I shoot video all the time.Hmm, this is usually something that people who don't take video say.
Hybrid Mirrorless Cameras offer many features that video cameras don't offer, in a small and easy to use body. This is essential for one man crews
1)Full Frame for low light
2)World Class AF (solo means no focus puller)
3)IBIS(many places don't allow gimbals)
4)The ability to shoot stills for thumbnails etc
5)The option for HQ stills for the occasional photoshoot.
6)Small Form Factor means I don't stand out.
The R6 has everything I want except for two things: good DR compared to other cameras and dual slot video recording.
I use an A7SIII at work, consideree to be the pinnacle of Hybrid Video Based cams which does have those features, but it also has the drawbacks of poor IBIS, mediocre colors, and soft, mushy 4K vs the oversampled 4K from the R6. I tried using it for stills and while
It does get the job done, it would be nice to have some more cropping room.
Canon also marketed the R6 as a video focused hybrid. What is wrong with wanting to use it as that?
1. Full frame is not required for low light. Have you actually used a reasonably good super 35 video camera?
2. Have you actually used anything in Canon's professional video line? They've had world class AF for quite a while. Maybe you're used to the crappy AF that is the standard with other manufacturers hybrid cameras.
3. Image stabilization comes in many forms, and professionals have been getting smooth footage long before IBIS and gimbals. Thinking IBIS is suddenly going to solve all your stable footage problems can be a mistake.
4. Turn off the ND, jack the shutter speed up and shoot a couple of seconds of video. You'll have hundreds of stills to choose from. 4K is plenty for thumbnails, etc.
5. Sure. That's nice, and everybody works differently, but myself, all too often I find myself using a dedicated photo camera that has the features and functionality I need to actually shoot stills in the environment I usually shoot stills in, namely my studio with a full suite of strobes and modifiers.
6. Again, dedicated professional video cameras are not necessarily large. I don't mean cinema cameras, I mean professional video cameras. Lots of them are actually quite small, and have the features and functionality that millions of working video professionals use every day. The consumer camcorder pretty much died with the camera phone, but the professional video camera market is still very much alive and well.
In terms of the R6 (I have an RP, R5, and R6, so I can actually comment on this, and yes, I use them all for different things), the perceived low dynamic range is because of Canon Log, not the sensor. The R6 sensor is actually very good. Canon Log can actually only mathematically hold ~12 stops (it's actually a little more than that, but close enough to just say 12 stops). That being said, even though it's "only 12 stops" of DR, it's pretty clean and totally usable. If you're shooting a scene where you have to have more than 12 stops of DR because you can't change the lighting or fill in the shadows a bit, then having 13-15 stops of DR from another camera manufacturer will help some, but probably not enough to make that big of a difference when grading it, as you're going to have a fair amount of trouble fitting it into Rec.709 and still look good anyway. This is one of those specsmanship things. On paper, higher DR is better, and 12 stops is low compared to 13-15 stops, but in reality, when outputting to Rec.709 (which is still the viewing standard for billions of devices and isn't going to change any time soon), 12 stops of DR to work with is a lot of DR, and is more than enough to put the important part of the picture in the zone of good exposure and still have lots of DR to roll the highlights and shadows/blacks off for Rec.709. It's all in knowing how to best expose for the camera/codec you're using and knowing how to deal with it when in post.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to use the R6 as a video focused hybrid. Just recognize that it's a hybrid and therefore isn't going to do video as good as an actual dedicated professional video camera. It can get you most of the way there, but if Hybrids were truly the way, then the professional video camera market would have died off long ago, and it's still very much alive and well.
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