Canon C50 vs Nikon ZR vs Sony FX3
Right now, the war for great professional quality video production cameras at a reasonable price is heating up. Sony, which has been the front runner for years in this market has the FX3A which is a beast of a camera.But now it has some real competition with the newly announced Canon C50. Even Nikon is throwing their hat in the race since they acquired RED Camera with the ZR.
Each of these cameras have their strong points as well as areas which they need to improve a little. The question for content creators and even small production companies will be which way to go.
Canon C50
Canon is not new to this with their Cine line of cameras.The C50
Pros
Unlimited recording with active cooling preventing overheating
Open Gate shooting
Time code port
Simultaneous Crop Recording (wide screen and vertical to separate cards)
Set of Hybrid Prime lenses with similar weights, f/1.4,Aperture ring - all idea for video
16 stops of dynamic range
Handle with 2 XLR
Cage Free
Cons
No IBIS
Electronic shutter only
No built in ND filters
No 32-bit floating audio
Nikon ZR
I love seeing Nikon jump into this game. I think it will help them keep relevant going forward. Having RED color is a great move forward. If you are already shooting with some RED gear, this will be a great addition when you need a lightweight, on the go camera. The audio is the most forgiving of these three cameras which is great if you are new to dealing with audio. You will be able to recover what would be lost in both the quiet and overly laud recordings. Think of it like shooting in RAW instead of Jpeg. The4in monitor is also nice. Both the C50 and the FX3A I would recommend having a second, larger monitor when shooting, but the ZR’s monitor is big enough to use as a main shooting monitor.
Pros
Cost
IBIS up to 7.5 stops
Large LCD screen
Best in class 32-bit floating audio
Passive cooling for up to 2 hours without overheating
Cons
No IBIS
Micro HDMI
Mini SD card slot
No Headphone Jack
No 10-bit video
Sony FX3A
Pros
Low Light
240p Slow Mo
Handle with 2 XLR
IBIS
Two multi format card slots
Cage free
Cons
Over heating
Lack of noise control
Limited Photo
No NFC or IR remote
Who are these cameras idea for? Great for solo shooters, or small production cameras, great b-cam or small camera or a still shooting moving into video shooting. The Sony is your go to if you are shooting in low light while Canon rules in resolution. Nikon has the best price, and their audio is probably the best put there in this market. Any of these cameras would be good solutions. I would not recommend jumping systems if you are coming from the stills world, stick with the system you know and have lenses for, you will have enough to learn if you are moving from stills to video.
Extract
Right now, it is an exciting time for video shooter. In the past we had Sony as an affordable video option, then canon added the feature which was pretty good. Canon has come out with the R50V which is a great, small video option for location very similar to the Sony ZV-1 but with horizontal and vertical shooting setups. Now Canon is coming out with the C50 which competes directly with the Sony FX3a and Nikon has the new ZR coming out which has great audio and half the price of the C50 and FX3a which are both reasonable professional quality Cine cameras. Then on the low down and dirty we have the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 which is a great walk and talk rig, the Canon Powershot V10and DJI Osmo Action 4. All of these cameras are great for content creators and the C50, ZR, and FX3a are great options for one person operations to small production companies. We have a whole blog dedicated to vlogging cameras, check it out here.