What camera for this type of documentary would be best?

My friend is negotiating a deal to get a grant for a TV pilot episode of a documentary on traveling. He wants me to be the camera operator he says, cause I know the most of out of everyone he has met so far. I know I'm not the best but I can't say no, to this opportunity since we will go to a different country to shoot it, and it will be something to put on the resume.

He needs to know what equipment is being used and what it will cost for the deal. I don't know as much about it, cause he is being a bit vague. He doesn't know near as much about cameras. But what we have both determined that will be best for a documentary on traveling, is a camera that has a telephoto lens that can remain open at f1.4 or even higher for night shots, since we cannot light, much less light busy places far away that we are zooming into.

However we do not want shallow DOF cause we will want to be able to get a lot in focus on the fly, with a steadicam. He wants a steadicam and says that will be the best for movement. The problem with DSLRS is their shallow DOF, when wide open, so is there a camera that has a telephoto lens that can open to f1.4, but will look f4, when compared to a DSLR? I helped on a feature last year with a camera sort of like this, but do not know what it was called.

I guess it would be best to get him the cheapest price one, for the deal, and still waiting on how much he is allowed to spend on the camera and lenses, alone. But what would be the cheapest ones that are good choices, if any?

Thanks.
 
Small sensors and really good low light aren't a good match.
You should look into the PMW-200 / 300 cameras. (Sony)
3x 1/2" sensor, fast glass (1.8 - 2.4), motorized zoomlenses.

Great for run and gun documentary style.
But they can't beat large senors at night.

As always you want it all: large DOF + tele, no noise, bright image at night.
When zoomed in DOF will get smaller, even on 1/2" cameras.
 
Okay thanks. Why are small sensors bad for night? The feature I worked on last year, looked really good in the night shots of streets, with very little noise, and it was a small sensor camera open at f1.4, but everything was in focus, including the background, during close up shots of actors.

I know shallow DOF is good, but they insist on using a steadicam to get the footage, in which case I cannot pull focus, so that could be a problem. Plus at night, you can only open up to about f2.8, on a shallow focus camera. Anything less is too shallow to keep people in focus. Wouldn't it be better to shoot on a very deep DOF camera, and open up to f1.4 around?

And as far as motorized zooms go, say you want to show a zoom in the shot. The motorized zooms look kind of cheesy cause they are slower, but fast zooms look a lot better and more slick. So that's why I do not like the motors so far in my experience, and hope to get a camera, where you can have fast speed zooms in your shots, to give that documentary look you see in the zooms, like in the Bourne movies.
 
Try to get such a camera and test it.
Otherwise you'll only be talking from a theoreticle point of view.
Who told you motorize zooms are slow?
Or: how slow is slow in your opinion?
On EX1r, PMW-200 etc you can have a variable zoomspeed depending on how far you press the rocker. Or you can set the speed as fast or as slow as possible (or any speed in between).

Yes, with enough light you can still get good shots at night.
But it's dark compared to what a larger sensor can do, because a larger sensor catches more light.
Only if you compare such cameras in dark condition you will probably understand.
An 1/2" at 1.8 will 'see' less light than a large sensor at 2.8.
And even adding only 3dB of gain adds visible noise. (In most cameras.)

You do realize this is another variation of your I-want-to-shoot-in-the-dark-without-noise-and-with-an-infinite-DOF-questions?

BTW,
if your friend manages to get a grand with a proposal that includes a DOP who has hardly any experience, tell me where to apply. If they are giving it away, I won't refuse it ;)
 
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Yeah sorry I do realize it's another question. I am justing asking for him though, since he wants a different camera, than my Canon T2i. I have compared my T2i footage to some footage from the feature I did last year, which was shot with the low noise camcorder.

And yes, even though the camcorder he used had much lower noise than my T2i in the dark areas, the street is less bright with his camera, compared to my Canon T2i sensor.

As far zooming goes, I am just going by his cameras, since he has a few with motorized zooms. They all have a few speed selections, but none of them are as fast as they could be to look more slick. Any camcorders or non-DSLR cameras, that have this fast of a zoom like this example 2 minutes exactly into the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJMxGFco57Y

None of his cameras could, but I can go to the camera store and ask them as well.
 
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