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  1. Member
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    I have a background in digital art and some Prosumer DSLR experience. However, I really do not know what I am doing when it comes to video.

    I am being asked to buy equipment to shoot a five minute film that will take place in a night club. It will require great light sensitivity in the camera with low ISO noise.

    Here is the tricky part and the help part. I need to find the absolutely cheapest way to pull this off. I don't need high resolution and I don't need any fancy features on the camera at all. I don't need RAW or anything like that. I just simply need great frame rate and great ISO in the cheapest option. It will require that I can use a 50mm with good bokeh. And good glass in general. Thanks guys for your awesome help in advance!
    Last edited by Baldrick; 1st Sep 2014 at 02:49. Reason: New title
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  2. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    What's your budget & timeline? What you want doesn't come cheaply.

    Scott
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    Budget would be $1500 max. I have a few weeks to get it sorted out. I was just wondering what the cheapest camera that has good ISO and framerate is.
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  4. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    For that price?!!!....Maybe a Nikon D3300 with a FAST lens. Then shoot at 720p60. Noise should be ok to about ISO 3200 (maybe 6400?), fast lens=good boke. Sigma f1.4 or similar. Right around $1500 (~$350 for body, rest for lens). Regardless, it's not going to be great. And unless you also went with a Atomos ninja (ProRes, DNxHD), you'd be shooting AVC/h.264 encoded stuff, so you've got compression artifacts to deal with.

    Scott
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    Thanks Scott. What do you think of the Lumix GH4 that everyone is raving about?
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  6. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Well, it certainly has some interesting specs (haven't tried it myself). However:

    1. It is over your budget by $100, and that's bare-body, no lens even!
    2. It shoots 200Mbps at best quality for 1080p60 (which is great), but at that rate (1.46GB/min) you can only get 21 minutes per 32GB card, 43 min / 64GB.
    3. 32GB cards of UHSv3 are $120 each, 64GB are $200 each!
    4. It's max ISO with video is 6400! No clue as to whether its noise profile at that point is good or not (hasn't been around long enough to be reviewed/tested?)
    5. You could drop down to 100Mbps or 50Mbps, but those are standard IBP compression vs. all-intra of the 200Mbps, so you'll start to notice artifacts there as well (and at higher levels for 1080p vs 720p).
    6. Not even sure if HDMI output is clean (for use in Ninja, etc). It IS in the Nikon I mentioned.
    7. 4k features are wasted for your use (high FR, better noise profile).
    8. It has micro4/3 (CF 2) sensor vs. Nikon's DX (aka APS-3, CF 1.5) sensor, so not as large (aka light sensitive vs. noise) pixels.

    Sure, it's cool, but it's well beyond a budget deal-breaker.

    Scott
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