Camera Survey - what camera do you use

Kim Welch

Kim Welch

Senior Member
Staff member
Arri
RED
Sony
Canon
Blackmagic
Panasonic
Nikon
JVC

Update, November 2026
The camera landscape has kept changing since this survey. On high-end productions, ARRI (Alexa 35, Alexa Mini LF), Sony (Venice 2) and RED (V-Raptor, Komodo) lead, while Canon Cinema EOS, Blackmagic Design, Sony FX and Panasonic Lumix cameras are popular with indie and student filmmakers. Which camera are you shooting on now?

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A7S, A7ii, A6000, RX100iii, and 2x 4k action cams

A7S, A7ii, A6000, RX100iii, and 2x 4k action cams

I use Sony today. I have an A7S, A7ii, A6000, RX100iii, and 2x 4k action cams. Each have their uses, but mostly the A7S is what I go to first.
 
up until recently I shoot with an Sony ex1
now I shoot with a gh4 with a metabones
 
Thanks for sharing, and making an instructional video for the XH A1 is a great way to help others. No Blackmagic users here? I'd love to hear from you.
 
The Panasonic AF100 is my main camera(s) (we have 2), but I still love the GH3 too. And my Canon T2i. And sometimes when I'm lucky I shoot with the RED (One, Scarlet, and Epic).
 
panasonic gh4 with metabones
 
Sony F5 and the Sony F3 with Cooke and Zeiss lenses for dramatic narrative. But we also have the JVC GY 700 - its a great shoulder camera for doc and news and educational videos.

We just bought three Blackmagic HD studios cameras for a small Tv studio we are building. I would highly recommend AGAINST buying another Blackmagic. I have had nothing but terrible experiences with them.

1) We had three inexpensive Sony cameras in there and under the lights we put up they were shooting at a 4.5-5.6. Under the same lighting the Blackmagic cameras needs +12 DB gain. That's right, they have terrible sensitivity.

2) There seems to be absolutely no way to turn off the auto iris. We have been frustrated with these things for over a month now and there is nothing on the web or that Blackmagic puts out to help us. We set up the remote camera shading in the control room, but there are no F-stops on the iris control at all. Its just rolling up or down and guessing.

3) We bought zoom lenses that we were told by Blackmagic at their booth at last years CCW show in NYC would work with their camera. They work, but they won't zoom with the recommended handle controllers. In fact they were only manual zooms - something Blackmagic did not say. So we sent them back and asked Blackmagic for a list of servo zoom lenses that actually worked with their camera. They sent us their list of all two lenses! Both very short zooms.

4)Out of the box, two of the cameras the handle zoom/iris/record control that Blackmagic stated worked with their camera didn't. One camera it did. We had to download and install firmware updates. All three now work. Why did one work and the other two not?

5)Two of the cameras the peaking doesn't turn on no matter what we try and do and one of the cameras we can't turn off the peaking. So far no advice from Blackmagic on how to fix this problem.

6) Blackmagic has extremely bad customer support. When you talk to them they don't seem to know their own product and then switch you between people.

I will never buy anything from Blackmagic again.
 
Based on all the answers here I guess I have a very unpopular option. I shoot with a Nikon D5200, not amazing but great for its class and price. Still trying to get the most cinematic look out of it I can.
 
At the same time trying to upgrade later to something pricier. I don't see much love for Blackmagic. Could someone give me their opinion on the different uses for the BMPCC and the Sony a7s for example.
 
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