It was our first time to get a glimpse into the types of cameras that we could utilise to create our short stories. It was exciting, I always love to test out and get my hands on new equipment and most importantly how to use it. On Thursday, April 9th, we looked at the SONY MC50 camera (http://www.sony.co.uk/pro/product/broadcast-products-camcorders-nxcam-avchd/hxr-mc50e/overview/)
The first thing that stood out to me was the large screen that popped out from the camera. Its always great to have a large screen to see what you are filming and what you are doing, so that was a relief. The second thing was the weight of the camera, it was surprisingly light, yet still had a heavy edge to it, which is great, because it means business! Overall, it was great to see what was available to us to make our films. Personally, I am not yet ready to substitute it for my DSLR, simply because I can pull focus better and overall it is more customisable (Shutter speed, ISO, e.t.c). However, in terms of practicality and versatility, it definitely triumphs over any DSLR. It would be great for documentary film making, or gathering B-roll material for your film without having to carry around a heavy DSLR. The great thing about the camera is that image quality is really not a problem, and with the in built zoom, you have the ability to utilise many different lenses without having to interchange and carry around a heavy bag of expensive lenses around.
To test out the cameras we were assigned a small group task of filming ourselves greeting each other. It was more of a fun activity rather than gaining any beneficial knowledge or skills about how to use the camera, it was good to meet some new people as well.
Overall, it was great to see what equipment was available to us. I was excited about using the small microphone for interviews, because it adds that element of depth and sound quality that really adds to the final product of a film. Great sound, although sometimes not essential, really makes a difference. No one likes listening poor audio when it comes to music, let alone films. It would be great to do a comparison of image quality between my DSLR to the Sony MC50, maybe i’m underestimating it’s ability
