118: Should you buy a cinema camera or stick with a DSLR/Mirrorless for Video?

Cinema Rig vs. DSLR/Mirrorless. The ultimate debate. With companies packing more & more punch into smaller packages, why are we still choosing bugger, heavier, more expensive cinema rigs? The short answer: convenience & ease of use. Now, before anyone gets it twisted, we are not saying that you can’t create amazing looking content on a DSLR/Mirrorless. You can. Any camera is a tool, & we are the biggest believers in the old saying “It is the Indian, not the arrow”, however, when shooting video, a dedicated cinema rig seems to us to produce the same results quicker, & with less hassle. The main reasons for this is that you don’t need to rig them out, you have all the components & connections you need right on the body, you have dedicated physical controls for camera functions, lots of customize-ability & shooting options, built in features like ND’s, they are easier to use handheld, & they typically have file formats that are easier to work with in post, & also generally have better color depth. They are more expensive, but that is worth the cost to us. Convenience & time saved is beyond valuable to our operation. Call us old fashioned, or behind the times, but we are still choosing a big cinema camera over a DSLR/mirrorless rig for our video work 95% of the time. - On that note, those of you who prefer to shoot on a DSLR/Mirrorless, what are your reasons? Why do you like them more than the bigger rigs? Let us know!