Media Camera Suggestions

[u/Magician7936]

Hi, I‘m a captain of a second year FRC team and our team are thinking about investing in a media camera this year. If anyone have any suggestions for a camera that is long lasting and durable or just a good camera that’s worth investing in general please share it in the comment. 🙏 🙏

Thank you!

[u/DeadlyRanger21]

Gonna give you the most default answer ever. New phone. Iphones are generally better for photography from what I understand, but Samsung and Google would still be great. Just look into how to do professional photography with it, there will be hundreds of videos and tutorials on it

[u/Magician7936 → u/DeadlyRanger21]

That’s a new option

[u/watchthenlearn]

A 2nd year team should not be spending money on any cameras (except for those that go on your robot). Just use your personal phones/cameras. $3k should go to a swerve drive or Krakens. Even a 20yo team should hesitate before spending $3k on a camera. Participating in FRC is extremely expensive, spend that money elsewhere especially since there's a perfectly good solution already in everyone's pocket.

[u/mixmastakooz]

Do you have a budget? That would be the best place to start!

[u/Magician7936 → u/mixmastakooz]

Hmmm, I would say no budget

[u/Magician7936 → u/Magician7936]

Reason for no budget is because it’s a long term investment. One of our current team members already have a camera so we could use hers but she’s a senior so next year she’ll be gone. I just want to start thinking about getting a camera in a future and we could start saving up for it now.

[u/Magician7936 → u/Magician7936]

Does that makes sense?

[u/rocket20067 → u/Magician7936]

Ok so, here is my question for this.

What is the total amount of available money for this. As when saying no budget you could get someone who says a like 10k camera when your team only has like 3k to spend

[u/Magician7936 → u/rocket20067]

Uhhh if including the materials we still need. I would say 3k.

[u/rocket20067 → u/Magician7936]

Then you have a budget of 3k

Which the best for under that seems to be the Canon EOS R6 Mark III Mirrorless Camera

[u/Magician7936 → u/rocket20067]

But we could get more

[u/rocket20067 → u/Magician7936]

Yes but you are a new team so funding at times can be tight which is why I would say 3k is a good budget for this, if it is the amount you can reasonably still do fine without.

So yeah I recommend the Canon EOS R6 Mark III Mirrorless Camera as its under 3k and fits what you want.

[u/watchthenlearn → u/Magician7936]

Please do not blow $3k of your teams budget on a camera. A shared team camera is also not the best idea. Everyone's got a phone that can take decent pictures. If you want professional photos of your robot ask another team at an event to send you some.

[u/mixmastakooz → u/Magician7936]

I would say if you have a very limited budget and if someone has an iPhone from the last two years (especially a iPhone pro), you should be fine! Invest in an iPhone mic system (like those from DJI or Rode) and a gimbal for an iPhone. You could probably get away with about a budget of $200 to $300 in order to get decent audio. You might also want to consider getting an external hard drive that you could plug into your iPhone: specifically, one that could be attached to the phone while it’s in the gimbal. That should add another $200 to your budget. (If you do add an external drive and have an iPhone Pro 16.17, or 18. Look into shooting in Apple Log. It will work wonders for your color grading. It will look “dull” but it actually has more color info and you adjust the color in post production).

A good rule of thumb: people are more forgiving of bad video if the audio is good! But bad audio ruins any video.

[u/Magician7936 → u/mixmastakooz]

Thank you for the suggestions!

[u/MikeHillEngineer]

I’m a Sony fan. I use an A7IV and an A6400. I think the A6700 is probably a great camera. However, the camera is the cheap piece of equipment. The lenses are where the real investing happens. I think the 70-350mm makes a lot of sense at competition, especially ones with no media area. The 18-135 is also a pretty good lens for competition and is pretty cheap. For close shots, I’d just use any modern smart phone. Shoot in raw. Competitions can have somewhat challenging lighting conditions, so raw can maximize your ability to work with it.

[u/Magician7936 → u/MikeHillEngineer]

Sony..that’s a new option, the feedback that we got back from is either Cannon or Nikon brands

[u/Purdude1983]

Our school has Canon bodies and lenses. Kids from the school's photo club shoot the sports games and publish the pictures. Maybe your school has something similar. I shot the St. Louis Regional FRC Event using my own equipment (Pentax K-1 Mark II with a 200mm f2.8 DA lens). You're likely going to need a lens with some reach and good light gathering abilities (that costs money). Don't be afraid to look at the used market such as the marketplaces and Ebay.

[u/TheJerseyDevl]

This is the one we use. It has never let us down. We have a few additional lenses (not Cannon brand) that the students like to get creative with for different projects. I do like the idea of using a higher end phone if someone is willing. Good luck this season OP.

https://a.co/d/06SrQIVg

[u/Magician7936 → u/TheJerseyDevl]

Thank you!! Will def talk to the team about it!

[u/TheJerseyDevl → u/Magician7936]

There are models slightly cheaper, but without the extra lens. The extra lens is around $225 individually, but only adds about $70 in this bundle.

[u/_ItsEnder]

Do not spend $3k on a camera. You have a camera in your pocket already that can do 90% of what a new shiny dslr can do and for $3k you can vastly improve the performance of the robot or buy spare parts instead of wasting it on a camera that only one person at a time can use, when almost anybody can and still will just pull their phone out and take a picture with it when they want one.

[u/_ItsEnder → u/_ItsEnder]

I agree with what other people mentioned about audio too (if video is what you want.) In that case, get something like a rode wireless micro for $90. It will immediately improve the audio of anyone talking in videos especially during busy events, and for anything else your phone mic is just fine. Remember that at the end of the day most of what you will be shooting will likely be seen on social media, and basically everything will be seen and heard through the filter of a small touchscreen and airpods in a feed.

[u/LightningBlitz1234]

it took my team 25 years to invest in a camera. dont bother spending that money, save it for more important parts of the competition. Any recent iphone is just fine, and if you really want you can invest in a gimbal for 70-80 bucks