Prairie Film Co. feat. Sony Alpha Series
Over the past week we've been relishing in some pretty exciting developments! We recently traded in all of our Canon video gear for brand new Sony cameras! Our evolution of camera gear has gone through various cycles, depending on what met our needs and budget at the moment. Through it all we've always been pushing towards owning gear that pushes the industry standard and delivers a quality product for our clients.
For Camera Nerds
Years ago we started shooting on the Canon T3i. They were great cameras, shooting quality video in the right conditions. After that we made the jump to the full frame Canon 6D. We loved the 6D for their rugged durability and video performance, but couldn't get passed how much they weighed. During year and a bit shooting on the 6D we used a 60D as our third and back up camera. We liked the compactness of the 60D and the fact that it took the same batteries as the 6D was ideal for our shooting situations. Our 6Ds saw plenty of use and a wide assortment of glass. We loved our Canon glass, but had a couple pieces that we felt underperformed for our purposes.
After much thought and saving, we went ahead and purchased two Sony A7sii cameras, as well as a Sony RX10ii. In regards to the A7sii, the selling feature was the low light performance. Quality low light performance is a wedding videography must-have. Wedding receptions are often in poorly lit environments where introducing heavy artificial light would be both distracting and obtrusive. Therefore, we need a camera that can effective see in the dark, without introducing an overwhelming degree of noise. Our search started and stopped with Sony. We were so impressed at the reviews that we saw that we didn't need much convincing to help us make the purchase.
In regards to the Sony RX10ii, we were introduced to this camera by a fellow Winnipeg wedding videographer at a social gathering. After that we looked into it a little further and explored its incredible frame rate feature. With the ability to shoot upwards for 960 frames per second, the RX10ii was a cool tool to have in our bag. Furthermore, it takes the place of the Canon 60D as a backup / third as with it's fixed 70-200mm lens we are able to get tight on the couple without being invasive.
Finally, we need to mention the beauty of Sony Steadyshot. The internal stabilization on all three of our new Sony cameras has been great. No one likes having to clean up shaky footage in post production, and Steadyshot allows us to quit worrying about shake, and instead invest our time into framing and capturing beautiful footage.
For Everyone Else
We made the switch from Canon to Sony cameras for the following reasons: a.) Sony Cameras are substantially lighter in weight, b.), Sony Cameras are exponentially better in low light environments, like a wedding reception or indoor ceremony space, and c.) Sony Cameras allow for a higher quality of recording and increased frame rates (slow motion) which was previously unavailable in the Canon models we had.
Final Thoughts
It is widely accepted that over the past few year Sony has been paving the way for cameras which are beneficial to wedding and independent videographers. Many of our peers in the Winnipeg videography industry have also switched to these powerful yet compact cameras. We're admittedly pretty hard bandwagon jumpers, but hey, if if it helps make our videos even more beautiful, then we're in!