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The Enthusiasm Project
The Enthusiasm Project
My Camera Conundrum "Cameranundrum" [S4E17]
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After months and months, I’ve finally decided on a new camera. The goal is to incorporate something that will add new functionality to my workflow while also playing nice with everything that’s already in place. I wanted to take some time (and it ended up being a LOT of time) to run through my decision not only to offer hopefully helpful insight, but to also shine a light on what goes into a major purchase like this.
It’s very easy to see social media posts from people who seem to be casually spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on stuff that may or may not be necessary, and I wanted to pull back the curtain a bit, especially since this is one of the biggest purchases I’ve made in my life and the biggest financial investment I’ve made since becoming self-employed.
Also, I just like talking about cameras .
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S4E17 | Series Episode 80
Hello and welcome. My name is Tom. This is the Enthusiasm Project Season 4, episode 17. And oh boy, uh, you have a journey to come on with me today, if you so choose. Couple things to get out of the way though, before we dive straight into that. First and foremost is exactly what you're listening to right now. New microphone, so I think it sounds good. We'll see what you think. This is the Rode NT1. I'm working on a video for it right now. You might have seen some of the stuff I was sharing about this. Just one of the reasons I love Rode. This is not obviously not sponsored or anything, but I've been interested in exploring the world of condenser microphones, of which this is one. This is NT1. And it's so easy, NT1 can use it. Ha ha ha. And uh basically a few weeks ago, I was on the old Twitters and I mentioned somewhere that I was interested in condenser microphones, but I had never used one and I wanted to use one, and I was super curious about it. And literally, like a few days later, this giant box that said Rode on the side showed up on my doorstep, and in it was the NT1 kit that included like their audio interface, and then there's also another microphone in there and a backpack for the Rode Caster Pro. This is a really cool care package. I reached out to Rode and was like, I don't know what this is for, but thank you. And they basically said, We saw you talking about condenser microphones, so we wanted to set you up, and that was really cool. So I am liking this microphone a lot, still learning a little bit about it because it it um basically the signal output is so different from what I'm used to. It's so much louder and um trying to get things EQ'd in a way that's that's good. So, anyway, that's what we're doing in terms of audio for today. So that's running into the Rodcaster. And in terms of video, I am doing a video version of today's podcast, which I've been trying to do relatively often. And if you want to see that, that is on Patreon and YouTube channel membership. So you can go to patreon.com slash Tom Buck or just join the YouTube channel membership. That's where the video versions show up. The reason I bring that up is because today's episode is particularly visual, and I hope, I sure hope that it goes in in the way that I want it to, otherwise it's gonna be really bizarre. But if you're if you're not able to see what's happening right now, basically I'm sitting at my desk where I film all my videos, and it is just covered in cameras, different cameras ranging from the 1980s to 2021. And that's kind of what we're talking about today. Before jumping into that, I do want to take a quick moment just to thank everybody who enrolled in the podcaster playbook, which launched last week. I was uh, as you probably know, a little nervous about launching my first course. It's tough to make a course. If you've ever done that, you know. And I I was hoping it would do well. I was definitely nervous that I would, you know, click the launch button and it would just be some virtual tumbleweeds bouncing on through. But uh it it the response was way better than anything I could have imagined. And so I'm really appreciative of that. And the feedback I've gotten so far from those who enrolled has also been great, which makes me really happy because I was very nervous of like, I think it's good, I think it does what it's supposed to do, but you know, it's hard to know until real humans actually have that experience. So that makes me really happy. Of course, a fun part with an online course is you can always update it. So if there's ideas down the line, it's like easy to just switch stuff out and add things to it. If you want to enroll, though, it is still open for enrollment at podcasterplaybook.com. Of course, links will be in the show notes. And basically, if you want to do what I'm doing right now and have a podcast that the world can listen to, you've got your idea for your show and now you want to get it up and running. Podcaster Playbook is a step-by-step process for doing that. I tried really hard to make it just like a recipe, pretty much. So if you follow the steps at the end, instead of you know baking a cake, you'll have baked a podcast and it will be up and running. And not only that, but you'll also have a workflow that you can use for future episodes, and you'll you'll be you'll be ready to kind of continue and sustain your show for years to come. You get access to the course for the full year from the time you enroll. So, and that would include any updates that occur throughout that year. So I'm proud of it. I think it's super cool. Check it out, podcasterplaybook.com. Now, there are, as I said, a lot of cameras on my desk. And this is going to be a gear-focused episode, but that doesn't mean that that there aren't other things to take away from it. I do think that there are enough people who listen to this show that are, you know, people who use gear and people who create stuff. So I think that that is a relevant discussion to have. And obviously, I get a lot of those questions pretty, pretty often in the old messages and stuff. But also I think there's there's stuff to learn here. So you may or may not know, uh, depending on how closely you follow what I do, that I got a new camera this week. And that is a uh that's kind of a uh an end result of something that started like last summer and it was it was a crazy process. But what I really wanted to share was not just my thoughts on that, because that could be helpful if you're like me. I feel like I'm about to sneeze right now. If you're like me and you're you're looking at cameras, you might be looking at some of these, so I wanted to share my thought process, but I also wanted to like really explain that process because what I noticed myself, and I even, you know, I teased getting a new camera on Twitter because it was sort of like a thing that had popped up, and you know, I like I had fun teasing people over like which camera would it be. But especially with social media and even on you know, in the world of YouTube, it's not uncommon for new stuff to come out new cameras, new computers, new really expensive gear, and you see lots of people with it, and you can almost feel like wow, how every everybody can just afford or is at least willing to invest in this really expensive stuff. And that, as you might know, because I did an episode about this last like at the end of last summer, beginning last fall, that can mess with you, and it definitely got up in my head, especially when all these new cameras were coming out, like the Canon R5, Canon R6, Sony A7S3, and it just seemed like people were throwing their credit cards at these companies to buy these cameras, and I was here like that seems really expensive. I don't know if I'm comfortable with that. Like, is it is it the right thing to do? And it was sort of a weird, it's like a keeping up with the Joneses, but also it makes sense because there's there's new features and new capabilities, and it's it's a whole thing. But what you see on social media a lot is just sort of like people posting their receipts. Look at all the stuff I bought at the Apple store. Oh, bought a new camera, picked up a new camera today, which is like one of my pet peeves when people say, like, oh, I just picked up this thing and it's like $4,000. Like, you I hope you didn't do it that flippantly. Like, I hope you put more thought into that. But that's not at least in my case, that is not how it works. It's a lot of like thinking and anxiety and trying to figure out and pros and cons. And so I wanted to walk you through that journey just to share that insight because I know I watched all the reviews and all the comparisons and all that stuff, so maybe that'll be helpful. But also to shine light on that bigger thing of there is sort of gear envy, gear competitiveness in the world, which is strange, and and maybe it's just a microcosm or something, you know, maybe I'm seeing something that's not representative of what's actually happening in the larger world, but I also kind of don't think so. I think I've had enough discussions and I think I know I know enough that yeah, I think I'm on to something by feeling this way. So I thought it'd be kind of fun to just explain that, and I have this weird thing where I just love context, and in terms of cameras, they've been a part of my life forever. So, here on my table, whether you're listening to this or you can see this, I have a lot of cameras. I have what was my very first camera. Unfortunately, it's not this exact one that I'm holding, but it's this exact model. This is a 1989 Sony handicam. This is the F-35. This was my grandparents had one of these when I was a kid. And my parents would borrow it sometimes when we went on trips. And that was like the first time, you know, someone would be filming something, and then we could watch it back later that day by connecting it to the TV. It's an eight millimeter camcorder. And that was the first time, like the first time I ever got to hold a camera, use a camera, push record, you know, push the zoom button to make it look like I'm falling. And oh no, like I'm falling off a balcony. Oh wow, like special effects, I guess. The first time with this, this camera's also awesome for stop motion because if you double tap the record button, it just does one frame of video, so you can easily do like in-camera stop motion. That was huge as a kid. Um, eventually, my grandpa bought a new Sony handy cam in the early 90s and gave this one to my parents. And then as time went on, in like the mid to later 90s, it just sort of became my camera. And I, gosh, I used it so, so much. Unfortunately, the one that I had is is long gone. But I went on eBay a few years ago and I found a brand new one in a box. It's the exact same, it still has the stickers on it, it had never been opened from 1989. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. It just like turns on and it's static y and there's no you can't get a signal out. There's no signal in the viewfinder, there's no signal, it's doing stuff like it's focusing, but you can't get the video output. So I don't know. I'd love to get it fixed. But anyway, I have it here. And this was this was the thing that that started the Sony handicam, is what started everything for me. And then as time went on, uh, you know, this was at the time I got it, it was an old camera then, and it had been used and it was beat up and and didn't always work right and everything. And in I guess we're just going down the timeline of cameras. I just realized, like, wow, here we go. But it's fine. Context is key. In the year 2000, the very futuristic year 2000, uh, right before I started my freshman year of high school, there I just there was a thing that happened that was very uh stressful and emotionally frustrated, frustrating and draining and scary and all this stuff. And as a way to, I guess, just brighten my spirits or whatever. My mom bought me as a total surprise gift a new Sony handicam, which was awesome because like she did not have extra money hanging out to just like invest in, you know, I think it was like a $400 camera at the time, maybe $350. Um, and that is it's again, it's the same thing. I wish this were that exact one, uh, but it's not, it's another one that I bought on eBay like eight years ago, so it's the same model, and that sucks. The the my actual one of these handicams, I loaned to a friend in like 2005 to film a wedding or something, and um turns out uh when you loan stuff to people who are also drug addicts, they will sometimes sell that stuff to buy drugs. So that sucked. Uh, and that's why I didn't have my handicam anymore. But I rebought it because I don't know, it meant a lot to me, and I also wanted to be able to replay the eight millimeter tapes. So, anyway, this camera's cool, it's got a flip out screen. Look at that. This is a Sony camera from the year 2000 with a flip-out LCD screen. What fully articulating? And uh this thing though, this like I the hours and hours and hours put into this are were just insane. And and the travel and just constantly recording. I don't even know what I was recording with it half the time, but just always recording and tape after tape after tape. Um, it's it's an awesome thing. While I was in college in 2005, I was like, I'm I'm like a grown-up now, I'm gonna invest in a new camera. So I bought this, which was a Sony. What is this? This is the actual one I bought. Um, this is another little digital Sony handy cam. It's a mini DV one. I don't know what model it is, actually. It's a small little Sony handy cam from 2005, and I was like, oh, it's digital. I can edit on the computer. That's something I'd always wanted to do. Uh, it's you know, it's super cool, and it is a nice little camera. It still works super well to this day. It's got a little microphone you can put on top of it and everything. But honestly, like I never used it, and I feel really bad. I had this thing and I was like, I want to film and I want to film, and I would do all these test shots at like my apartment or whatever, and I just never actually filmed anything. I think I filmed one actual project. I filmed my friend recording an album in a studio with this and put it up on like YouTube in 2020 or whatever, um, 2007, maybe, and that's it. So this was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna buy a camera and film stuff, and then I just never did. And that was my problem was I wanted to use all this stuff, but I didn't know what to make it about. And so I was learning about cameras and learning how to use them, but I never um I never like had a thing to do with them. That was very frustrating up until literally like starting my YouTube channel. So at that point, though, that was like Sony Sony Sony camera. And then in 2007, I got my first quote unquote real camera, which was the Canon XTI. It was a rebel, a DSLR. I was super excited about that. Canon was like killing it with the DSLR game at the time, and um that that was like a such a big deal in learning how about changing lenses, learning about aperture, exposure, I all that stuff um was super cool. That camera is still around. My mom has it. I gave it to her after after several years, but I used that that only did photos, it didn't do any video or anything, but I did that for a long time um until the Canon T2i came out, which was their first rebel that did like full 1080 video. That camera was amazing. I bought that, I was so excited to do video with it. I ended up giving that to a student um who was like an awesome filmmaker and had no budget for for gear, but I used that for a lot of years, and then um I had that while I like moved into teaching digital media, and that was cool because I already knew like, hey, now I have a all these skills that I've been building up, I have an outlet for them, yay! And then I had a student who had a T3 eye that had a flip-out screen, and I saw like how easy it was for him to film certain things with a flip-out screen, and I had finally like had a job where I'd been teaching for a few years at that point. I had an income. I was like, I could buy a Canon 60D, like a bigger DSLR with a flip-out screen. I got that, it was super cool. Had that for several years until I got the Canon 6D, because honestly, a full frame camera was like my goal from the beginning, but I never thought I'd be able to afford it. 6D, I lost the flip-out screen. And that's the camera I had when I started my YouTube channel. And that my first like video or two on the channel are filmed with the 6D and I think 35mm lens, but it's it's a fully manual camera in video. And the problem was, I promise this is all relevant. The problem was that the workflow sucked, and I was slow with it, and it would take me a long time to make a video, and I had used that camera, I was behind that camera a lot, but it was, you know, at that point I still wasn't making a lot of my own stuff, but I was doing a lot of like semi-client work. Like I did some weddings, um, did a lot of work for school districts, like promotional pieces and marketing pieces and stuff like that. But when you're in front of the camera, it was just like a slow process of making sure things are in focus. And me being a perfectionist and trying to get everything exactly right. That I was like, I'm I'm gonna make like one YouTube video a month at this point. It was like 2017, obviously, because that's when I started my channel. And so I decided, okay, I made a couple videos with that. I've been watching all these YouTubers that were just like, there's a simple camera where they can just point it and talk to them. So that was when I bought the Sony RX100 Mark V, which um is a nice little point and shoot camera. It's a pretty pretty expensive, it's like a thousand dollar camera. So I was like, dang, it's like the most expensive non-DSLR camera that I've ever bought. Um, but this thing was cool, and I use this really primarily for like the first 50 videos, probably on my YouTube channel or filmed almost entirely with the RX100. And the reason for that, it's got a flip-up screen so you can see yourself. Very important when you're a one-person crew. It's got good autofocus, it's got great picture quality. It does overheat after about five minutes in 4K. So I got really good at filming these little snippets, and uh, it's great in low light. It does not let you connect a microphone, it does not let you change lenses, and that's something I wanted. I didn't want to get caught up in that stuff. I wanted to just film, use the built-in mic, use the built-in lens, use available light, like all that stuff. And this is what helped me not only get those videos made, but learn like the YouTube production workflow of just it's okay to be imperfect, quick turnaround, like have a purpose, make it as good as you can, and then move on and make the next thing. This is the camera that like really taught me how to do that. And I love this camera, and I still use it a lot. It's like, you know, auxiliary shots and things, and it's it's still like an active camera in my workflow. But this, like, you know, this really helped start my YouTube channel. But then after about 50 videos, that's when I was like, okay, I think I want to up the production value, you know, get back into my prime lenses, improve the audio, that kind of stuff. The 6D wasn't doing it for me, but the 6D Mark II had come out, and I was like, yeah, flip-out screen, full frame, video autofocus, I'll take that. I got that and used that for several years. Loved that camera so much. Um, so much so that when was this? When would it have been? In 2019, I wanted to get a second camera because I was using the Sony as a second camera sometimes, but cutting between this little point shoot and a DSLR with a prime lens, like it just didn't it was very clear that that something was that it was just very clear that it wasn't the same camera, and you know the colors were different and everything, and so um and so I'm just thinking of the ridiculousness of me telling telling the story and someone listening to it, but it's cool. That's what podcasting's all about. Um, so I wanted to get a second one. I was like the Sony or the Sony, the uh Canon 6D Mark II is relatively affordable. I'll just get another one of those, right? It'll be great. And that was when the R had come out and had been out. It did the typical Canon thing of being announced, people hating it because it didn't have all the specs they wanted, people using it for six or seven months, and then people going, actually, it's a pretty good camera. So I was like, you know what? Mirrorless is clearly the future. Let's get the R from a place like BH that has a good return policy. If it doesn't work for me, I can return it and stick with my 60 and or get another 60. And I got the R, and like literally as soon as I use the R, I was like, this is the best camera I've ever used. It's the image quality, even at 1080, is so much better, the autofocus is so much better, the ergonomics are awesome. All of the 60s are really awesome too, as far as that goes. But like my stuff just started looking so much better with the R. I was hooked right away. And the R is still arguably like about the best camera I've ever used. It does not overheat, it's crazy reliable, it's good battery life, image quality is awesome. Even 1080p, you can scale it up to 4K and it looks amazing. So I was using that and the 6D. But then I did start scaling up my videos to 4K, even though they weren't all natively shot. A lot of the B-roll is 4K on the R because it crops in, and that works actually great for filming like objects and products and things. But for talking head stuff, like my main shot. And if you're watching the video version, like right now, the crop is way too tight and it just doesn't work. And so I but I was scaling up to 4K, the footage was holding up great. The 6D footage was not holding up as well, scaling up to 4K, and it was starting to get a little like, ooh, this doesn't look the same. And so that was last summer. There's a whole episode about this. Canon announces the R5, and they're like, this is just the mic drop of cameras for you know online content creators and video production stuff. It's also an amazing stills camera, and that's where Canon's marketing sucks because they just did it wrong. Um, they they released like the best possible stills camera, but marketed it as a video camera, and that was stupid because they could have said this is the best stills camera ever, and it also has some awesome video features, but they flipped that and all their marketing was like 8k video, blah blah blah, it's the best, it's the best. And then people were excited about that until they're like, Oh, it also like uh overheats a lot in those things. And Canon could sorry, Canon's marketing. I'm gonna go on a tangent from my tangent real quick. Let me just complain about Canon's marketing because it's bad. I love Canon cameras, love Canon lenses. Canon's marketing sucks because they don't know how to market their stuff. Sony does. Other companies either kind of just like stay out of it altogether and just like let the product speak for themselves, or they do what Sony does where they market the product for what it is. That makes sense to the people that it's intended for. Also makes sense. Canon doesn't. And with the R5 and the R6, they just shot themselves in the foot so bad. They made these amazing stills cameras where if they had said, look, here's the R5, pretty much the best stills camera you can get. And if you want full frame, uncropped 4K video, it can do that without overheating. People would have been excited. And then they could have said, on top of that, it even has a higher quality 4K mode where the picture's going to be even better. And on top of that, it can even do 8K video, which is crazy. Now, with those 4K and 8K things, you're going to have some limitations, but they're there for you if you want them. Like if they had just framed it that way, I think everyone would have been fine with it. But all of their marketing, their keynote release, everything was look at this amazing 8K video beast. It's also a great stills camera, and it's the best of everything until people started using it and they're like, yeah, sh it get just really hot and it shuts off, and like there's problems with it. And I know a lot of people listening right now have the R5 and the R6. They've clearly gotten better with updates and stuff. But that's just Canon's marketing. And then they, you know, like uh it's just so frustrating because even the cameras they sent out for reviews, most of them, the early ones, it was so confusing because you would find people we're like, oh, here's an early review of the R5. It's on a channel that has 300 subscribers. How did this person get it? And you realize, oh, they're a still photographer. YouTube is not their main thing, they're just doing this for fun. They're like a reputable stills photographer, and that's why they got the camera because clearly that's who it's intended for primarily is still people. And then, as far as video goes, they sent it to like Peter McKinnon, who is a paid Canon rep who has 5 million subscribers, and sure, he's gonna show you the camera, but he's literally like as an actual ambassador, can't really say anything about the bad stuff, so that's silly and not super helpful. And then I just even recently Canon did this thing, it was just so dumb. Where I'm like rooting for Canon, so it pains me when they do these dumb things that's just marketing. Last summer or last fall, as everybody was doing the work from home stuff and trying to get better, uh, better quality at home. People were starting to upgrade their cameras and get things like cam links and ATEM minis so they could connect their DSLRs and their mirrorless cameras. And Canon tried to rebrand the RP as the perfect work from home webcam, which is super smart. Like it's relatively affordable, it's an amazing camera. They package it up with like a decent lens and a power supply so that way you could run it without the battery dying, and it was like the webcam version. I think that is super smart. Again, it's a great product, it's it's great, it's smart. And the main person that they had talk about this in the YouTube world was Gene from Potato Jet. He's great, except uh he specifically doesn't use that camera. So all of the content where you're watching the videos and all of the social media posts, it's like, yeah, he's talking about it, he's saying it's great, it is, but if you follow him, you know, not only did he never use that camera, he did use the R, but they did that campaign specifically like a month after he had just spent all this time switching to Sony cameras. And it was like, Canon, why why are you why are you the two people that you're trying to get to like speak to your products are somebody who is connected in a way that they can't really be objective? That's Peter McKinnon, and that's not I'm not even criticizing him as an like as an paid ambassador, he can't be super critical of it. And then somebody else who had just spent a bunch of time switching to the competitor and talking about how great it was. Why not find people who were like hyped up on that specific camera model? Why not find that community? And it's just because they they're just bad at that kind of marketing, they're just bad at it and it it handicaps them because they overlook it, and it's it's very frustrating. And then you have things like Sony where they will give cameras to creators of all sizes, and I know video online video creators are a small part of their market share, but it is a big voice overall for customers. And I I don't see I see other companies like Panasonic, Nikon, they make great cameras and they just sort of stay quiet, let the cameras speak for themselves, people discover them on their own. Sony's the other aggressive marketer out there, but they pick people of all sizes. Here's somebody with millions of subscribers, here's somebody with a couple thousand, and like it just makes more like they're just more in tune with the community, and then they can market better. And again, instead of making a product and then trying to market it to an audience that maybe it isn't the best for, they just go, Here's here's what it is, here's what it does, here's who we made it for. Boom! Like it's it's just more effective. And so when the R5 came out, and then the overheating issues came out, and then right after that, the Sony A7S3 was announced, it's like everybody just canceled their stuff. I had been at that point looking for a new camera, a second camera for my R because the 6D just wasn't holding up, and I was like, oh, these new cannons are gonna be amazing. I'm okay with investing in this. I was thinking like maybe at some point in the future this would be my full-time job. I can invest some money in a really high-end piece of gear. Pre-ordered the R5, all that stuff came out, and I was just like, uh, you know, I canceled the pre-order just to see what is what has happened. And I know the R5 is a good camera, but it does have heating limitations. And it also has a micro HDMI port, which is like the worst connector. And as someone who uses his main camera connected to some sort of HDMI output most of the time, that was gonna be a nightmare for me, as small and simple as that seems. Otherwise, like I really, really, really wanted to like that camera. The the capabilities are amazing, the ergonomics are amazing, like the design. They took everything I loved about the R and then smashed everything I loved about the classic 5D series into one amazing camera. That's uh, it's just like, why? Why couldn't it anyway, anyway, anyway. If you know my story, you know that I was like, okay, do I do that? And then people were losing their minds over the Sony A7S3, so much so that like the Sony fanatic club, not just people who enjoy Sony cameras, with the people who are like they like Sony cameras maybe a little too much, and start criticizing people who like other cameras, and I don't like that. It like turned me off because it was just like, you know, this is our Lord and Savior camera over here, everybody else repent, heathens. I didn't like that, so it's like I don't even and you know, I had no Sony gear, so I didn't even really consider it. Anyway, I ended up just getting a second EOS R, which was still like the best camera decision I could have made. Having two of the same camera, super reliable, super good image quality, their settings will match perfectly. It's been great having two of those. I love it. But over the past four or five months, there have been times where I've thought it'd be really nice to have a third camera right now. Maybe I'm doing an A camera shot and then sort of a side shot as a B shot, and I need like an overhead or I need a close-up of something. And it would, it's just as a one-person crew, it's easy to have multiple cameras filming at the same time. It really does save time. When you have, when you have like, like I've been using the two R. So I'll have my A camera, which if you're watching this, that's the camera I'm talking into right now, which is my main normal shot. And then sometimes when I edit, I'll crop in a little bit on that shot. So this one camera is actually giving me two angles, and that crop in is a good way to emphasize points or to hide jump cuts, but then having the second camera, which is usually off to the side a little bit, is now a third angle. So just by recording me sitting here talking, now I've got three angles to work with. And that's then in addition to any B-roll shots or supplemental graphics or footage or whatever I add in. So it's a cool way to just add visual engagement and having two of the same camera, I don't care what camera model, what brand, whatever, two of the same cameras are really nice because all the buttons are in the same places, all the settings match up, all the batteries and the lenses, everything just works together with everything. It's awesome. Getting a third camera seemed like a ridiculous idea, but there have been enough times where it was getting once or twice a week, I would run into a situation where I'd be like, I want a third camera. My 6D Mark II has since been adopted by Heather. And it for some reason, I don't know what the voodoo is, but it's looking so much better in her studio than it ever did in my studio. And she has it set up in a way her workflow is all based around eCamm Live. So she pretty much has like one button, turn everything on, hit record, and you're good. Um, so the camera's set, the focus is set, the shot, like everything is there. And so what I didn't want to do is like, oh, I'm gonna borrow that camera, unconnect everything, change all the settings, do my stuff, try to get it back, potentially, you know, ruin her workflow. That just didn't seem it just didn't seem great. And then also knowing like the footage scaled up with the Rs just didn't it didn't look the way I wanted it to look. And for some and for whatever reason, it just looks so much better in her studio anyway. So whatever juju is happening in there is good. So that was when I thought, okay, I'll invest in a third camera. My initial thing, and what a lot of people told me online was just get another R. Are we how far? We're 30 minutes in and I'm barely to where like I meant to start. Whatever, this is good content. Um, just get another R, and that does make sense. It's relatively affordable, it would match. But since having a third camera is kind of a crazy, it's a little bit of excess, I will admit. I thought, why not take this opportunity to bring in some new features? And that's when I started looking at other things. So I was like, okay, let's look at everything. Every every camera that I would consider from every manufacturer. And there's interesting stuff, like the Panasonic S5 is one that I'm super interested in. I think it's like an amazing value, but it does have limitations with autofocus, and I have no Panasonic lenses or I don't know about adapting Canon to Panasonic. It was just sort of like, mm, there's kind of a hiccup there. So that was ruled out. I know there's Fuji and stuff, but it's kind of the same thing, like, ah, really cool, but the headaches are, I guess, was it the juice isn't worth the squeeze? It's like one of my favorite expressions now. Um, and then it kind of came down to three, well, it came down to Canon, Sony, and Blackmagic for a few reasons. Canon makes the most sense. That's what my system is built around. The R5 and the R6 have now had like seven or eight months to be put through their paces, to be updated with firmware, to address some of the issues. That's awesome. Blackmagic used their black magic to be friendly with canon lenses. And and Sony, obviously, like, even though I'm not in that ecosystem as far as mirrorless cameras go, there is something because Sony was literally my first camera. All of my like handy, like that was my intro to video. There's a little like soft spot there for them. I can for a multi-billion dollar corporation. But it's cool. I like that they make their own sensors, they seem to be like they used to be their mirrorless cameras were so unreliable because they were new to it, but now they've kind of paid their dues in terms of RD and Canon, which now seems to be exploring the mirrorless space. Canon cameras have never had reliability issues, and now they like kind of do. Not necessarily major, but they kind of do. Sony doesn't seem to. But I also like Canon and Sony, you know, they develop their own sensors, like they really do their own thing, and that's cool. Like they they build their stuff up um from the ground up. And I I mean, I that's not to say I don't know if Nikon and Panasonic and them do. So I know a lot of other cameras use Sony sensors. Canon only uses Canon, of course. But I don't know. Anyway, that's what it kind of came down to, and especially since the A7S3 had come out, it had gained a reputation as being a great camera. And outside of the like fanatic base for Sony, which I just sort of, if anything, it turned me away and made me want to not consider it. There are a lot of people I know both like personally and just online, like people I follow or am friendly with online, who not only got the A7S III, but used words like, it's a revelation, it's the best camera I ever had. And so much so where a number of those people, at least three of them, now have two or three A7S3s. I'm like, that's a crazy expensive camera. And not only do you not regret it, but you've now invested in two or three of those. Okay, crazy. Um, so that made me like, oh, that's probably a good camera. And there's an adapter from Sigma that lets you adapt Canon lenses, Canon EF lenses to the Sony Emount. I've used that at work because even though everything I did was based on Canon, I did order Sony cameras throughout the years just so I could be sort of familiar with it. So we had like a few A7 IIIs, A7S2s, A6500. Um, I was never really a fan of any of those. I didn't like the ergonomics, I didn't, I didn't even really like the image quality I was getting for, I just didn't like them, but some students really loved them. I liked having them there. But I tried that Sigma adapter and it worked really well. It will give you video autofocus for Sigma lenses, but not Canon lenses. But it would still let me use every lens that I have on a Sony. So that kind of put the Sony into the running as like, I don't want to have to work on an adapted system, but if it is literally like the best video camera out right now, I don't want to discount it. So I ran a poll and I got so much feedback on these polls. Um, the A7S3 was mostly the winner because it's got such a fan base, but a lot of people were also speaking for the R5. Like it makes the most sense. Same batteries, same lenses, same colors. Get the R5, makes the most sense. People were sort of confused that I was considering the Black Magic, but the thing about the Black Magic is after using the ATEMs and stuff and like the TV production studio when I was teaching, I like their stuff. It's it's always a little quirky, but it seems like they really listen to their user base and try to sort of like push the envelope in really interesting ways. The Black Magic Cinema camera, the new one, the 6K Pro, has nice articulating screen. It has better battery life, built-in ND filters, and uses Canon lenses. It actually uses the same batteries that my 21-year-old handy cam uses, which is why I like Black Magic, because they're like, we're gonna take Canon's lenses because we like those, but Canon's batteries don't work for us. So we're gonna take Sony's batteries and just smash it all together into our camera. And that is so weird, and I like that. Uh, but anyway, um, so those are the ones that I was thinking about and got a lot of feedback from people, a lot of great stuff. The majority of people were like, don't mix Sony and Canon because the colors are so different and the system will give you a headache. Um, and the black magic doesn't have autofocus, and it's a super 35 sensor, so it's not full frame. But I was so friggin' curious about the black magic that I rented one, so I have that right here because it's oh, I have it till tomorrow. I have it for one more day. Um, and this camera, it's a big beefy camera, is probably some of the most fun I've had with a camera in like the longest time. I know it's not practical, but it's got this giant LCD display that has a crazy good interface. I don't know if I have a battery in here. Oh, I do. Um, so if you're watching the video version, I can show you a little bit about the interface. The thing about it, even having never used a black magic camera before, I could fly through the settings on this. It's every other camera it's like ruined every other camera for me because it's so good. Um I'm trying to get a shot here, so if you're watching this, you can see this. But basically, you've got this giant display, I think it's a five-inch display. It's super bright. I live in the desert. You can see this display in the middle of the day with no problems. Um, it's so bright. You got all the info you could possibly need. It's fully touch responsive, so you can change everything. The interface is just like I said, it's just so good. And then if you want to go into the menus, it's so easy. If you're watching this, it's so overexposed now. Um, I'm trying to show show and tell here, but I'm not doing a good job of it. It's fun to listen to somebody play with camera settings. That's what I have learned. Uh I don't know. I swear I know how to use my cameras. Why do I need another one? Uh okay, so here if you're watching this, you can see the the um the interface. You can choose like every setting. It is crazy responsive. It all makes sense. You want to go to audio, everything's right here. You want to go to setups, you want to go to monitoring. It's just as responsive as like an iPhone. So it's like using a big iPhone as your camera, and it's really fun. And the image quality that comes out of this thing is so good. You can record to SD cards, you can record to CF cards, you can record to a hard drive, there's XLR ports, there's full HDMI. It's it's legit. Like it is a good camera, and it's the cheapest one of all those options. So it's $2400, $2,500. The R5 is $3,900, the A7S3 is $3,400, $3,500, $3,400, and the R6 is $20, maybe the same price as it's $2,500 as well. Um, so those are kind of where all the options were. And this thing was, oops, I'm recording. This thing was just the most interesting. And it plays with the ATEM Mini. So when it's connected to the A Tem, there's a tally light that can turn on, you can change the colors, the focus, everything with the buttons on the A Tem when you're using a Black Magic camera with it. So I have been having so much fun with this. And the thing that speaks to it the most is even Heather, who does not care what camera I film with, could not care less. Um, she when she sees this footage without me asking, without like, hey, look at this footage from the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro. She looks at it and she's like, oh my God, it's like a movie. I was doing test footage with it, and she was she kept getting flipped out when I would turn and talk to the camera because she's like, it looks like I'm watching a movie, but then you break the fourth wall because you're talking to the camera and it's weird. Um, so it's it's a really cool camera. And and oh, you can film in RAW, like internally. It works really well on the M1 Mac Mini, like all the stuff. DaVinci Resolve is pretty simple to use and it can edit the M1 Mac Mini that I'm using. The base model can edit 12-bit raw footage or whatever in DaVinci Resolve with no problem. ProRes works great in Final Cut Pro, so it actually fits in my workflow pretty well in a cool way. Now, because it is Super 35, I film in a pretty small room. Full frame sensors give me a wider field of view. Even my widest lens at 16 millimeters on here is not as wide as my normal shot. So that was going to be a problem. So this was then gonna probably be like a B cam and then a B-roll camera, and then um, you know, and then of course it can film to 6K and do all this really cool stuff here. And it's not manual focus, or no, it's not autofocus, it's only manual focus. So that's also why it probably won't work as an A camera because I film usually at F1.4, and if I moved at all, I would I would go out of focus. So that would just be frustrating. But as a B camera, it would work great, and it was the least expensive option. So what I did was you might have seen a tweet from me last week that said the camera decision is made. And I was so excited because I ordered, I decided to just get the black magic. I ordered it, I ordered the battery gip that comes with it and extra battery, or not the battery gap that comes with it, the one that's made for it. And I was excited. It's like it's different, it's fun, it's like a cool project camera. I'm learning a lot from using it, and I was so excited about that, but I didn't want to tell anyone like what camera I got for whatever reason because people were at guessing and it was really fun to tease that. And I was so happy, and then I went to bed, and then I woke up the next day, super excited about my new camera. And then I was like, I'm gonna go on a bike ride this morning where I think about stuff. And I was thinking, like, I can't wait for my new camera. Let me think about all the reasons my new camera is gonna be so great. And the thoughts I was having about why the camera was gonna be great was actually ended up turning into why maybe it wasn't the right camera for me right now. As much as I want it, the two things that really stuck out well, there's three main concerns with it. The biggest ones, though, being what I said super 35 sensor, manual focus. If I'm behind the camera, those are not an issue. But as a one person conversation, Crew, most of the time I'm also in front of the camera, and that's tough. I was very happy when I ordered this camera because it was the cheapest of all the options, and I was like, whoa, the least expensive one is the one that I want. That's awesome. That's you know, that never happens. But the next day, I was like, it is the cheapest option. It's still going to be the most expensive camera I've ever bought. The EOS R, I got them at different prices from Canon Price Watch, which is an awesome service that you should use to get Canon gear at super cheap prices sometimes when they have street prices. And I think the most expensive one of the Rs, I think I got one for 1600, one for 1700. You know, different years. Um, okay, if the most expensive camera I've ever had is $1,700 and this is $2,500, that is still a lot more expensive than my cheap camera, not cheap camera, cheaper camera. And to think then, okay, I just spent the most money I've ever spent on a camera, and I won't be able to use it as my main camera. It's a B camera. That that scared me. And then also, because of tax, by the time I got the camera, the battery grip, which is affordable, it's like 150 bucks. It's a good deal for a battery grip and extra battery, which isn't again, it's like $60 or something. But all that together with tax was just under $3,000. That is a lot of money. The only, the only other thing that's not a car or a house that I've spent anything close to that on is like a computer, like my 16-inch MacBook was $2,400. So that would be a very expensive purchase to not even be my main thing. And I started having like the sinking feeling in my stomach as I was on my bike ride of like, oh my God. Maybe that wasn't what I should have done right now. And then I realized I had seen on Canon Price Watch the R6 for $2,400, including tax, including shipping. And I kind of ignored the R6 because I just wasn't that excited about it. But I was like, it's full frame, it's autofocus, um, full frame 4K. It's autofocus, it fits in, same battery, same lenses, same ecosystem that I'm already a part of, same colors, not as exciting as the R5, but the R6, the thing that bothers me about the R6, and it takes cheaper memory cards than the R5 too. That's good. I hate that it doesn't have a top display. And I know there's probably R6 owners out there. I'm sure that if I got the R6 and used it for a few months, I'd be like, this camera's awesome. As is the case with most Canon cameras. But the top-down LCD missing bothers me because the only reason I know I'm speaking for Canon, but I've been following Canon closely since 2007. The only reason that the R6 does not have a top LCD, which is something I do use all the time on my R, and something that is on the R5, is to physically differentiate it from the R5, because otherwise they would look exactly the same, even though they have different sensors, different features, different all that stuff. If it had a top display, it would look exactly the same. That bothers me because every Canon camera that's like over a thousand dollars for forever for the last even pre-digital has had a top display. And it's an incredibly useful thing. And not only did they get rid of that, but they just replaced it with like literally the same little mode dial from the Rebels from their cheapest camera series. That that bothers me. There's other cameras. The the Black Magic has no top display, but it's off in its own world doing its thing. The Sony A7S3 doesn't have a top display, but it has different buttons, customizations, dials. Like they made use of that space to bring in new features without something like that. I don't know, that just bothered me, and it still had micro HDMI, but it made the most sense. So I was literally on my bike ride, canceled my blackmagic order on my phone, and then sent an email to Gordon at Canon Price Watch going like, hey, is this R6 deal still active? And he's like, Yes, it's $2,400 out the door, which means the R6 was going to be in total $600 cheaper than the Black Magic. And that's huge. So that made a lot of sense to me. And I was like, well, that's the way to go. And I was like, whew, I felt relieved that I didn't get a camera that was gonna end up not being right for my workflow. But I wasn't excited about it. Oh, and the other thing about the Black Magic is if you go on their website and you look at its specs, they say that it is made out of high-density carbon fiber polyurethane or something. Uh, which is plastic. It's basically got like the build quality of a Canon Rebel, but because it's so much bigger than a Canon Rebel, it feels like a little, you know, the grip feels really good, the screen feels really good, the ports feel really good, but the body itself, I don't know if you can hear this. It's it's just kind of plasticky feeling. Whereas, like, you know, here's the R, it's just the price on the same if you're just listening to the audio version. But things like the R, they're these really durable, rugged bodies. This is definitely something that you can see again, scratched, chipped, the fan vents on the inside, like it's just it's real plasticky, which is okay. You can put a cage around it to protect it, um, to give it more robust feelings. I don't think, you know, these are used in professional applications. I don't abuse my gear, but that bothered me. The build quality a little bit bothered me. Um, and the buttons are a little like weirdly plasticky, and you know, to pack all of these features into something at this price point, you have to make compromises somewhere. And that's one of the places I think Black Magic did it. Anyway, um, so I I was feeling relieved there, and I was going home and I was like, okay, cool. Canon R6, this is this is good. And I was just not excited. I was like, I'm gonna spend $2,400 on something that I am not even like that excited about. And I know it was gonna bring in new features. Once I used it, I'm sure that I would love it and and come to understand it. But I was just like, you know, at that point I was like, why am I even trying to choke this idea to life of getting a new camera? Like, who, like, can I just save the money and not do that? Wouldn't that be fine? And then I went back to like, but it's been months of you running into situations where you think a third camera would be good. So, okay, and you've decided, Tom, talking to yourself, that you don't want another R because this is a good chance to bring in new functionality, especially full frame 4K. Okay. If the cannons aren't going to work for you, because they're really expensive, well, the R the R6 would work, but it does still have overheating issues. Because the the thing is, and I know if you're listening to this and you have one of these cameras, you might say, like, hey Tom, I'm using it. I promise you, like, it's good. Don't worry about it. The overheating hype is blown out of proportion. Uh, I think so much of it depends on your workflow. And there's a couple people I know who have very similar workflows to me. They use their cameras in the same way, the same amount of time, they film very similarly, um, stream, all that kind of stuff. And they have issues with the R6 and the R5, but mainly the R6, like shutting down, turning off, even when it's not recording and stuff like that. And because our workflows are so similar, I can just see that those are probably problems that I would run into. That means that it's not going to be the best choice for me. And so I was like, okay, what like I'm just so frustrated at this point. Like, I just want, I just want a good, just want a good camera. You know, it's like if the R just did full frame 4K, it'd be done. Um and so I was thinking to myself, okay, what do you like, what do you actually want? And that was where the Sony A7S3 came into the picture. Because I was like, look, I know there's a lot of hype around this camera, but I think I've done a good job of distilling that from just the fanatics who Sony could sell, I don't know, a dog turd in a bag, and people would be like, it's got the best resolution ever. Um I think I I can filter that out. And there's enough evidence from the past seven months of it's a really good camera, especially if you're like a one-person online content creator crew kind of situation. It's reliable, it's got tons of features that are actually made for you. It's not like weirdly adapted to try to work for your workflow. It like it won't overheat. It's got a million different frame rates and and uh you know, whatever, all those options. Um, you got dual SD cards, you've got amazing autofocus, somehow even better than Canon, which is like Canon's autofocus is super good. Um, full size HDMI, like it's it's made for what you're doing with it. And and uh, you know, I think that that's that's an important thing to think of, an important thing to be aware of. And it was something I wanted, but it's so expensive. And so I got home, and one thing I love about there's a lot of things I love about my relationship with Heather, but one of them is that we never ever like ask permission to spend money. It doesn't mean we're we're irresponsible. Clearly, look at the agony I'm putting myself through here for a camera purchase. But we're like, I never have to ask for permission. Can I buy this? No, and she never has like if we want something, we get it at the end. But when something is really expensive, we definitely turn to the other for input and thoughts and feedback. And Heather, of course, she's like, I don't, I don't care what camera you use, you know, but it's a lot of money. And we have the discussion of well, Tom, if people like your channel because it seems to be relatable, seems to be down-to-earth, it seems to be accessible, and now you're using a $3,500 camera with an expensive lens, that is maybe not super relatable or accessible. And that bothered me because the R is still $1700 for a camera, still expensive, and you have to get a lens. Like, that's not cheap, but at least that is like attainable for the person who who I think you know is mostly drawn to my channel. It's within reason that they could at least save up for a while, hit that point. Like it's attainable, it's not super anxiety inducing. Beyond that, up in the 3000s and higher is a little different. But at the same time, like I also know my workflow, the stuff I'm looking for in a camera. I also know that there are people out there who literally do, you know, I do a lot of consultations with people who are like, this is what I want. I don't care about the price. I want it to be the best thing for my needs. And I find myself a lot of times actually recommending the Sony to people, even though I hadn't used it. I just sort of trusted the reputation enough. And so a big part of me was like, well, my R's going anywhere, aren't going anywhere, but the Sony is going to add, like, it's going to give me a foot in the door of the Sony ecosystem so I can understand that better because it seems a little foolish to shut off from that right now. And then also, it's going to let me speak to this camera. So if I talk to someone to help and you know, someone hires me as a consultant to help them build out a studio and I recommend this camera because it's for their needs, it's not because I heard it was good or a friend has it and it's good. It's because I understand it and I can speak to it. And I think that's really, really important. I also have a friend, you know, who started a YouTube channel last year, got the Canon M50, totally new to video, channels in a niche that's not like video production related. So production quality is not something that all the viewers are like, you know, picking apart over there. Got an M50 from Canon because it's a good camera. His channel unexpectedly completely blew up at the end of 2020 to like hundreds of thousands of subscribers, became the full-time job. He wanted to level up his production quality for his own, you know, just to make himself happy. And even not being a camera person, not being super production, just sort of did all the reviews and determined like the Sony is the best choice, spent the money on it, invested in it, even though I had to learn it all from scratch. And that did kind of show me, like, okay, you know, you're not 16 anymore, Tom. Like, you're an adult, and sometimes adults can have budgets or can at least save and get things going. And, you know, I I don't I would never encourage someone to be frivolous with their money, but you know, if something it's just scary to spend that much money on something, that's all. And just being aware of that and whatever. So anyway, it's like, yeah, I'm gonna get the Sony. And then I was saving myself by going, okay, I can get the Sigma adapter, and I don't need to buy a lens, that'll save me some money. And then, of course, I went, look, if you're going, if you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound, like you're you're buying this camera that's supposed to be amazing, it's supposed to have the best autofocus, best image quality, but then you're gonna potentially handicap it by adapting a lens that's not intended to be used for it, and then maybe be disappointed with something like the autofocus. Why not get at least one good lens? And that's what I did. And I've I've kind of always slacked it with lenses. I don't have a lot of camera lenses, so also getting a new camera without a new lens might not actually help my workflow because it could still be a limit because you can't use a camera without a lens. Um, and I usually try to get like, well, can I get the F4 version of a lens because it's cheaper? Can I get the Sigma version of a lens because it's cheaper? And this time I was like, I don't know nothing about Sony cameras. So I'm just gonna get the good lens. So I got the Sony Gmaster 24 1.4 with the A7S3. Uh, this thing that I'm holding in my hand right here is the most expensive thing that I have purchased that is not a car or a house in my lifetime, and that's terrifying. But it's so good. Like, and that was where things were different is like, okay, even uh Heather's just good at giving me permission to do stuff that even though like I shouldn't need permission for, but she just helps me mentally get over that. Where she was like, just get it. That's what you want, just get it. You know, she was tired of me talking about cameras anyway. Uh, as you can see, because we've been going for an hour, so imagine living with this. And uh, and so I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do that. I was so nervous, but anyway, made it, made the order, very excited. And then I actually kept that excitement. I was like, oh my God, I can't wait. Like I was refreshing the FedEx page and it got lost in Memphis for a while, and I was like, oh my god, it's not gonna get here when I thought it would get here. And ah, and is the I is the lens gonna get here before the camera or the camera before the lens, like, ah, you know, that was an excitement that when I ordered the black magic, I was excited and then nervous. When I thought I was gonna order the R6, I just wasn't excited. This was like, oh my god, I can't wait for Christmas. Like, please, please, please, I I want a new camera. I'm so excited for that. And that is still, now that I have it and I've used it a little bit, still there. Like, I want to go play with this camera right now, and that is really cool. Um, that kind of excitement, like I would say you can't put a price on that. Clearly, you can though, because it's the price of this camera. Uh, but that's that's anyway, that's my camera journey, I guess. And there's a couple other things that I want to bring up. So I wanted to share that because that is just what's been on my mind. And I know maybe it's helpful for someone who's looking at stuff, but also like I really want to help understand, help other people to understand the thought process process that can go into these things. Even when you see somebody post something on social media that's like, ah, picked up this. Maybe they are doing it frivolously and without much thought. But at least for me, I know like this is what, and this is months-long, you know, mental exercises and discussions to get to the point where could decide on something. And so if that journey is helpful to you, because maybe you're looking at some of these, I will I wanted to share that. I wanted to share that perspective and I don't know, just take you along for the ride. Also, a couple of things I've learned along the way. I think there's some lessons here. Renting equipment. I've talked about this a few times. I've rented lenses in the past. I just use lensrentals.com. There's other places, they're great. Um, that's awesome. Like getting to, you know, the black magic was $145 for seven days. It actually got delivered a little late, so they gave me some extra, they gave me 10 days. So that's a really good deal. Um, and it's enough time to like actually use it, test it, put it in your workflow, see what's gonna work, get hands-on experience for it. Um, definitely recommend renting stuff. They didn't have an A7S3 to rent, and they did have an R5, but I I made the decision before that. Um, and then so I would really recommend checking that out. And then a couple things. Now that I am one foot in Canon, one foot in Sony, I kind of wanted that specifically because everybody said don't do that, and I was like, no, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do exactly that. I've used the A7S3, I've done a lot of test stuff with it. The footage is amazing. I'm still learning it. It's crazy. Like, I feel like I'm brand new to cameras again because I I don't know. Like, even buying the lenses, like I know every Canon lens, I know their prices, when they were released, when they're likely to be updated, like I all of that for Canon bodies lenses. I know everything. For Sony, I'm like, I was ordering this lens and I have to go back and forth. Does this actually work on this camera? Like, what is this? GM gold, what is that? I know L series with the red ring. That's the high-end lens. G Master, that's kind of a dumb name. Like, is that is that a low-end lens? Is that their mid-range lens? No, that's their highest one because it's the gold master, it turns out. Oh, okay. Like all of those questions where I'm like, God, I haven't had to do this kind of research, but it's kind of fun. Like, it's kind of fun to go back to that and to learn things, which by the way, this lens, this 24mm 1.4 G master lens is awesome. Um, because the focus, it's like made for video. The focus is so smooth and so like it's got like a long focus. So if you're doing manual stuff, it's awesome. It has a button on the side that you can program to anything, which so I think we're gonna wrap up just what I've my thoughts on the A7S3 and Sony versus Canon and all that stuff so far. Um, you can customize basically every button on this camera. You can also do that with Canon cameras, but Canon sometimes will limit you on like, you can't customize this button. Um, or you can customize this button, but only with these few options. So if you use a Canon lens that has a control ring, you can change that, but it's just a select few. Sony is like, you can do whatever. Like every button could be the same, every button could be some obscure menu function, whatever you want. So there's a button on the side of the lens, but it can literally be like whatever you want the camera to do. I have it set to turn on the rule of thirds grid. So when I want to see like the grid display, that's what turns on there. It's cool. Um, and then I did get the adapter, so I can still use my Canon lenses, even though most of it's in manual focus with this, I can still do that. But this lens also has you can you can have auto aperture or you can put it into manual aperture. A lens with manual that's crazy. And there's a button on the side that lets you declick the aperture. So if it's clicked, and maybe you can hear this, you can feel each position of the aperture blades. And if you de-click it, if you turn it off, then it's smooth. There's if you're doing a lot of video, usually you want a smooth aperture if you're gonna be changing it, you know, manually or something. To get that, a lot of times people will send in lenses to be de-clicked, and that's super expensive and it takes a long time. And this just has it built, it's so cool. Um, I love that. And of course, the quality is just phenomenal. So that's been great. Um, the camera itself, having used lightly used Sony cameras in the past and not being impressed with them, I did not expect to like the ergonomics, but this camera is really nice to use, like it's really well built, same you know, build quality as the Canons, which I hold as like the high standard canon Canon build quality is awesome. Um, but they changed just enough on this where it's like everything is positioned in the right spot. The grip is really big, it feels I didn't expect it to feel as good as it does, like when you're using it, and I love that about it. I mentioned here I can I'll uh if you're watching the video version, we'll show you some stuff. I mentioned that there's no top-down display, which is a bummer, but there are, oops, sorry, I mean to bump the mic, there are a lot of dials and things. So you have um, you know, you have custom buttons all over the place, you have a record button, you have different dials that you can set to things. The mode dial, which is a high quality dial, R6. Um, you can easily switch between these custom modes. So I have like three custom modes on this camera. One of them is set to I watched, I watched Matt Johnson's videos. Highly recommend his channel. Um, he has lots of videos about the A7S3. He's the first person, like, he's the one who convinced me that I should get a drone license like four years ago. I love his channel. Like, I probably wouldn't have actually started my YouTube channel when I did without him. So thanks, Matt. I don't know you, but thank you. And uh he has two videos, like an hour and a half total, of every menu function of the Sony and then how to customize everything really well. So, what I did was I took most of his his advice and I changed some things, but I have custom function one, which you just flip to super easily, is my normal filming settings for video. Videos. Custom function two is for streaming and being connected to the ATEM because it switches to 30 FPS. And then custom function three is 4K because or not 4K, 120, because that's cool. There are custom buttons just all over this thing in addition to any of the regular buttons that you can customize, which is really, really cool. So you can map out the camera where basically you can do everything you need to do without having to dive into a menu. And like I said earlier, any button can do anything that you want. And that's cool. It does have new menus. Having used the uh RX100 Mark V, this has the old Sony menu system, so confusing to recognize where stuff is. This one's a lot better. I'd say it's as easy to use as a Canon menu, which is good. None of them are as good as Blackmagic. Blackmagic's menus are just so freaking good. The one complaint I have though, let me see if I can show this. Um for those of you watching, the one complaint. Well, I have two, I have a couple little issues with this camera, but as far as customizing goes, there's a dial on top. And if you know a way around this, if you're a Sony person and you have a solution to this, there's a metering dial, like an exposure compensation dial on the top that has this amazing clicky button. Listen to this. How satisfying is that? It's got a little clicky lock button and then you can twist it. If you use the camera in manual mode, you basically never use this dial because you're adjusting your exposure manually. And you can't customize it. I would love to be able to like set this to something else and actually use this amazing and wonderfully tactile dial. Tactile dial. Um, like I don't know, audio levels even would be really fun to adjust with that, but I don't know. That's something I would I would love. I also was able to use the less expensive memory cards. They're still expensive, like a V90 card is still not cheap, but nowhere near as expensive as like a CF Express card, and that can record every format for the camera except for 4K120. The video file size is very interesting. It's not much greater than the EOS R for the most part in 1080, which the EOS R is holding up incredibly well in terms of image quality. Um, obviously not as much dynamic range because it's 8-bit versus 10-bit. Um, but the image quality holds up, but it was so interesting. Yesterday I was doing, I guess I was using not the I don't know what Sony calls it. I guess I was using the equivalent of IPB, which still looked really good. Um, but yesterday I used this on my first actual video, and so I had the Sony recording as my main camera. I had both the R's going. I record about 40 minutes of video total, and the R's produced 25 gigs of video each, and the Sony produced 28. And I was expecting like, oh my god, the memory card's gonna run out. So that's cool. I did switch it to their all eye equivalent. I still am so new to Sony stuff, I don't know. And it um it increased, it increased more, but it's crazy because with the R, if I f if I do film like a talking head part in 4K with the R, if it were 40 minutes, it would have be 400 gigabytes or something, it'd be insane. So I'm actually happy that the workflow, the file size and stuff aren't as insane as I was expecting them to be off this camera. And the Mac Mini is editing them just fine, so that's cool. Um the build quality is great. All of the in-out ports are designed really well. This sounds like a video review now, but I'm just just letting you know. The cool thing is with like a Canon camera or any other camera I've used, you open up the little flaps over your ports, and it's kind of a rubber thing that just sort of hangs there, or it can potentially get in the way. I really, really like on the A7S3, they're little doors that are like hinged open, and so you open them and they just stay open and out of the way. Um, you got full HDMI in there, that's amazing. Uh, everything is like super nice. The one thing though that is weird, the screen, I'm not complaining because it's a Sony camera with a flip-out screen. That's something happy, just happy with that. But it is a small screen and it's a four by three aspect ratio, which is just totally bizarre. Like the EOSR that came out in 2018 is a 16 by 9 screen that's larger. Touch touch interactivity on both of these is nice, like it they're very accurate and easy to use, but the Canon screen is so much it's better resolution, it's widescreen as it should be. Whereas this is four by three and it's confusing because it's a video centric camera. Why is it four by three? I can get over that, except when it's connected via HDMI. If you set it to output the info, normally when I film my videos, I have my monitor here next to me and I see all the info on there, so I can check my audio levels, I can do all that stuff. It outputs the whole image at four by three, which is so bizarre. Um it's just bizarre. I don't know what I don't know why to say that. Uh it's very, very strange. I wish it didn't do that. And that's, I mean, that's like it. That's like my gripe so far. Otherwise, autofocus is incredible, image quality is amazing. The R still holds up. Yesterday, filming the video with both the R's and the A7S3 for the first time, it was super easy to make a match pretty well. I think I could probably do a little bit better, but like I literally just put my preset that I use for the Rs. I filmed an S cinatone, put my preset on the footage, and it was like 90% matched, and I just had to change basically in the R's, I just had to take away a little magenta, go towards the green. On the Sony, I had to take away some green, go a little towards the magenta, and then they matched almost perfectly and just play with exposure and stuff. So as far as having both together, not an issue. Like it they they all work great together. Um, it definitely does get warm, like no overheating issues, obviously, and no record limit, which is actually amazing because believe it or not, I can actually talk for long periods of time sometimes. Um, but it does get warm, like the R's never get warm. This definitely does get warm. Um, so yeah, so there's that. I guess the other question that I should dive into an hour and 12 minutes into this, if you're here, you're in it to win it. So, or you were up on a ladder and you fell down and you're like pinned to the ground now and you have no choice but to listen to me continue. By the way, I'm sorry if that's what happened to you. But the other question I got recently, so yeah, when I got the camera, the way I revealed it, I was really proud of this. I wanted to even take it a step further, but I didn't. Instead of just telling people when I posted, like, hey, camera decision made, everybody was guessing, and that's when I decided, like, oh, don't tell them, like, wait till the camera's here and then show them. And then I was like, Oh, I'm gonna have fun with it, especially because when I had posted that thing that said camera decision made, it was the black magic. But then I ended up canceling the order, and the camera that came as a Sony, so it was kind of funny. And I was like, okay, here I'm gonna make a little video clip, and it was like, here's the new camera, and then I panned down to the black magic, and I was like, oh no, it's not the black magic, that's my rental. And then it was like, it's the Sony, but it was the box for my my 1989 handicam. I was like, oh no, it's not sorry, let me get this old Sony box out of the way, and I moved the box to reveal the actual camera, which was the EOSR box, because people were like, you know, just get another R. So I was like, uh that's what made the most sense, right? It's an EOSR, and then I opened the box, but in the box was the Sony. I don't know. I thought that was like hilarious. I don't know if it was, I thought it was. Um, but after that, and of course, you know, people are like, yay, okay, a new camera. And I don't want to like brag about my purchases on social media and stuff, but that's a fun thing to talk about cameras. I did get questions though, two other questions, which was like, okay, cool. Tom, if you're in this price range now, what about the Canon C70? What about the Sony FX3? So I'll wrap up by talking about those in case you're considering them too or wondering. The C70, and I guess I guess the other thing to think of, sorry, I just have thoughts, the other thing to think of is future releases. So I was looking, okay, I don't want to buy a camera now that might not fit for me, and then in two months a new one comes out. Sony will likely release new cameras this year because they have just been relentless basically since the S3 came out with lenses. They did the A7C. Um, they've just been like, like, I don't know, it's like they saw a weakness with Canon. They like fumbled a little bit and then they just went in like for the throat. Um, so I have a feeling Sony will release the Sony A7. Of course, they're gonna release a Sony camera, the A7 IV at some point this year, which I do like that they clearly delineate their camera lines. Canon denies this, but 100% it's what they do. They do inhibit features on their cameras to protect the cinema lineup. And again, marketing, it's stupid because they it's like they think, oh, if the R5 had all these features, nobody would buy a C-Series camera. No, that's like it's not like they're choosing between a $4,000 camera and a $7,000 camera or a $10,000, like they're choosing between this $4,000 camera or another company's $4,000. Like, ugh, it's so frustrating. And Canon always says, no, we would never do that. But clearly the way that they weirdly limit stuff, even like the 30-minute record limit, is is to protect the cinema series. And I don't know. What I like about the Sony lineup, for better or worse, is they're they're happy to delineate stuff. And so my understanding, as a newbie, is the A7S series is video focused with some photo capabilities. The A7R series is photo focused with some video capabilities, probably more in line with like the R5, the R6, and then the A7, like the A7 III, A7 IV is the hybrid camera where it's like it can do both, but it's not like the be all end all of either. Um, so it's probably in a lot of ways probably the most practical choice. Um, but I figured if I'm gonna make the leap to Sony, I want their best video offering that makes sense for me. Um, I don't want to just like I'm not just desperately trying to like throw chaos into my workflow. So that's why it made sense to do this one. Um looking ahead, Canon is likely going to release the R5C, which is pretty much confirmed at this point, a cinema version of the R5, which will probably be awesome. Um, obviously they'd fix overheating, I'm sure they'd add in features like full-size HDMI. I don't know if they would limit photo capabilities, but if the pass is any indication, like the 1DC, the R5C would be um probably more expensive than the R5. And the R5 is already still uh is already the most expensive of the ones I was looking at. And from what I have seen, it's likely that that would be released late this year, early next year. So that's pretty far. So in my mind, it's like, okay, I don't need to, and Canon's not gonna do like the R5 Mark II for you know three or four years. Sony's not gonna do the A7S4 for four or five years. So it's like, okay, this is this is the current lineup. Um, what about the Canon C70? They released the R5, and then they released, hey, here is like a compact cinema camera. If you're a video person, boom, right here, this is a dedicated video camera. It will not overheat, it's got a super cool form factor, all these awesome features, built-in NDs. Um, and it seems like the C70 has found a home in a lot of people's workflows, and it seems like it delivers good results. However, it's $5,500, so it is $2,000 more in the A7S3. It's $1,500 more, $1,600 more than the R5. It's a super 35 sensor, so you're paying that much more money for not a full frame sensor. I'm a full frame guy. I just it is what it is. And it also doesn't have as good autofocus as the R5. Like why they wouldn't just take the autofocus from the R5, which is amazing, and put it in that. I don't know. I don't know. They didn't, they didn't, though. And that's bizarre. Um, and then there's the FX3, which is also bizarre because it's it's the A7S3, it's the exact same sensor, exact same menu, exact same settings in a different body, and called a cinema camera. Um, and it's actually pretty cool though, because it does have active cooling, it's got the fan, it's got a the body's, you know, it's different, it's got built-in mounts so you can attach all these things directly to the camera. It's got the tally lights, um, and it comes with that really stable top handle. I love top handles on cameras, I'm a huge fan of that. Um, and then that adds in XLR ports and stuff. So it's I see that, but it's four or five hundred dollars more expensive than the A7S3. And in terms of what camera it is, what image quality and features you're getting there, it is the exact same camera as A7S III. So it feels like that extra price is because you're paying for the top handle and there's no option to get it without that. Um, had those two been the same price, I you lose the viewfinder, which since none of these are like the black magic, and if you're out in the bright sunlight, it's going to be hard to see the screen. The viewfinder is helpful. But if they were the same price, I might have leaned towards the FX3 just for like the mounting options and and that kind of stuff. But the viewfinder and the lower price make the A7S III make a lot more sense. Um, so that's I think that's as exhaustive as I can be with my crazy, crazy camera stuff. But the other thing, I guess, the thing that I'll wrap up with is Raphael Ludwig, who was on season season one, episode one of this season, and a great guy and far more knowledgeable about the technical side of things than I am. He's a very big proponent of the idea of don't buy a camera by a brand. Because if Sony comes out with a new camera and you jump on that, and next year Canon comes out with a new camera and you jump on that, you're gonna find yourself in a situation where you've got different colors, you've got different workflows, different file formats, different batteries, different lenses, and that's like you're just throwing friction into your workflow. And that is true. It absolutely is. Um, however, in this case, being able to work with some adapted lenses when needed, running two different battery systems is annoying, but everything else I use, my other cameras, even my slider, all use the same Canon batteries. So that's not a huge problem. And the A7S3 gets good battery life, so this runs its own batteries. Um, obviously, it's kind of confusing to go like this menu system works this way, and this menu system works that way. Um, so there's you know, little friction there. Matching the colors takes time. But what's really neat is jumping into Sony, there's a lot of little things where it's like, wow, I can do this now, I can do this now. It's like, and I don't think that's going from Canon to Sony. I think that's just going from one system to another system. I think if I had shot Sony for a lot of years and I bought a Canon camera, I'd be like, wow, we can do this and this. That's crazy. Um, so that kind of thing is is kind of cool, and you're not gonna get that. There's just certain things Sony will not do in their cameras, certain things Canon will not do, but other companies will do. I'm sure I'd feel the same if I got like a Panasonic or something. Like, oh my gosh, like you need to get all this this much camera for this price. Are you serious? Um, and that's kind of cool. Like, I like I kind of like being able to explore both worlds a little bit and see the benefits and the actual pros and cons of them. I like developing a workflow where I'm using both of them side by side, hopefully in a way that's practical, not necessarily for everybody, but at least for me. I like that like I don't, I mean, definitely buy the best tool for the job. I it makes sense to invest in a brand, but also just looking at like I drove myself crazy and almost got to the point where I was going to invest $2,400 in a camera that I wasn't even that excited about just because it seemed the most practical based on my workflow and my purchase decisions that I had made starting in 2007, versus what do I actually need and want right now? Oh, that's actually more expensive, but it might deliver more of what I want. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, if you're still listening to this, I love you. Uh we're clearly friends now because wow. Uh, I just wanted to get all this out. I I like talking about cameras. I haven't really, you know, Heather's tired of me talking about cameras. If you've been following, you know, any of my social media stuff, you know that I've been throwing this camera decision back and forth. And I wanted to expand on that a little bit, especially because it is very common for people to just sort of flex their purchases on social media, and I didn't want to be guilty of that without also providing like this was not a whim. Like, this is everything that went into this idea and why. And when you hear like, I feel like I'm gonna sneeze again. When you hear like you're getting a third camera for your workflow, what is the reason for that? Here's the reason for that. So that kind of stuff. Um, I just wanted to shine some light on that. And if you're somebody, you know, like me who is thinking of any of these options, here are some of my thoughts. I'll probably do some videos on it at some point, but my channel's definitely moved so much away from being a camera channel that I'm, you know, I don't know when or if or what that would even look like necessarily. So um this was kind of where you got my review of that. Plus, it was really fun to bring out all my old handy cams and stuff. So if you're watching the ver the ver the video version of this, I can talk, I swear. Um it's it's fun to go through that. It's been fun for me to like, I know they're just brands and they're corporations and they don't none of them care about me at all, but like, I don't know, there's something about like, oh, Canon was like my first quote unquote real camera. Sony was my first video camera. It's fun to like, look, I have Canon and Sony cameras together, and you know, here's this. It's fun, like having been into cameras and video and all stuff for that long, to have a tool that not only brings new functionality to the table, but also like forces me to go back and relearn some of the basics. And I don't know, you know, it's it's just like I feel like it's keeping me excited and fresh about all that. So oof, that's so much right there. Um, if you have any thoughts about this, I would love to hear them. Feel free to, you know, send me a message on social media at SoderonTom. You can also, if you want to use the email for this podcast, which is tom at enthusiasmproject.com, you can send me a message there. You could also attach a voice message if you want. If you have a response, you want to type it out or whatever, you just want to talk and do that, feel free to do that. And I can add that into next week's episode if you want to. We used to do that when I was hosted on Anchor a lot, but it's a little, a little less fluid at the moment. Um, but you can always send a thing to Tom at enthusiasmproject.com or just send me messages elsewhere. Uh, and again, if you want to see the video version of this, which does typically come out um a few days earlier before the other one when I do a video version, you can go to patreon.com slash tombuck or sign up for channel memberships on the YouTube channel. Just click the join button right next to the subscribe button now. How can I do my outro? Oh, there we go. There's the song. So I have to play it on the Rodcaster, but then for the video version, now I'm playing the intro thing. All right. Well, anyway, thank you guys for being here. It's been a it's been fun. Stay safe, have fun, and I'll see you next week.
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