10 Things To Look For In Your FIRST Camera

Introduction:

The largest online film academy in the world and today we're going to be showing you exactly what you need to know when purchasing a new camera because we get the same question every single day what camera should i buy should i go with canon or panasonic what about blackmagic versus sony what about this new camera that just came out and yes right now we do have a list of cameras that we would recommend to buy but that list will change every single month and in the month after that and the month after that because there are new cameras coming out so fast we cannot keep up with them in our full course we have a few videos on what camera to buy and we always have to keep updating it because new cameras are always replacing the old ones so instead of just making a video on what camera you should buy.

10 things to look for in a camera:

Right now we wanted to give you guys 10 things to look for in a camera so that no matter when you watch this whether it's the day we release it or in 2030 you will know exactly what you need to look for whenever it is time to purchase a camera but a small disclaimer though many people want to talk about the color depth of this camera or 8-bit versus 10-bit versus low-light performance and all that kind of technical stuff and while all of that is important if you're starting out and you're not an expert that stuff won't mean anything to you and to be honest you probably won't even care so this is not a video for someone upgrading from a 4 000 camera to an 8 000 camera this video is for all of you who aren't quite sure.

What you need to be looking for in maybe your first camera your second camera or maybe even upgrading from your smartphone if that is you then stick around and we will show you exactly what you need to be looking for whenever you purchase your camera but if you are buying your first camera or maybe even upgrading to a better camera the most important thing is how to use it a professional with a cheap camera will always have more cinematic images than a beginner with a really expensive camera.  

So you have a budget for a new camera or maybe you just have a certain camera in mind so take this 10 part checklist and see how many boxes your camera checks and of course some of them might be obvious but you still need to know which boxes are checked and which are not.

Interchangeable Lenses:

Starting with number one and that is interchangeable lenses now this might not seem like a big deal to some of you or it might seem really basic but you wouldn't believe the amount of filmmakers that don't pay attention to this this basically means that the camera has the ability to change lenses and i make a big deal about this because there are some cameras out there that aren't bad cameras necessarily like they shoot good quality and some even shoot in 4k but they have built-in lenses that are stuck on there forever something like the panasonic lx 100 mark ii or even the new panasonic lumix fz 2500. 

I have many people send me cameras like this and asking if it's good because it shoots 4k and it's almost a thousand dollars and yes it might shoot in okay quality but having a built-in lens that you have to zoom in and out with is really frustrating and something you are never able to upgrade compare that to the panasonic gh4 which used is around the same price as the lx100 it's much better because you have the ability to change lenses so if the camera you are looking at has one solid lens that is unable to be removed in my opinion it is a deal breaker same way with handicams and other cameras that just have a zoom in and out button and it is worthless find a camera that has the ability to remove lenses.

Manual Controls:

number two is manual controls in the filmmaking world today you won't have to deal with this nearly as much as you used to because almost all cameras have the ability to have manual controls that allow you to take full control over your camera but there are still some older cameras that don't have any manual controls or if they do they're very basic and pretty much just have an exposure meter that you can change up or down so when you're buying a camera just make sure that it has manual controls some extremely cheap cameras don't really have this but without manual controls you are pretty much dead in the water.

Frame Rates:

Number three is frame rates now this used to not be quite as big of a deal but in today's world it is huge the more options your camera has when it comes to frames per second the better it's going to be if your camera can only shoot 24 or 30 frames per second that isn't necessarily a bad thing but it does mean that you won't be able to shoot in slow motion ever which depending on what you're shooting is a necessity if you shoot real estate videos weddings commercials there are of course projects that don't require it but if your camera can't shoot in 60 frames per second.

You are shooting yourself in the foot so 60 frames per second is the standard for slow motion and some cameras have many different frame rate options like 240 frames per second 120 60 24 and so on and some cameras you might have to search this a little bit because they might only be able to shoot 4k in 24 frames per second but only 60 frames per second in 1080p so if you're going from something with 24 frames to slow motion you're gonna downgrade from 4k to 1080p one of my first dslrs was a canon 7d and it could shoot 24 frames per second at 1080p but could only shoot in 720p at 60 frames per second so if i ever shot a wedding in mostly slow motion it would be in 720p so that's something to be aware of so if you're wanting slow motion or at least want the ability to do that you'll want to find a camera that can shoot in 60 frames per second or more.

For example one of the main cameras that i recommend for everyone starting out to get is the canon rebel t2i it's a fantastic little camera and the best part is you can find it on ebay for about 150 bucks it's a great camera to learn with but the canon sl2 which is a few hundred dollars more blows it out of the water by being able to shoot at 1080p and 60 frames per second even though they both shoot in 1080p at 24 frames per second one of them checks that box and would be the preferred camera.

Course Resolution:

Number four is of course resolution should i get 4k this camera just came out in 6k but the red monstro has 8k but the new blackmagic ursa can shoot in 12k which is absolutely ridiculous i personally used a 1080p camera for years and ran a very successful production company at 1080p but now with everything coming out in 4k everyone wants it inside of their camera i mean even our cell phones shoot in 4k now many people try to say that 4k isn't necessary because the screens that we watch on isn't 4k and we're not getting the true resolution and all that kind of stuff and i'm not going to say whether you need it or not but it does help significantly.

Whenever you're filming not only does it allow you to shoot in a larger file with more detail but you're then able to punch into your image without losing any quality at all and to be honest most of the work i did was shot in 4k but then was sent to the client in a 1080p file because most of my clients didn't need a 4k file they just needed a really high quality footage to use for their social media on their website in the end if 4k is available get it without question but if you can only afford something that shoots in 1080p it doesn't mean that the quality will be much worse than someone with a 4k camera it's not about the resolution but about the skills behind the camera and if you want to learn more about how to get better skills with the camera that you have click the link below to learn more about that.

Build Quality Slash Features:

Next is build quality slash features and is exactly what it sounds like what kind of build does this camera have and you might think that they're all very similar but they're actually not the t2i has a very weak build and it's really light and made mostly out of plastic the 1dx mark ii and mark 3 on the other hand is a very solid rugged camera that can probably withstand a nuclear disaster i remember when the canon 7d came out digital rev did a video about how durable it was they hit it with a car threw it down a flight of stairs submerged it in water shot it with an airsoft gun lit it on fire and it still worked and took pictures and that is called durable.

So what are you going to be using your camera for are you wanting to do a bunch of travel filmmaking where you're traveling around everywhere and it's more likely to get dropped or are you going to be just in a studio where it's always going to be on a tripod and the build quality doesn't matter that needs to be something that you think about before you purchase your camera and whenever it comes to features you also want to think about what you'll be using the most does it have a flip out lcd screen some do and some don't i've used both before and the flip out lcd screen is a must-have especially if you're doing any sort of vlogging or needing to look at yourself in the lens does it have a hot shoe mount is it designed to be able to pick up and start shooting or does it need a bunch of other accessories to film with these are things that you need to take into consideration and determine if it's important or not for you with what you'll be filming.

Film Settings:

Number six is film settings this is something that many people tend to forget about or skip over but is very important since many dslrs are mainly picture cameras that have a really good video option many of them don't have some of the settings that a typical film camera would this is because they are first a picture camera and then second a cinema camera these settings would be focus peaking histograms zebra faults color and things like that you would definitely see these settings inside of a typical video camera like a canon c100 but many of the older dslrs don't have that.

If you're going to be mostly filming you definitely want these settings inside of your camera to help of course if your camera doesn't have it that doesn't mean it's a deal breaker but just something to be aware of and it's something to look for some older cameras even have the ability to load third-party software that unlocks those features magic lantern for example was super popular when dslr started to be used for filmmaking because it allowed you to take a camera like a canon t2i which had virtually no video settings and unlock those settings with a free third-party software so as you're looking into a camera check and see what film settings it has and if it will work for you.

AutoFocus:

Number seven is autofocus now this is one where you will start to get really controversial and to be honest autofocus has only started to become popular in the last three to four years autofocus used to be so bad that nobody ever used it but now autofocus has been improving so much that i know some people that never shoot manual focus canon has some of the best autofocus on the market today hands down nothing has ever come close to beating canon's dual pixel autofocus so if autofocus is something that you'd really use then i would definitely pay a little bit extra money to make sure that my camera has the dual pixel autofocus canon has great autofocus.

While something like a panasonic doesn't have nearly as good autofocus so if your camera doesn't have good autofocus then just use manual focus like we've been doing since the beginning of filmmaking and to be honest i'm sure that if i used autofocus all the time i would say that it was a necessity but since i don't really use it that often it's not that big of a deal to me a few of my friends who have been using canon cameras from the beginning would probably say the opposite because they have been using autofocus a hundred percent since they started filming and all of their shots are in focus because of that so i can't really tell you that if the camera you're looking at has bad auto focus not to get it because i today don't really use autofocus that much but if that's something that you want and something that you think you will need definitely pay attention and maybe spend a little bit more money to get a camera with great autofocus.

Battery Life:

Number eight is battery life how long do the batteries last in your camera and is that going to be an issue for you do you shoot a lot of concerts or corporate videos a long lasting battery might be a necessity for you whatever camera you're looking at try to find out how long the battery lasts some official websites will tell you how long the battery typically lasts but if not just search online and they're usually forums and information about the batteries my old canon 7d had a battery life of about an hour and a half my gh5s will last about two and a half hours while something like the canon c100 has a battery life of 11 hours so figuring out the battery life of the camera can actually help determine if it's the camera you need for what you shoot if you don't film long events definitely just get a bunch of extra batteries to have with you but if you do film events something like the canon 7d is going to be horrible for you because you'll constantly be switching batteries and something like the c100 might be a better option for you.

Camera Company:

Number nine is the camera company now why does knowing about the company determine if you buy a camera or not well the reason i make this point is because there have been some companies that filmmakers have invested all of their equipment and money into only to find out that the company has decided that it's not really going to improve the video side much more then when filmmakers want to upgrade they have to sell everything and start over with a new company because the original one isn't going anywhere with video for example the biggest debate for a really long time was canon vs nikon with video that's what everybody was talking about some invested into canon.

Some invested into nikon and since then canon has come out with an entire video camera line which shows how dedicated they are to filmmakers while nikon on the other hand is just slowly upgrading their dslrs they also said that video wasn't really going to be their focus but that their focus is going to be more towards photography so everyone who invested in nikon could only go up so high before they had to move to a completely different camera brand so look up the camera brand you're considering and do they value video do they value.

What you need or is it just some option that they've thrown into their camera because everybody else is as well again do you want canon or nikon well look more into nikon and see if they value video and i'm not saying that nikon doesn't have great video options or that their newer cameras don't shoot good quality video i'm just saying that there is not one professional filmmaker i know that shoots video on an icon they use a company that values what they need and that is video.

Price:

And finally the very last point i want to make and that of course is price out of all the things we talked about i'm sure that this is probably going to determine whether you're going to get your camera or not but at the same time the most expensive camera doesn't mean that it checks all the boxes that you specifically need if you have multiple cameras that you're looking at in your budget it doesn't mean that you have to buy the most expensive one and it checks all the boxes it could be that the least expensive one checks all the boxes that you specifically need so for example let's take some cameras and stack them up to the list and see how they do the canon t2i is a pretty old camera and came out in 2008.

It has interchangeable lenses and manual controls but only shoots in 24 frames per second no 4k plastic build no film settings no autofocus and terrible battery but it's only 150 bucks used on ebay so looking at this camera it pretty much sucks with everything except a perfect starter camera if you're thinking about getting into filmmaking but only have 150 dollars this is a great camera to start with but only for those wanting to dabble in filmmaking the panasonic gh4 checks pretty much all boxes except autofocus and battery life the canon c100 is actually the opposite of checking every single box except resolution and frame rate it has all the things you could ask for in a video camera except it only shoots in 1080p and doesn't have good slow motion if that's important to you then this camera just won't work. 

Conclusion:

So figure out what you shoot the most do you shoot weddings commercials corporate videos skateboarding videos figure out what you shoot and then determine what you need after that determine your budget find a camera in that budget and see how many boxes it checks there are some things that are a necessity but some things that you might be okay not having like auto focus determine your budget find the camera that you're looking for in that budget and then see how many boxes are checked and go from there another thing you can do is to rent the camera for a weekend if you're looking at a 1500 camera rent it for three days for 150 bucks and try it out to see if it's exactly what you want so i hope that you guys have enjoyed this episode and feel a lot more confident when doing some camera.