The EOSHD Cheap Camera Filmmaking Challenge
There is no doubt about it, filmmaking, whether as a hobbyist or a professional, is expensive. Sure, you can achieve great things when you know what you are doing with lesser equipment, but to get the best quality image, there has to be a degree of investment in to the right gear.
Luckily for those with modest budgets, the cost of entry to access good technology has fallen over the last 10 years. Filmmaking is now more accessible than ever, to the point where cinematic or broadcast quality equipment is now available for very little outlay.
One website I have followed as a source of information since my early days of video making is EOSHD. Andrew Reid, the often outspoken editor at large of the site provides his contribution to the shape of the indie filmmaking industry. He gives insights to where camera manufacturers are at with technology, tests and reviews equipment and also gives back to the community with helpful tips and advice.
Earlier this summer I was interested in an article Andrew wrote to challenge the forum members of finding “the best cinematic quality for less than £200”. I had the thought of doing a “cheap camera challenge” myself so this came at a good time! These types of challenges have been quite popular in recent years, possibly taking inspiration from Top Gear, where the presenters were often tasked with finding a car of some description at an incredibly low budget.
The photography YouTube channel Digital Rev became famous for putting a spin on this Top Gear style challenge by inviting professional photographers to shoot with a cheap camera for a day, hopefully aiming to show that with a good eye and some ingenuity, the low quality equipment should not be the reason for producing lacklustre images.
Andrew’s challenge was fairly simple and set out with one main objective. Find a camera which you think produces the most cinematic looking image for less than £200/$200. The rules were kept simple too, this wasn’t a challenge to impose so many restrictions, more to use your own creativity and best judgement yet keep within the spirit of the competition. This was a run down of the rules that were put in place:
$200 or less camera body with proof of purchase (alternatively one you already have that you know is now worth $200 or less)
Real-life subjects, natural light, only cinematography with no fancy stories… This isn’t a story telling competition!
Make the camera look as cinematic as possible
Please try to be original with choice of camera
Colour grading is ok and allowed. I have no rules limiting grading or editing, or the sound track
However, Magic Lantern RAW is not allowed due to being too good! (must be a unmodified camera stock video mode)
No expensive lenses or extra kit (such as elaborate lights, rigs, actors, stories, sets or props)
Video must be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo by 24th July 2019
Video must be posted on the EOSHD Forum competition thread here
Camera must not be revealed until after the public voting closes on 28th July (exact time TBC)
Judge’s decision is final, and please keep an eye on the relevant EOSHD Forum posts!
Last placed entrant in the public vote will be asked to hand their camera body to the winner of the public vote!
With about three weeks to try find a camera, shoot, edit then upload a film, I started a little bit of research. I was really keen to find out if there were any 4K capable camera bodies available in that budget. Surprisingly there are, albeit with a few caveats.
At the time of the challenge opening, it was height of wedding season and knew that the upcoming jobs and editing had to take priority over this bit of fun. Checking back to the challenge a couple of weeks later with interest, I noticed the closing date for entries was just a few days away.
And so I took the plunge and decided to take part. I made my purchase - something a little different from what I originally had in mind, but something I knew was considered a classic within the indie filmmaking community. There was also a little bit of brand loyalty in my choice too!
Panasonic’s first generation GH camera was my chosen rig for this challenge.
Going for this Panasonic GH1 - £69 body only from MPB photographic and probably the ropiest one they had!
It was a little grubby, didn't come with a body cap (that exposed sensor!! 😮) and the SD card door doesn't close properly but I was determined to make this work.
The lenses I used were two m42 screw mount vintage lenses I had lying around, first up a Pentacon 50mm f1.8 which I actually use in my professional work from time to time - its surprisingly good! For some longer shots I used a Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 that over time have seen the aperture blades stuck wide open - again surprisingly good considering the aperture doesn't function and it has been sitting in a bag without any caps on for years.
The eagle eyed amongst you will notice in the above photo there is a Speedbooster attached. This is where I hold my hands up to a little bit of cheating! I bought a Gobe dumb adapter from Amazon but knew that for some shots I had in mind the 100mm equivalent FOV I would have would be bit too tight. So for a handful of shots I did run with this - this potentially aided in producing slightly sharper results in some shots. I also used an SLR Magic Variable ND, again not the cheapest of filters!
Before shooting my sequence I done a few test shots in the garden then reviewed the footage on the computer. I knew the AVCHD codec would be a potential struggle but didn’t realise how bad it was until looking back on these test shots - the footage was already falling apart before my eyes! 17 Mbps is a long way off the solid looking 100+ Mbps i'm used to off my GH5! Not to mention how much moire patterning I saw in the footage!
The GH1 as used in the competition alongside my usual GH5 workhorse.
Despite this, I found the 720p mode better with it's Motion JPEG codec so considered using this in my film. I shot with the "Nostalgic" setting with Contrast and Sharpness all the way down. For me this looked to have slightly better dynamic range and better roll off between tones than the "Smooth" setting, although the overall colour wasn't as nice.
So, on one of the hottest days of the year I went into town and done some people watching. The little GH1 was a fair challenge to use as one might expect with how lucky we are with modern cameras these days. No focus peaking, no zebras, low resolution screen and viewfinder. Despite this, I relied heavily on the histogram display to check my highlights, made sure not to film anything with too much motion which would exploit the weaknesses in the codec. I also threw in some 720p shots and upscaled them in the final edit.
Making use of the golden hour light whilst filming my sequence.
My biggest mistake was not taking my proper video monopod out to film, instead relying on handheld or a basic photography monopod. It wasn't until I went out for some golden hour footage I took along a proper tripod. Some of the shorts earlier in the day were a little shaky so good old Warp Stabiliser came in handy!
The edit was a quick couple of hours piecing together the best shots, no real story apart from the obvious changing of time and I graded using one of James Miller's DeLUTs as a starting point, tweaking to my own taste.
Having submitted my film, I kept an eye on the forum and also the voting as it progressed until the closing date.
To my surprise, my film won the award for the best image quality! Having seen some of the other entries and saw some pretty impressive looking footage I was really surprised at this outcome. I guess the GH1’s image still stands up today as looking ‘cinematic’ when the user knows how to get the best out of it.
For me this was a refreshing challenge. Normally I opt to do some photography or go a bike ride to escape from my normal work but this was a cheeky day out filming to keep my creativity going at the height of working season. Filmmaking should always be about the fun and not about the expensive gear and with that I think I will arm myself with the little GH1 and see what we can come up with in the future.
It was also surprising to see how many similarities there were between the GH1 and the GH5. At the time of writing, we are soon approaching the 6th generation GH camera, with Panasonic likely to announce the development of the GH6 by the end of the year. 9 years separates these two cameras yet the GH1 felt really familiar in the hand, some of the on screen displays and guides have been carried over from each generation, each with their own improvements to get to where we are today. It’s a testament to Panasonic in creating one of the best hybrid camera systems on the market and a line which is currently used across broadcast and cinema industries.
Finally I just want to say well done to forum user PannySVHS for winning the best cinematography, I loved the home video feel about their entry. Thanks to Andrew for coming up with this challenge and getting the EOSHD community together to create. Looking forward to more like this soon!
Check my entry video below!
Dan