{"id":44123,"date":"2019-10-09T11:14:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T15:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keh.com\/expert-advice\/?p=44123"},"modified":"2023-11-30T18:24:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T18:24:17","slug":"five-hybrid-cameras-that-excel-at-both-stills-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.keh.com\/expert-advice\/camera-gear\/buying-guides\/five-hybrid-cameras-that-excel-at-both-stills-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Hybrid Cameras That Excel At Both Stills & Video"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a hybrid shooter. Please put down your pitchforks and hear me out. My grandfather was a professional portrait photographer, and my dad owned a gorgeous chrome Minolta XD-11<\/a> that he passed down to me. My formative high school years were peppered with innumerable disposable Kodak film cameras. I wouldn’t call myself a stranger to photography.<\/p>\n

When it came time for me to start my career, I decided to go into film and video production. In film school, I remember a good friend of mine received a Panasonic HVX-200<\/a> camera kit including a Letus depth-of-field adapter to get a shallow depth of field as a very<\/em> expensive birthday present. I don’t remember the exact price but I’m pretty sure the kit he got was over $10k. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long after film school that the emergence of the true ‘hybrid’ cameras began. This was a game-changer for me. Suddenly, I could get cinematic-looking high-definition video out of an affordable stills camera.<\/p>\n

For those of us who like to dabble in both photography and video, there are now countless options from micro four thirds to full-frame sensors. Here are a few cameras still kicking butt when it comes to stills & video.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Five<\/a>
\nCanon EOS 5D Mark III<\/a><\/h4>\n

Let’s start with the ubiquitous 5D. If you’re a video shooter and haven’t used one of these, I pity you. Canon shook the indie and documentary world to its core with the release of the 5D Mark II<\/a>– the first DSLR with the capability to capture 1080p video. The Mark III only improved on this. With great ergonomics, a 22-megapixel still sensor, the ability to shoot 60fps slow-mo, and the tremendous library of Canon EF lenses, this one is a sure shot. Oh, and if you’re still skeptical- consider that I filmed hundreds of interviews and live concerts with one for a nationally-broadcast tv show over the course of 7 years and never heard any complaints about picture quality.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Five<\/a>Canon EOS 70D<\/a><\/h4>\n

So you love the idea of the Canon system, but you’re on a tighter budget. We’ve got you covered with the 70D for about half the price of the 5D Mark III. Designed as a sort of follow-up to the immensely popular 7D<\/a>, this APS-C body will still fit all of your EF lenses<\/a> and give you the option to use the more affordable EF-S lenses<\/a> as well. While it does come with a smaller sensor, the photo and video capabilities are just about the same, if not better in some aspects. You’ll also gain a rotating touchscreen and dual-pixel autofocus for video, which makes filming self-facing video blogs a breeze.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Five<\/a>Sony a7S II<\/a><\/h4>\n

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away from this full-frame camera. Being mirrorless, the a7S II is more compact than its DSLR predecessors. It features in-body 5-axis image stabilization, including a manual input so you can use that same stabilization with older manual lenses. It’s also the first Sony mirrorless to have in-body 4k video recording capabilities without using an external recorder. It’s absolutely stunning in low-light, with unprecedented high-iso power. For stills, 12 megapixels may not seem like much, but consider that most folks look at photos on their 5-inch smartphones. If printed at 300ppi, you can enlarge these photos up to 9.34×14.3 inches before seeing pixel detail. Trust me\u2014unless you’re printing posters or shooting wide & cropping in close, this will be enough.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Five<\/a><\/h4>\n

Panasonic Lumix GH4<\/a><\/h4>\n

If you love the idea of the smaller form factor, but are looking for something a little more wallet-friendly, there’s the Panasonic GH4. For about half the price of a Sony a7S II, you can pick up this Micro Four Thirds wonder. It also can provide you with 4k video at a cinematic 24 frames per second, and 1080p at 60 frames per second. The GH4 may have the upper hand on the still photo side, with a 20-frame-per-second burst shot and its 16-megapixel image sensor.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Five<\/a>Fujifilm X-T3<\/a><\/h4>\n

Fujifilm may be slightly newer to the video-hybrid-camera world, but they sure know how to make an entrance. Their newest flagship mirrorless offering is an ergonomic delight to use. Seemingly designed for-photographers-by-photographers, all of the settings a shooter may need to change quickly are controlled by external dials and switches, giving a real analog feel to operation. Which we love, of course.<\/p>\n

The X-T3 includes Fujifilm’s wonderful film-based color science. It also happens to be the first mirrorless APS-C camera capable of internal 4k 60fps 4:2:0 10-bit recording. If that’s a lot of random numbers and letters to you, don’t sweat it. That just means that they’re bringing impressive new tech to the table alongside a wonderful user experience. There’s a reason that we can’t seem to keep them in stock very long.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Five<\/a>Bonus Camera
\nGoPro Hero4 Black<\/a><\/h4>\n

GoPro may not have the best reputation for image quality, but don’t count them out. This ‘action camera’ can produce some breathtaking images. The Hero4 Black Edition, released just over 5 years ago at $499 can now be picked up from us for a fraction of the price. Even if you never plan on scuba diving or snowboarding with one, the image quality from these matchbox-car-sized cameras is impressive. All of the major technical specs are here like 4k video, 12mp photos, a built-in timelapse mode, and GoPro’s Protune feature which allows you to manually control iso, color and exposure settings. All in a camera that’s small enough to hide onstage during your friend’s band’s first show. It sounds to me like the perfect photo & video camera to document a vacation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a hybrid shooter. Please put down your pitchforks and hear me out. My grandfather was a professional portrait photographer, and my dad owned a gorgeous chrome Minolta XD-11 that he passed down to me. My formative high school years were peppered with innumerable disposable Kodak film cameras. I wouldn’t call myself a stranger to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":44136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[652,656,653,49,331,176,654,549,658,651,657,117,65,655,153],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t