder rigs, follow focus, stabilizers/stedicam rigs, matte-boxes, etc. None of that is really absolutely necessary though - a lot is going to depend on what you find lacking once you've spent some time shooting with the camera. I'd say start simple and don't spend your money until you've identified a specific need for a specific piece of equipment that you'll use frequently enough to justify the expense.

Thanks for the reply ItDonnedOnMe, I realize now that the first question I asked is irrelevant because the 6D uses an EF mount anyway (I was for some reason thinking of EF-S lenses). Mostly I've heard that it's important to buy high quality glass because it's pointless to have one and not the other (full frame sensor + nice lenses).
I just bought a flycam 5000 with the arm brace, definitely a necessary purchase in my eyes because I want to do a lot of smooth camera movement on uneven surfaces. I have built two dollies in the past, both of which were essentially terrible failures due to my lack of proper tools. Because of my past failures and the extreme price/limited versatility of a dolly, I have decided that the steadicam was my best option for getting smooth camera movements in any situation. I also just purchased one more 16gb SanDisk Exreme Pro card (95mbps write speed!) and another canon brand lp e8 battery.

Currently my kit is as follows:
Canon 550D
2 canon batteries
2 SanDisk 16gb Extreme Pro memory cards
Orion tripod, non-fluid head :grumpy:
Flycam 5000 w/ arm brace
polarizing lens filter
skylight filter (don't understand the function of this other than protecting your lens coating)
Canon 40mm 2.8 pancake lens
Canon FD 50mm 1.4 lens
Canon FD 28mm 2.8 lens
Canon 18-55mm 3.5 kit lens (I realize this is EF-S and won't work properly with a 6D)

I also have two halogen lights made for photography (that i'm borrowing from the organization i work with) and a flood light that I gel in order to match the color temperature of the halogens.

Does it look like i'm missing anything essential?
 
Hi WhiteOpus - May I ask why you're buying a $1699 Canon 6D for video? It has:

- horrible moire on patterned subjects (e.g., brickwork), as seen here (compared to the Canon 5D Mark III): http://vimeo.com/56122305

- no headphone jack,

- a 30 minute continuous recording limit before it has to be restarted and

- a mirror that blocks the viewfinder when you're shooting video - forcing you to rely on the LCD, which is washed out in bright sunlight. You can fix it with a loupe or external electronic viewfinder (EVF), but that costs more money.

If you want a full frame video camera with minimal moire, a headphone jack, hours of continuous recording and a built-in EVF that actually works while you're shooting video, you might want to consider the $2498 Sony A7s.


This camera gives you the additional bonus of 4K HDMI output - 4 times the resolution of a 1080p camera.

Here is what this camera can do in low light (compared to the Canon 5D Mark III): http://vimeo.com/98047667

Good luck!

Bill
 
Does it look like i'm missing anything essential?

A fluid-head tripod!

I kind of agree with Bill - the 6D wouldn't be my first choice (or very high on my list at all) of camera to get at this point. I've been shooting on the 5DmkII for six years now, and while it was amazing at the time it came out the tech has progressed quite a bit since then - but the 6D, while newer, basically has the same video performance. Full frame is nice, but I don't think it's worth the premium you'll pay to get it over things like resolution, aliasing/moire, dynamic range, etc.
 
Hi WhiteOpus - May I ask why you're buying a $1699 Canon 6D for video? It has:

- horrible moire on patterned subjects (e.g., brickwork), as seen here (compared to the Canon 5D Mark III): http://vimeo.com/56122305

- no headphone jack,

- a 30 minute continuous recording limit before it has to be restarted and

- a mirror that blocks the viewfinder when you're shooting video - forcing you to rely on the LCD, which is washed out in bright sunlight. You can fix it with a loupe or external electronic viewfinder (EVF), but that costs more money.

If you want a full frame video camera with minimal moire, a headphone jack, hours of continuous recording and a built-in EVF that actually works while you're shooting video, you might want to consider the $2498 Sony A7s.


This camera gives you the additional bonus of 4K HDMI output - 4 times the resolution of a 1080p camera.

Here is what this camera can do in low light (compared to the Canon 5D Mark III): http://vimeo.com/98047667

Good luck!

Bill

Hey Bill,
I haven't gone down any other road than Canon because it's what I'm used to and it's what my lenses fit with. Does the A7S take EF lenses? If not, are the prime lenses that will work with the A7S relatively cheap (under $800)? Mostly I'm thinking that the 6D will provide me with full frame detail, low light performance and the ability to use gear already in my kit without having to buy more stuff just to get out and shoot. Also, the A7S is nearly $1,000 more than the 6D. I figured the 6D would be a good full frame to start with because it would be a relatively cheap way to go while being able to test the waters and see how serious I really want to get with my filmmaking and cinematography. The only reason why I don't just take the plunge and get something more expensive is because A. I've only been doing video seriously for about 2 years so I'm not very experienced yet, though I do feel that the current camera I'm using just lacks the quality and consistency that a nicer body would provide (here's my most recent film shot on a Canon 550D). I understand that the 6D is not necessarily made for video exclusively, but isn't the A7S also a DSLR made more for photography than video? Thanks for the suggestions though, I am going to definitely start researching the A7S because it's not too badly priced relative to what I was previously considering (6D at $1700). Cheers!
 
it looks to me like the A7S is going to be way way more expensive than $2,300. After buying even two lenses, an HDMI cable, an external recorder and filters for each lens, the price would be around $5,000 which is way way out of my budget. I still like the 6D for the ability to only have to buy the body and use my existing lenses with it. I cannot spend $5,000 when I don't have the experience to justify it (or even close to that kind of budget). I am not raking in loads of cash at my job so I was planning on financing the 6D anyway. To get the A7S would be starting from square one which I can't afford right now. Perhaps I should just wait and use my 550D until another year of experience and knowing that I'm going to pursue this for many years to come.
 
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it looks to me like the A7S is going to be way way more expensive than $2,300. After buying even two lenses, an HDMI cable, an external recorder and filters for each lens, the price would be around $5,000 which is way way out of my budget. I still like the 6D for the ability to only have to buy the body and use my existing lenses with it. I cannot spend $5,000 when I don't have the experience to justify it (or even close to that kind of budget). I am not raking in loads of cash at my job so I was planning on financing the 6D anyway. To get the A7S would be starting from square one which I can't afford right now. Perhaps I should just wait and use my 550D until another year of experience and knowing that I'm going to pursue this for many years to come.

You can adapt EF (but, sadly, not EF-S) lenses to the A7s with a $399 Metabones NEX Smart Adapter.

And you don't need an external recorder to get started. The camera records very high quality 1080/60p video without a recorder (something the 6D can't do).

Good luck!

Bill
 
Mostly I'm thinking that the 6D will provide me with full frame detail, low light performance and the ability to use gear already in my kit without having to buy more stuff just to get out and shoot.

For video purposes I wouldn't consider the 6D a significant upgrade over your current camera. It won't really have any more detail - none of the Canon DSLRs resolve particularly high resolution. I'm not even sure it will have significantly better low light performance. You'd get better results spending the money on some basic lighting equipment. If you're going to spend money on a new body I'd look at either one of the BM cameras or the GH4.

Perhaps I should just wait and use my 550D until another year of experience and knowing that I'm going to pursue this for many years to come.

Personally I'd say this is a better option - don't spend money on upgrading equipment until you have a real need and the upgrade provides significant benefits over your current setup.
 
Thank you all for the great suggestions. I feel a lot better about staying with my current setup now. haha.

just for reference, how do people actually build a 5-10,000 dollar kit? what i'm asking is are most filmmakers buying all of this stuff by themselves or going in on large purchases with a group of like-minded people or the crew on their production company? it just seems like you'd have to be rich as hell or making great money in order to justify buying these kits.
 
It varies from person to person. I generally take on a few corporate projects when I want to upgrade to new equipment, so that the equipment basically pays for itself quickly, and then I've got it to do my own projects the rest of the time. Some people put a crew together and combine everyone's equipment, others just rent when necessary, some people just spend the money and look at it like any other reasonably expensive hobby.

The truth is if you're not doing this professionally you can get by with a decent basic kit for $2-3k that will let you practice and produce work that's good enough for online distribution. If and when you're ready to tackle a bigger production with commercial aspirations it's probably best to rent the equipment, or better yet hire people with their own equipment - either way you'll get much higher spec equipment for your money, and if you go the hire route you'll also get people who are familiar with it and able to get the most out of it.
 
The Canon 6D is a very good camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eiFBV70Z5E

The Sony A7S looks a knock out camera, but it cannot capture 4K in-camera. You need a $2k add-on to do that: the Atomos Shogun

http://www.atomos.com/shogun/

I'd stay with your current camera for now - consider a new camera in 1-3 years.

You do have a huge gap in audio gear though.
 
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The Canon 6D is a very good camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eiFBV70Z5E

The Sony A7S looks a knock out camera, but it cannot capture 4K in-camera. You need a $2k add-on to do that: the Atomos Shogun

http://www.atomos.com/shogun/

I'd stay with your current camera for now - consider a new camera in 1-3 years.

You do have a huge gap in audio gear though.

Hey IndiePaul, thanks for the information about the Atomos add-on. I definitely will be saving my money and using what I already have. I feel I should reiterate that filmmaking is not my primary work, nor is it coming close to paying any bills.

As far as audio equipment, what would you suggest to start with? Again, I'm definitely on a budget. I haven't done any films with recorded audio yet (just soundtracks and music videos) so I'm not sure of my needs, but I would think that one boom mic would suffice for now, then maybe gearing up with two booms in the future? I'm very new at audio recording because I've focused most of my research and learning on getting the imagery right.
 
You're right, Will, but sadly, WhiteOpus would not be able to adjust the aperture on his existing Canon EF lenses with one of those inexpensive Fotodiox adapters. With the Metabones EF to NEX smart adapter, on the other hand, he would.

That said, looks like it's moot - he's going to stick with his 550D :)

Cheers,

Bill
 
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