of all the questions in the film making world the one that's both the most fun but also the most frustrating to answer is what camera should I buy for documentary film making like should I spend the extra money on an fx6 or is it better to save some cash and start out with an fx3 or an fx30 or do I need a massive rig like an fx9 if I want to be a professional or maybe what do you think about the Panasonic GH series or the black magic pocket Cinema cameras well what if I told you that maybe the right answer to these questions is none of them the number of choices there are when it comes to spending money on a camera is getting out of control and for a lot of us it's one of the biggest Investments we're going to make in our film making careers especially early on there's always a new upgrade just around the corner that promises to be the best camera ever made and sort of makes you feel like you won't be able to make good work if you don't own one and before you think I'm making another one of those why gear doesn't matter videos I'm not because gear definitely does matter and pretending it doesn't is just bad advice but odds are you might be thinking about this decision all wrong and there's a good chance that the best cinema camera for you is sitting right under your nose and you can probably get it for a lot cheaper than you might think so in this video I'm going to break down how I approach looking for new cameras how to get more for your money and then at the end I'll give you a couple of suggestions for what I'd syn my money into if I was going to buy something today so let's get into it okay so before I get started if you're new here or if you've missed the last few videos I still up in the Arctic on a three-month shoot hence the outdoor studio for this video I'm a full-time do DP and I make these videos on the side so I'm just putting that out there in case you were wondering what I'm doing sitting in the freezing Woods I'm just going to cover my hands up real quick but to get back to the topic at hand in terms of where I'd spend my money if I were looking for a new camera right now I want to share the fact that in nearly 15 years of professional photography and cinematography I've only ever bought one new camera and that's the fx3 filming this video right now every other camera from the Nikon d700 that I started my photo journalism career with to the fx9 that's my my current aam I bought them all secondhand and the only reason that I bought the fx3 new was because at the time I needed it both as a bcam and to start up this YouTube channel it was so new on the market that I couldn't find a used one to buy or I would have so why am I telling you all this well mainly because I think that for a lot of camera buyers out there whether you're just getting started or if you've been in the game for a while already you might be overspending on depreciating assets and you could actually have access to much better gear By ignoring new cameras all together let's imagine that you're at the start of your film making journey and you're looking to invest in your first serious kit I'm also going to assume here that you don't have an unlimited budget because if you do that's amazing and I'm very jealous but this video doesn't really apply to you for all of us normal people though for who buying a camera is a big investment uh ignoring the latest tech means you might be able to shoot your first film on a camera that was used to shoot an Oscar winning dock rather than an entry-level mirror list that you'll grow out of in a couple of years let me give you an example have you ever seen the National Geographic show trafficked well if you haven't I can tell you that it's an amazingly well-shot show largely thanks to the DP Fred Manu who's a veteran in the business and who shot for classic dog shows like Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and a ton of other great stuff I've had the pleasure of working with Fred twice personally including on traffic and once before on a Netflix show called The Business of drugs and trust me he's as good as they get and if you need any more proof of the quality of the show this year it was nominated for nine yes nine Emmy Awards so it's not like this is some obscure show that no one's ever seen this Show's been running for three seasons and it's one of nao's Flagship series and so it's fair to assume that they could shoot with pretty much any camera system they wanted so what do you think they went for a red an Alexa mini no all right then well surely something Cutting Edge and at the top of the market when it comes to dual native isos fullframe sensors blazing fast autofocus and the most modern color science there is right also no okay well at least it was made within the last 10 years though right sorry all also know they're using a Sony F5 a camera that was first released all the way back in 2012 and that you had to buy a huge extension unit for just to be able to shoot in 4k because as it ships it can only do 1080 HD natively doesn't have a full-frame sensor the low light performance is mediocre at best it weighs a ton and right now you can get one on eBay for just $1,800 bucks which is $300 less than the a7c Mark I was going to cost and I dare anybody out there to watch an episode of traffic and tell me it doesn't look amazing or that it would have been better if only they used a newer camera now obviously there's more that goes into shooting a show like that than just the camera body and the fact that for the episode I shot on we used nice lenses and took our time to set up motivated lighting all that stuff makes a huge difference so it's not like I'm saying you can just grab an F5 off eBay and expect to get identical results decades if not even a century of combined experience went into making that show look amazing but what didn't play a factor at all was insisting on using brand new cameras now if you're still not convinced right now I'm shooting a big name Survival show that I can't talk about for legal reasons that's streaming on both Amazon and Netflix and we're using fs7 Mark 1's which were released in 2014 and we have a budget of about a million dollars in episode so it's not like we can't afford something different now is the fs7 mark1 the greatest camera ever no it's almost 10 years old do I wish it had the variable ND that newer Sony's have for sure that would be great has the technology advanced since the fs7 was launched almost a decade ago yeah absolutely but can I really tell a difference in the footage at the end of the day honestly not really the fs7 is built like a tank it handles being rained on and snowed on and I constantly abuse it and mostly it just keeps on working and if it didn't we could just replace it without breaking the bank I literally just saw a posting on eBay right now for 1,300 bucks and last week there was another fs7 going for even less than that I even saw a package an hour ago that comes with extra batteries xqd cards wooden camera accessories like a top handle 15 mm rails and like a gold mount adapter it's selling for about two grand which is still less than an a7c and this isn't about bashing the a7c because I'm sure it's going to be an awesome camera pretty much all cameras are solid these days Beyond a certain price point if you were doing YouTube talking head videos or if you needed something you could toss in a backpack for casual shoots the a7c might even be a better choice than a rigged out Cinema package that's big and heavy but if I wanted to shoot a serious dock or some long form verite film following characters over time with great audio and the ability use Classic Cinema lenses I would personally pick the fs7 every time even if it's a decade older so what does that that mean for you well hopefully it's a motivator to get on eBay or Facebook Marketplace and start hunting around for Great Deals On quote unquote obsolete gear after a quick scan on eBay this morning while researching for this video I found all sorts of insane pricing on things like c300s fs7 F5s F S5s and all sorts of other stuff that's capable of delivering a Netflix quality show or film and every single option is available for less than the price of Sony's current entry level full-frame mirror list and just to head this off since I'm guessing a bunch of people right now are saying but what about run times I have literally never witnessed a camera dying because of being used for too many shooting hours I know that everyone likes to advertise how low this number is when they sell their stuff but for me it's pretty much a non-issue I mean okay if a camera ran for 10,000 hours or something maybe give it a pass but it's so rare for a camera to die from overuse that I personally don't think it's even worth thinking about water damage or dropping it will kill it fast but runtime not likely except in extreme cases at least in my experience anyways hey guys future Luke here I just wanted to jump in for a second while we're talking about getting the best value out of our film making Investments to tell you about the best deal I've ever found when it comes to royalty-free music for your projects and that's the sponsor of today's video audio I don't really accept many sponsorship offers on this channel mainly because I don't want to promote things that I don't personally use and believe in myself but since I genuinely use audio as my main source of Music both for for this Channel and for my personal projects it's something that I'm actually happy to recommend to you we all know what royalty-free music sites are for getting music and sound effects to use in your films without getting sued so there's no point in me rehashing a bunch of numbers about the thousands of songs and tens of thousands of sound effects you can get on audio because you probably already know what to expect but what really sets audio apart for me and makes them one of the best investments you can make in your film making workflow is the value to cost ratio because it is incredible for viewers of this channel use the code Luke 70 at checkout you're going to get a full year of Pro Plan access for the entire library for just $59 and if you've ever looked around for services like this in the past and I've personally used pretty much all of them you'll know that this is about a quarter of the price that you can normally expect it's an incredible deal for a One-Stop shop for all the music and sound effects you're going to need it's run by great people who really care about the creators using their service and it'll help support this Channel at the same time so thanks to audio for being a longtime friend of the channel and now let's get back to the video now obviously buying a used camera presents some risks and you need to do your due diligence I'm not saying you should just grab any lowball offer you find on the internet because you could get burned if you're not careful but there is so much life left in high-end gear and ignoring it because it's not new means losing out on potentially getting your hands on way better gear than you could afford otherwise I bought my first Cinema Camera the old fs5 Mark 1 used and I also bought my fx9 used like I said combined I saved over $5,000 off the full retail prices of those cameras which is enough that I could have bought a Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic a set of Wireless Labs with an upgraded sank and cosos 11 mic a full set of U Sigma Primes from 24 up to 85 and still probably had a bit of cash left over to me that's a no-brainer I also could have gone out and shot a full short film with that money so what would I be looking for if I was shopping around for deals right now well that sort of depends on what stage of your career you're at I'm just use Sony as a reference point here because it's what I'm most familiar with and because they're probably the current market leaders in Doc anyways but if you were just starting out I'd say an fs7 Mark I package could be great the Mark I comes with the variable ND which I think is worth the extra money over the Mark 1 and I just saw one on eBay that comes with memory cards batteries a 24 to 105 lens a 7 mil fisheye lens an extension arm to use as a shoulder rig and multiple adapters to get other brands of lenses on it for $2,250 I've used pretty much exact Al this package to film 4K shows for Netflix showtime and National Geographic and if I were just starting out today I'd be insanely excited to have something like this in my kit rather than the DSLR I started with or go even cheaper and get an fs5 Mark I for like 16 or700 bucks I don't want to sound too harsh here but if you can't film a beautiful documentary with an fs7 or an fs5 you're not going to be able to do it with an fx6 or an Alexa LF for that matter over time you can invest in a good monitor Pro Audio setup aof solid tripod and a few more lenses and then when you eventually start making better money with your film making you can upgrade to an fx6 or fx9 or whatever exist then and move all your accessories over to the new body now if I were already well established I might look for something a little bit more modern but I'd still absolutely go used I just did a quick Facebook Marketplace search and found an fx6 package with batteries and CF Express cards for 5,000 bucks all in when you factor in taxes that's probably almost $2,000 off the full retail price of all those things combined including tax of course and you could use that cash to grab a PR grade audio setup that's going to last you 5 to 10 years or use the cash as a budget for a spec project and get out there and start shooting the same thing goes for an fx9 I just found a basic package on Facebook for $9,000 with just two days of use on it which is pretty much brand new and when you factor in taxes it's like $2,000 cheaper than buying new it's like a 20% discount just for not being able to remove the shrink wrap I think of cameras a lot like cars they're a depreciating asset that lose a huge amount of their value the second you take them off the lot personally I'd rather let someone else eat that loss and get something that's still incredibly powerful with a lot of life left in it even if it's a tiny bit less shiny and on top of all of that is the fact that the camera industry is such an insane contributor to Global waste that insisting on buying new is just unsustainable in the long run but whether or not you care about the environmental aspect or not if you're only considering what's brand new you're missing out because no matter what stage of your career at you could be getting better cameras for less money and spending the savings on actually going out and shooting a project or upgrading the things that matter like audio or monitors or tripods so there we go my take on why I never buy new gear if I can help it and hopefully it got you to think twice about hitting that buy button before seeing what deals are out there just waiting to be scooped up you might just find that you can afford a lot more camera than you thought see [Music] you [Music] if
