Cameras and Lenses Used for Documentaries Premiering at Sundance 2023

Industry News

by Alex HohenthanerFebruary 3^rd, 2023

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Once again, Indiewire.com has put together a list of the gear used by documentary filmmakers whose movies are premiering at Sundance 2023. This list gives an interesting insight into the choices and the reasoning behind them. Let’s take a look!

Often documentary filmmakers find themselves in a bit of a quandary – they want to achieve a good look for their images while also keeping their setup small, mobile and unintrusive. This narrows their choices down a bit, but as the list of gear used by them proves, there are still many combinations available. 

Most mentions: the Canon EOS C300 series

With 8 mentions within the list of 22 titles the Canon EOS C300 series (including the Mark II and III models) is still the most popular (in 2019, all documentaries nominated for an Oscar were shot mainly on Canon cameras). Filmmakers and DOPs are highlighting the image quality of the sensor as well as the size of the body which is small enough to be used handheld for longer periods of time. Canon EOS C500s are also popular.

The Canon C300 Mark II was the sweet spot of a high-quality cinema camera that could handle the wide dynamic range we needed in a small enough body that I could handhold all day without a rig.

Greg Harriott – DoP of “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project”

Runners up: ARRI and Sony

ARRI Alexas and Amiras are also often used – with one very interesting story coming from the DoP of the documentary “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood”, which was shot mostly in the intense heat of a real sauna. The Amira held up great in this environment even though the temperature was so high it burnt the skin. Besides that, the Sony lineup of cinema cameras is also very popular, especially the FX9.

Lenses: speed is essential

When it comes to the lenses that were used, many of the filmmakers agree that next to the look that can be achieved (they very often use vintage glass), speed is the next important thing on the list. Often documentary crews do not have time or even the possibility to set up “proper” lighting, so it is vital for the lenses to be fast so good images can also be captured in low-light situations.

To check out the full list, please head over to Indiewire.com.

Do you have other favorites for your documentary work? Do you agree with the gear that was chosen by these documentary filmmakers? Let us know in the comments!