Red Epic vs. Canon 5D Mark II Review
For those of you Commercial Producers / Filmmakers out there, this is a question that I get all of the time.
Clients always ask me, which do you think is better? And of course, I always reply – “It depends.” I am not trying to dodge the question; however, it really does just depend.
Some of the questions that I would ask the client:
1) What type of video are you looking to produce? Is it a corporate / testimonial video for the web? A Television Commercial? A slick new Viral Marketing campaign? etc.
2) What is your budget?
3) Who is your audience?
Let’s start with the first one. For most Talking Head type of videos with some B-Roll, the Canon 5D will do you justice. It will provide you with a great depth of field and still give you that high-end HD look that your client’s expect. Of course, I would recommend an external audio recorder as the internal mic is not very good. The Canon 5D is great for short segments, but not very useful in longer Corporate Presentation settings where you need longer recording times.
The second question is budget. This can be a tough question to ask, but if you don’t ask, you may end up missing the mark completely. Many times, clients will willingly provide a budget range and this will help us to determine if the Red Epic is even an option. We have actually filmed many smaller budget commercials on the Canon 5D. Of course, we love using the Red, but it may not always be in the budget.
Lastly, who is your audience. In some cases, the smaller HD camera will do the trick. We did a series of behind the scenes segments with American Idol Star, Jordan Sparks. Her audience loved how we would give Jordan a smaller HD camera to record sound bites as she was driving to her next concert. In this case, shooting on the Red would have been overkill, even if it was in the budget.
Beyond these 3 top scenarios, there are a lot of technical things that the Red Epic can do vs. the Canon 5D Mark II. The Red Epic can shoot in 5K (for all of you IMAX users out there) and it does an excellent job of retaining the natural color of your film. We also use a set of prime lenses that provide an amazing depth of field.
Bottom line, for the price and value, you cannot beat the Canon 5D Mark II. However, if you have the budget and the project warrants it, we would hands down go with the Red Epic.
For more info on our review for the Red Epic vs Canon 5D Mark 2, contact Rami Kalla Owner / Founder Point in Time Studios 480.237.1267 x701
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