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5 minutes spare for a reply...
That all makes sense - I've no particular reason to hang onto the 7d. I've even still got my old nikon stuff in a cupboard should I want to use an old fashioned dslr for photography.
Gives me a good gradual upgrade path as well - for the moment I could just get one Sony 6300, sell the 7D and then the other stuff could come in time - I do like the idea of the video assist thing - I've been so used to just making do with a tiny camera screen. I guess the plug in XLR input thing would be nice, but is also non-essential as long as I don't mind using the Tascam separately. Which is also sometimes useful - I filmed an event the other day where the sound mixer was in another room way beyond cable length, so was able just to plug it in and leave it running. So I'd probably hang onto that anyway. A second Sony would also be great, but whether it'd pay for itself in work for a while, I'm not sure.
Shooting 4k and being able to crop in would be really useful. I'm not quite sure whether my video card would be happy when it came to editing, but it would be really good as an option. I prefer editing to filming (most of my work is editing) and have been doing quite a bit of instagram sized stuff lately which gives me a lot of freedom to play around with zooming and cropping. So that but with HD video would be great.
Which leaves me with one question - lenses... I presume I could buy a Sony-Canon adapter thing, but am guessing when all I've got is a relatively cheap Canon prime lens, I'd be better just to get a dedicated Sony lens?
The problem with having mostly nice, non-demanding clients is that it hasn't given me very much reason to offer anything fancier than what I've been doing up to now... but for my own long term sake I feel I need to modernise a bit.
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Lenses really depends. Honestly most of the operators we work with use a mix of stuff depending on context - there's a particularly nice 16-35 Sony we/they use a lot but generally for interviews it's Canon EF 50mm, 24-105, 24-70 and 70-200 that are the standards and they work great with something like a metabones adaptor (though there are cheaper adaptors out there).
Sigma are solid for video too - really nice colour and clarity on their 'Art' range though spendy and I think it's EF only so you'd still need an adaptor. All depends on budget really. If you've got some canon lenses rather than swap them all out for Sony maybe look into a cheap converter and see how you get on that way before selling/splurging on E mount stuff. Bear in mind that the a6300 is an APS-C sensor so take care if you're investing in lenses if you think you'll want full frame capability in the near future.
For interviews I'd suggest there's no real reason to get a super fast lens like a 1.2/1.8 or even f2. If you ever have to open up that wide you're likely not putting enough light on the subject and it'll make it very challenging to maintain focus if they move around in their seat (autofocus can be quite distracting in interviews I find). Somewhere between a 50 and 105 for interviews is great depending on style etc so maybe a 24-70 or 24-105 in one flavour or another could be worth a look.
Just spotted this - good point on recording time. All mirrorless/compact and DSLR 'style' cameras that shoot video and that are sold in the EU have a cut off of about 29 minutes. There's no getting around it unless you have something like this:
https://www.wexphotovideo.com/blackmagic-video-assist-1574963/?mkwid=sHFTWDeJl_dc&pcrid=227633445480&kword=&match=&plid=&product=1574963&gclid=Cj0KCQjwy9LVBRDOARIsAGqoVntyfiSRS0g-F7JiXjSV1gDEvWeHEiZixf0PcLHWTg60cY-RgFTCkOYaAgmkEALw_wcB
That's actually not a bad shout:
Flog Tascam + 7D - should get a few hundred quid
1 x second hand A6300 (about 600)
1 x BMD Video Assist (about 350 - second hand maybe 250)
1 X k2m (399 new at Park - cheaper second hand etc)
That would allow you to record for longer lengths, no chance of camera overheating, record audio internally via XLR and best of all - monitor your footage on something more appropriate than just a 3.5" flip out screen. With that particular recorder you would be limited to 1080p though (they do a 4k one for a couple of hundred more). However the quality will be significantly better in 10 bit 4:2:2 than the internal codec on the A6300 which while decent is quite heavily compressed.