I have heard people talk about this and wanted to try it for myself, especially as Canon released the new C50 mirrorless camera. I decided to pair that with the 24-105mm f/2.8 to see, is this the perfect run-and-gun indie filmmaking rig?
Honestly, it very well could be.
A lot of times for documentary filmmaking, you're moving around quickly. You don't always have time to be changing lenses. This leads us to primarily use a lot of zooms. Additionally, even for other shoots, whether it be commercials, fashion shoots, advertising, etc., sometimes efficiency is the focus when you have a lot to shoot, and zooms just allow for that. Enter this particular setup.
With the top handle having two XLR inputs, you're able to get clean, high-quality audio. The fans in this camera have it so it doesn't overheat, while not being overly noisy. While you're still shooting 7K open gate, that allows you to not just make your movie, documentary, or project, but also cut vertical clips of it to promote it on socials. That, coupled with the fact that the 24-105mm f/2.8 is better in low light, combined with the dual native ISO of the C50, makes this a very attractive low-light camera. Add in that the aperture is de-clicked, and suddenly you can do clean iris pulls with no problem. The zoom range is smooth, and I haven't noticed any focus breathing with this lens either.
If you're not familiar, focus breathing is when you’re focusing and, as you change your focal distance, the optics in the camera begin to widen or tighten the frame, depending on where you're focused. Thankfully, this lens does not have that issue as far as I've seen in my time with it.
If you're really wanting to build this rig out to the next level, that is when I would recommend adding either a V-Lock or a gold mount battery, a couple of rods, as well as a handheld shoulder pad, some handles, a follow focus, an external monitor likely attached to the top handle, a microphone attached as well, and lastly, what we call the moneymaker, the matte box.
This also allows you to drop in additional filters depending on the look you're going for. Although the C50 is light, the 24-105 is heavy, and they kind of balance each other out quite well, in all honesty. It gives you a good zoom range in a compact form factor that's easy to carry around and doesn't get too heavy after a full day of shooting. Also, the compact nature of it means you're able to fit the camera in places where you might not be able to fit a larger cinema rig.
These are the things that you should always consider when you're building out a camera package. The more I shoot different indie projects, commercials, and fashion films, this is something that I would definitely bring out again; it was intuitive and fun to shoot with.
I'm curious to know if you have or do shoot documentaries, and if so, if this is a setup that you would consider for doing so in a run-and-gun fashion. If you want to deepen your filmmaking skills, check out Introduction to Video: A Photographer’s Guide to Filmmaking. For anyone looking to round out the rig, the Canon C50 paired with the Canon RF 24-105mm f/2.8 is where I’d start.
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