Alternatives to the SI-2K Mini - similar in form factor

[XiaoSu Han]

Hey,

 

for a feature film which requires a lot of POV work in the style of "Smack my B. up" and "Diving Bell and the Butterfly" we would be looking for a camera with a similar form factor to the SI-2K Mini which would allow us to mount the camera to a helmet.

 

The production does not want film at all, so it would have to be a HD camera. Other than that, we are planning to blow up to a 35mm print, so we're a little afraid of the Canon 5D MkII, which would be our only alternative to the SI-2K that we can think of for now.

 

So is there any other system with a detachable head/mount out there?

 

Thankful for every piece of information,

 

cheers, Xax

[Ben Brahem Ziryab]

Have you considered the RED ONE 4K Digital Cinema camera?

 

You may also take a look at the Phantom HD and Phantom 65. Both great cameras but get the RED ONE if you need something more lightweight and pretty easy to mount.

 

Forget the Canon 5D Mk II. The quality is nowhere near good enough for 35mm prints and I am not even sure there is an XLR input for recording sound.

[Jaron Berman]

Have you considered the RED ONE 4K Digital Cinema camera?

 

You may also take a look at the Phantom HD and Phantom 65. Both great cameras but get the RED ONE if you need something more lightweight and pretty easy to mount.

 

Forget the Canon 5D Mk II. The quality is nowhere near good enough for 35mm prints and I am not even sure there is an XLR input for recording sound.

 

For POV work? The OP was referring to the "form factor of the si2k mini." The RED and phantoms are more in line with the form factors of broadcast cameras once they have all the bits necessary to make them work. The RED body alone is about 12lbs, which while manageable for a helmet mount is most certainly not comfortable.

 

The 5dmkII is a pretty fantastic little camera, and provided you test it through your own post you may find that it fits your needs. It certainly has the resolution to match the Si2K, though the ergonomics will be less film-friendly. It is, however smaller overall when you consider power and recording than the si2k. My personal advice would be - test the 5dmkII. It's cheap and easily available enough, and extremely compact. If you find the quality to work for your needs, go for it. Nuff said. If we accept bad logic and "appeal to authority," note that there are a number of extremely large hollywood and european films who are using the 5dmkII for POV and crash cams. Again, just because it works for so-and-so doesn't mean it'll work for you. Like EVERYTHING we do, test is, but I think you may be pleasantly surprised by the 5d footage and utility. Good luck!

[Sean Lambrecht]

Something very similar to the SI2K setup would be the DVX100 Andromeda. It bypasses all the compression normally done by the camera and records up to a 1540x984 10bit RAW image directly from the CCDs to a laptop. This article is a little outdated, and the processing of the RAW files is considerably faster on todays computers. http://www.theasc.com/magazine/new_product...07.html#prod118

 

The 1.5k image size seems like an odd bird, but it blows up to 2k beautifully. And the dynamic range in the RAW files is really impressive. They aren't making these anymore, but I've seen a couple used cameras up for sale in the last week.

 

Sean-

[Freya Black]

Have you considered the RED ONE 4K Digital Cinema camera?

 

I seem to remember that Xax is an owner operator! ;)

 

love

 

Freya

[Freya Black]

Hey,

 

for a feature film which requires a lot of POV work in the style of "Smack my B. up" and "Diving Bell and the Butterfly" we would be looking for a camera with a similar form factor to the SI-2K Mini which would allow us to mount the camera to a helmet.

 

The production does not want film at all, so it would have to be a HD camera. Other than that, we are planning to blow up to a 35mm print, so we're a little afraid of the Canon 5D MkII, which would be our only alternative to the SI-2K that we can think of for now.

 

So is there any other system with a detachable head/mount out there?

 

Thankful for every piece of information,

 

cheers, Xax

 

I think the SI-2k mini is quite specialised in this respect. I seem to remember there being a 1080p lipstick cam out there but can't name names right now!

 

love

 

Freya

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I think I saw those lipsticks on the Filmtools.com website here in the states....

 

 

This could be another alternative, I just googled up:

 

 

http://www.filmtools.com/vhold-contourhd-camera-1200.html

[David Williams]

There's the new Sony POV cam-

 

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/Awi..._pov_camcorder/

[XiaoSu Han]

Thanks for all the input

 

we've decided to go with the RED ONE, which we'll use to shoot all the other stuff with too.

 

I've had a very good chat with the CEO of SI, and we would've gone with the SI-2K. I think there's nothing out there that beats their quality for that size. I was a bit afraid of the 5D mkII as we're outside quite a bit and I read that spot-on exposure is critical for a good result.

 

We're steering away from the subjective camera look with hands and feet, but are rather moving to a "POV"-heavy breakdown of the scenes. Also we were seeing problems in letting our thin actresses wear helmets with a camera on them ;)

 

cheers, Xax

Edited September 21, 2009 by XiaoSu Han