Top 5 HDSLR ‘must have’ features moviemakers want in the next pro HDSLR

Planet5D

In a recent poll about HDSLRs, planet5D readers answered this question: “What are your top 3 needs for the next pro level HDSLR?” – we offered selections like 4k video, autofocus in video, reduced jello, HDMI out, RAW video and more. The poll recently closed, but I believe you’ll be surprised at the results – we sure were!

HDSLR camera feature sets are always a topic of conversation amongst camera geeks and many might relate it to the battle between mac and PC – some times the fight is over brands, some times over which is better for shooting stills, JPEG or RAW. There’s also a lot of hype over the ‘next great thing’ or what will ‘kill the Canon 5D Mark II“. So we were really interested to see where the readers of the top HDSLR blog on the planet would really want the camera makers to go with HDSLRs.

For example, people are often comparing the 5D2 to the RED and there’s always excitement generated when someone talks about 2k or 4k video. The RED fanatics are always touting 2k or 4k video output as the greatest thing since sliced bread… but do HDSLR shooters really want/need 4k?

That alone could be an entire post I believe. The reality at least for the foreseeable future is that most video production will be in 1080HD not in either 2k or even 4k. There’s just not a major market for it. Now, the place where 2k and 4k will excel will be in full screen movies – you know, the one’s showing on the large cinema screens – especially the theaters that go full digital. But those will still be pretty rare for a while. The vast majority of video production is for the web (which today doesn’t usually mean 1080HD) or for television (which is stuck (at least in the USA) for a while at 1080 – while other countries are ahead going to higher resolutions).

But that’s just one feature – there are many more that could be put into HDSLRs of the future (and some we may not even know about today). read more...