By Joseph Engelhardt

There has been a lot said about the DSLR revolution. Cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D, and Panasonic D7000 have made waves in the filmmaking industry. For the first time, filmmakers are now speaking in terms of thousands of dollars rather than tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their hands on a camera that will shoot high quality video.

“It’s democratized high-end filmmaking,” says Fred Konkin, manager of video sales at Vistek in Toronto.

For many, the revolution began with the announcement of the Canon 5D Mark II in September 2008, which promised full high-definition video in a product that was priced below $5,000. Soon, serious filmmakers began experimenting with what the 5D could do. Konkin says it wasn’t long before consumers began clamouring for the new cameras, eager to try out the latest new toys.

While it’s undeniable that this new wave of DSLR cameras are capable of shooting incredible video, for many there is a polarizing debate as to what the role of the DSLR should be in the industry, or if it should even be taken seriously.

Fred Konkin with a Canon 7D in a Redrock rig – Photo by Joseph Engelhardt

Konkin is quick to acknowledge that while the DSLR is a valuable filmmaking tool, it does have  limitations, perhaps most notably with audio quality.

“The audio quality of DSLR’s is poor at best,” he says.

Konkin says that while the initial hype of the DSLR is lagging, filmmakers are beginning to find niches where the cameras work best, such as filming close-up shots.

“Originally the swing was to throw away my video camera and do everything on DSLR, but now it’s swung back,” he says. “The video cameras are now used as the bases, doing wide angle shots, telephoto shots, and you’ve got continuous audio being recorded, and then you fill in the shots with the DSLRs.”

Christopher Huchenski, creative director at Vistek, agrees that while the initial trend of using a DSLR to shoot everything is coming to an end, they are still massively popular with filmmakers. “The fad will last another year, at least,” he predicts.

Both Huchenski and Konkin pointed to another valuable role that DSLRs have been able to fill for professional filmmakers. Due to their compact size and relative cheapness, Konkin observes that DSLRs are being used in places and situations where larger cameras either wouldn’t fit or were at risk of being damaged.

“You want to strap them all over a car and blow it up, and they don’t care because they’re so cheap,” he says. “And Rodney (Charters, director of photography for 24) did that, he had one car and must have had five to eight Canon 5Ds on it. From every angle I do one take. I get every shot I ever wanted to get and I don’t care if the cameras are destroyed.”

For independent filmmakers, DSLR cameras also offer great advantages in terms of cost. Jonathan Krimer, the president of the Toronto Filmmakers Association, says that DSLR cameras are giving independent filmmakers working on limited budget a huge advantage by substantially cutting the cost of the cameras themselves.

“You’re getting a film look for a very inexpensive price,” he says.

Krimer says that some of the technological advancements of the DSLR, such as control over depth of field, have made it particularly popular with filmmakers. “Before, everything was flat, so you have more control. You have the ability to tell the audience what to focus on,” he says.

While the DSLR camera does present filmmakers with a new, affordable alternative to more conventional means of shooting, it is not without opponents. Justin Oakey, a Toronto-based filmmaker who has produced short films using both DSLRs and more conventional cameras, feels that the availability of the DSLR camera to mass market consumers means it’s more difficult for filmmakers to establish themselves.

“People aren’t impressed when you make a film anymore, because anyone can do it now,” he says.

Oakey points to video-sharing sites like Vimeo and YouTube, which are now overloaded with videos shot on DSLRs that look professional but aren’t. He says this overload makes it hard for independent filmmakers to use these sites and get their work noticed. Having shot a film with a DSLR, Oakey also pointed to challenges he faced with the technology itself, including issues with file compression and frustrations when it came to editing the footage.

“It’s almost like the illusion of a really nice camera,” he says.

Oakey says that DSLRs – which are still primarily used for still photography – compress the images shot down to a level where the quality can be substandard.

Mark Tollefson, a filmmaking professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University, is also a vocal critic of the DSLR’s popularity, citing its many technical limitations as a huge drawback.

“I would hardly say it’s a technical advancement when you’re taking a huge step backwards,” he says, making specific reference to the audio limitations of the DSLR. “There are lots of real cameras that are not much more expensive,” he says.

Tollefson also says that DSLRs simply can’t handle certain types of shots, most notably ones that involve lots of motion. “It’s a motion picture camera that doesn’t do motion.” Tollefson, who is also active in the Canadian film and television industry, notes that many broadcasters simply won’t accept high definition footage from a DSLR camera. He said these broadcasters have issues with the quality of HD footage that a DSLR produces.

“Most of the HD broadcasters are very touchy about what is HD,” he says.

One area where both the advocates and opponents of DSLR agree upon is that the cameras are by no means the be all and end all of what the future of filmmaking is, despite what consumers might believe.

Konkin notes that some of the large video camera companies such as Panasonic and Sony have already responded to the popularity of the DSLR by producing affordable, high quality video cameras.

Konkin specifically points to the Panasonic AF-100, which was released at the end of December, as a major challenger to the popularity of the DSLR.

“It’s more versatile and the results are outstanding,” he says, noting that perhaps one of the biggest strengths of the AF when compared to a DSLR is audio quality.

While it’s undeniable that the advent of the DSLR camera has changed the way filmmakers view cameras and filmmaking, it also seems that it is far from the revolutionary game-changer that fans of the camera forecasted when the Canon 5D first launched. With painfully apparent limitations, it seems highly unlikely that a DSLR camera will be shooting Hollywood blockbusters any time soon. Instead, the DSLR has found a niche as a utility camera and goes places filmmakers would never dream of putting a conventional one.

Because if your camera’s only worth a couple thousand dollars, why not blow it up to get the shot?