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Camera recommendations for live concert?


Ryan Brown

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I've got a live concert shoot coming up, 3 cam shoot, 2 cams on cranes, inside venue that seats roughly 2000 people. I'm not sure what cameras are usually used in this scenario... any help here? What's the norm, or is there one? ENG style?

 

I plan on hiring owner/operators for two cams, and renting the third and operating that one myself. My initial thought was C300's all around, but I'm thinking 4k delivery may be something the client wants. I know we need good low light, long lens, and large media storage (or a good compression codec) so we're not constantly switching out cards.

 

Budget is somewhere around the 500 mark for each camera/operator.

 

Cheers

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Hmm, yeah, that makes sense, thanks for the response. But now my question is: what is a 2/3" camera that's common enough where I could find three owner/operators.

 

Or would a 3 chip be better than say a c300 for this? I could always go the HVX or similar route

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The problem is 4k requirement, if you could do 1920X1089, you can find cameras and operators no problem. You need a long record time and good quality output file with zoom lenses. So look for ENG operators with cameras, that's your best bet.

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Not a lot of luck finding 2/3" cams and operators. I'm now leaning towards shooting 3 RED's for this. Is that crazy? I see people are using RED's for live stuff here and there (mumford and sons concert, lady gaga and tony bennett, etc).

I was hesitant just because I usually shoot RED with music videos and commercials, but the workflow seems like a bit much for a concert. Maybe if we shoot something like 2k at 7:1 I'll be able to keep a relatively high quality and not be burning through mags?
I did get an offer for 3 EX1's, but for the same price I can shoot RED and the quality is quite a difference. The only thing the ex series has is a servo, which would be nice.
Any thoughts?
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You'd have to look at people who work in the broadcast sector for 2/3", although large sensor is currently the fashion for quite a lot of stuff.

 

REDs can shoot concerts, depends how the workflow and suitable zoom lens work out.

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If it were me, I'd go for 2/3" or EX series. When your working fast on a concert, servo zooms and enough depth of field to pull focus yourself are a huge boon. Especially if you want hand held shots in there or lots of repo's and variety.

 

People do shoot concerts on large sensor cameras, but your going to need expensive zooms and ideally good AC's.

 

3 cameras for a 2000 seater venue is a bit low even with cranes. Depending on the type of act you might struggle, e.g numbers in the band etc... I would get what ever camera format would allow me to afford the most cameras while still maintaining quality. You can do a lot more with 4 or 5 cameras in a concert situation. If budgets tight a couple of locked off DLSR's can really help expand your coverage.

 

The kind of act also should help make you decide - large sensor shallow DOF would look great on a smooth Jazz session with relatively static performers - but be close to unworkable on a Prodigy gig.

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