Hi Petr! Thank you for uploading this online. I am working on ethnographic film myself and struggling with technical side of the process: stabilisation and autofocus (important when the people move a lot). I agree with you that story is much more important. I wonder could you share a bit about your camera choice for your film?
Hello, great to be in touch! For me, the camera choice was a result of a long internal dialogue in which I needed to take into account 1) the budget, 2) the aesthetic I wanted to achieve; and 3) the production circumstances. I knew I needed a camera that was a) not expensive; b) could cope with low-light performance; c) could cope with a lot of movement; d) didn't take long to get ready to shoot; e) was not heavy to carry around; f) had decent auto-focus; g) and with which you could [somehow] craft the film look. I ended up with a Sony A6500 with a Sigma 16mm f/1.4 lens. There were definitely a lot of compromises in this choice. The camera suffers from a rolling shutter quite a lot (which I somehow managed to compensate for with a gimbal). And the autofocus, especially with a combination with this lens and my occasional craving for shallow DOF, didn't perform ideally. 8bit footage was another big disadvantage which I only discovered in post. But overall, it was the best choice within the budget I could have made...This is the end result, btw ;-) => hopalide.nuska.me/
![Petr Nuska: Doing Visual Ethnomusicology in the 2020s [conference paper]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Xy6YFBn17ws/mqdefault.jpg)
![Petr Nuska: Doing Visual Ethnomusicology in the 2020s [conference paper]](/img/tr.png)
![Petr Nuska: Exploring Filmic & Video Approach in Visual Ethnography [conference paper]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gToiumke_tA/mqdefault.jpg)
![Romani Chords - Video abstract | HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF research project [RomChords]](/img/1.gif)
Hi Petr! Thank you for uploading this online. I am working on ethnographic film myself and struggling with technical side of the process: stabilisation and autofocus (important when the people move a lot). I agree with you that story is much more important. I wonder could you share a bit about your camera choice for your film?
Hello, great to be in touch! For me, the camera choice was a result of a long internal dialogue in which I needed to take into account 1) the budget, 2) the aesthetic I wanted to achieve; and 3) the production circumstances. I knew I needed a camera that was a) not expensive; b) could cope with low-light performance; c) could cope with a lot of movement; d) didn't take long to get ready to shoot; e) was not heavy to carry around; f) had decent auto-focus; g) and with which you could [somehow] craft the film look. I ended up with a Sony A6500 with a Sigma 16mm f/1.4 lens. There were definitely a lot of compromises in this choice. The camera suffers from a rolling shutter quite a lot (which I somehow managed to compensate for with a gimbal). And the autofocus, especially with a combination with this lens and my occasional craving for shallow DOF, didn't perform ideally. 8bit footage was another big disadvantage which I only discovered in post. But overall, it was the best choice within the budget I could have made...This is the end result, btw ;-) => hopalide.nuska.me/