From EX3 to pmw-300 or all the to F5

[Brent Kaplan]

So I shoot with various cameras i dont own and a hacked gh2 and a ex3 I own. The question the is bugging me is do I go for a pmw-300 which looks really good and a blackmagic 4k camera or just put all my eggs into a F5 ?????

my work is red carpets , run and gun, Interview junkets, etc

thanks

[Alister Chapman]

How much do you want shallow DoF and can you afford to buy a range of lenses for the F5?

The F5 is an amazing camera, probably the best camera I've ever owned and I love shooting with it. It is very capable in most roles, even run and gun.

But, you have to work hard and concentrate on focus a lot more with the F5. There are absolutely no auto functions, no auto iris, no auto focus (unless you get the Sony zoom). It is a camera meant to be driven manually all the time. Drive it right and the pictures it produces are beautiful.

The PMW-300 is a great all round camera. Best in class and when it gets XAVC it will be even better. Easy to use, useful zoom range, auto functions if you need them. It will never match the F5 for image quality, it is noisier and not as good in low light, but it's so much easier to use that maybe overall your end results may be better. If the F5 is a struggle, then you won't always be getting the best out of it. Sometimes it's better to have an easier to use camera so that you really do get the very best from it.

[Brent Kaplan]

Thanks Alister for your insight and reply

Brent