Shrinking camera gap

Definition

At a recent presentation to the Hollywood Professional Association the postproduction entrepreneur Michael Cioni demonstrated just how far the gap between high end cine cameras and consumer imaging had shrunk.

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He made a side-by-side comparison of footage from an ARRI Alexa Mini, a Fuji GFX100 and a iPhone 16. All were fitted with the same Nikon Prime lenses and shot the same lighting conditions.

“You can see in these results that a camera that costs closer to $100,000 [Alexa] and $1,000 [iPhone] are not that dramatically different. This is visual proof that accessibility has got so narrow that we need to think twice about it.”

Cioni was urging studios and streamers to relax their thinking around the types of equipment that should be used to create cinema and TV content otherwise creators and YouTubers will use technology that is so much less costly and virtually indistinguishable in quality to beat them.

There are signs that this is happening but it is being led by auteur directors and DPs prepared to think outside the box. They are not necessarily choosing inexpensive cameras to fit lower budgets but for greater flexibility in storytelling. What these cameras tend to have in common is their smaller size, making them perfect for run-and-gun filmmaking, while also supporting a wide range of accessories for more complex productions.

RED Komodo

The RED Komodo-X has found a solid niche as B-cam on projects including Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga where Simon Duggan ASC, ACS deployed a five camera Komodo rig for background plates and another set mounted on sliders attached to the undercarriage of the War Rig vehicle.

The camera contains the same image science as stable mates like V-Raptor making for consistency in cutting. At less than $3000 multiple Komodo can be rigged on set and if one gets trashed it won’t break the budget.

“F1 cars are so low to the floor there was limited room for us to grip so the Komodo’s weight and size was essential for us to rig multiple bodies as crash cams,” explained Azul Serra, ABC about the action sequences for Netflix series Senna.

The box-format V-Raptor body itself weighs just over 4 lbs and can be mounted on a drone for first person view (FPV) sequences. The Helicopter Girls has pioneered this using a gimballed FPV on projects including on a woodland chase sequence on Wicked: For Good for 2nd unit DP Sam Renton; on Stuntnuts: The Movie for Ben Davis BSC; and for a FPV of racehorses Downton Abbey 3 for Ben Smithard BSC.

“What’s remarkable about that shot is that it doesn't look like it could possibly be from a FPV drone,” says Helicopter Girls co-founder Emma Boswell. “It looks like it should be from a tracking vehicle or a wire-cam. It's an astonishing sequence.”

Director Kazik Radwanski and DP Nikolay Michaylov made Komodo their A camera for indie romance Matt and Mara, in part to meet 4K deliverables.

“Given its the size of a Rubik's Cube Komodo complemented our shooting style, which is very documentary, run-and-gun and very self-sufficient,” says Michaylov. “But it’s also a camera that can be transformed into more of a studio build, which we required for some sequences in the film.”

Sony Venice

Similarly, Sony Venice has been used in its Rialto extension mode to cram multiple cameras into tight spaces. The sensor can record a full 6K in large format suitable for IMAX and way beyond the quality that action-cams like GoPro could achieve.

Claudio Miranda ASC fitted six Venice into the cockpit of an F-18, and another four externally for aerial photography of Top Gun: Maverick. Multiple Venice were placed aboard sets for AppleTV+ saga Masters of the Air.  Erik Messerschmidt ASC rigged nine Venice on fast driving cars for Micheal Mann’s 2023 biopic Ferrari.

Sony just launched an even smaller extension system which is the size of a smartphone. The system can also be used to shoot stereoscopically. When two units are placed side by side, the distance between the two sensors is only 64mm, mimicking the average distance between our own pupils.

“You can operate it like a medium format stills camera and shoot from the waist if needed,” says Kate Reid BSC who shot a test film for Sony directed by the Lynch Brothers inside a replica 2x2x2m space capsule.

One-ers

The current vogue for movies and episodes shot in single takes is possible because of the combined light weight and image quality of camera tech.

Philip Lozano, AFC chose V-Raptor because it was half the weight of Alexa to shoot 88-minute single shot indie horror MadS. Another factor was the ability to record 6K RAW without changing media for at least 90 minutes.

“I didn’t want to start shaking involuntarily because my muscles were tired,” Lozano says. “Nor did I want to photograph with a lower spec camera. The whole package including camera, rig, battery, lens was only 12 kilos but you still need core strength to be able to control the wides and the tight shots.”

A specially designed rig gave Lozano the ability to stabilize the horizontal movement. “The idea was that I could move the cameras as if I had a Steadicam or dolly as well as handheld.”

The DJI Ronin 4D has built-in stabilization, a compact design, and full-frame image quality that enables filmmakers to capture dynamic shots. It’s also relatively inexpensive, costing around £6,000.

The action scenes in Alex Garland’s Civil War were shot on Ronin 4D, notably the climactic battle for the White House. It was his experience working with camera operator Dave Thompson that led Garland to shoot the visceral action of Iraqi docu-drama Warfare entirely on the system, with Thompson as DP.

DP Matt Lewis also used the Ronin 4D to shoot the acclaimed Netflix series Adolescence. “Any slightly larger gimbal and would have been too limited,” Lewis says. “It would have been heavier and had to have been connected to a single operator the whole time. We couldn't have done handoffs or anything like that. So much of what ended up in the show was based on being able to be nimble.”

Sports action

Sports broadcasters are always demanding smaller imagers with high dynamic range to get closer to the action on field or track. Two of the latest innovations in this regard debuted in April.

Proton claims to have made the world’s smallest slow-motion camera, measuring 36x36x90mm. The Proton HFR captures 12-bit dynamic 1080p in frame rates up to 240 fps. It also has a global shutter which eliminates motion artefacts.  It is available with a Flex option which allows the camera head to be separated from its processing unit so it can be used in even smaller spaces.

Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies makes some of the world’s smallest cameras in use during the Super Bowl, on cars covering Daytona and Formula-E racing and for soccer ref-cams. The 30x30x31mm dimensions of the AtomOne Mini features a dynamic range and colour reproduction which matches standard systems cameras.

“Broadcasters don’t want to use a DJI or GoPro because they can't colour match it to cameras like the Sony HDC-3200,” says Dream Chip’s Christian Kuehn.

The new AtomTwo has similar HDR qualities and 1080p 60fps with a global shutter. “The global shutter means you don’t get visible distortions and disturbances associated with a rolling shutter. Five years ago, it was impossible to make such a tiny global shutter camera but sensor manufacture has made incredible advances.  So many cameras are coming out now with a global shutter I think rolling shutter will soon be obsolete.”