i think i bought the wrong camera

I've been shooting on a Canon C70 since 2021, and I've come to realize that it's not the right camera for me anymore. The weird thing is that I don't think the Canon C70 is a wrong camera. In fact, it's one of the best cameras that I've ever bought and used ever before. This camera helped me build my business. It helped me create some of my favorite works that I've ever shot. And it also made a lot of money for me. And if I could go back to 2021, I would buy this camera all over again in a heartbeat. So why am I here telling you that I don't think the C70 is right for me anymore? And that's because at some point in the past five years, I've realized that you have to stop buying gear for the filmmaker you hope to become and looking at the gear that you're using for the filmmaker that you actually are. And honestly, I think I'm at that point where I'm like, yeah, it's time to move on. So back in the beginning of 2021, I was shooting on the Canon EOS R, and this is one of Canon's first mirrorless cameras that it ever released back in like 2018 or something like that. And at the time, I was very excited. We shot a lot of work, a lot of weddings and a lot of events on the EOS R. And when I eventually bought my Canon C70, it was a massive, massive upgrade. Better codecs, more robust files, better dynamic range, built-in ND filters, which are a godsend, crazy good battery life, and also better image quality thanks to that DGO sensor. Everything about the C70 felt like a professional tool. And back then, that's exactly what I wanted. Because at that stage of my career, I had a lot of clients lining up and were just coming out of the pandemic. And we had a huge backlog of clients who wanted to work with us. And the assumption that I made as a gearhead myself is, if the camera can do more, it must be a better investment, right? And honestly, for a while, that was very true. The jump from the EOS R to the C70 was just insane. It was like a night and day difference. The work improved, the image looks way better, the reliability was incredible. And the funny thing is, that's probably why it took me so long to get to this current realization that I have right now. Over the last five years, I've shot weddings, events, resort content, membership videos, social media content, highlight films. I've spent so much time with this camera that eventually I started noticing a couple patterns. I stopped thinking about the features that I wish I used and started paying more attention to the things that I actually would need on a shoot. For example, this camera can actually shoot cinema raw. I have never used cinema raw. Outside of this one time when I shot a short film, it turned out great, it looked great. But for the things I shoot for my business, clients don't need raw, my workflow doesn't need raw, those projects don't require raw at all. So there's lots of other amazing, amazing features on this camera that are just like that. But I don't really use them. I really require 4K, 60 frames, maybe 120 frames per second. And that's about it. And here's the thing that I kept lying to myself about. Here's the funny thing is, this camera is a cinema camera. And cinema cameras, they are, you know, they're chunky, they're big boys. This camera alone, the body alone is like almost two pounds. And then you add on a zoom lens, the 24 to 70, you add on a RS3 gimbal. That entire rig is very, very tiring for me to hold and keep using for an extended amount of time. And over the past five years, I've noticed that it's very physically demanding for my body. It sounds kind of weird, it sounds kind of dumb. But when you're holding this entire rig for eight hours a day or 10 hours a day, my fingers I've noticed started aching, my wrist started hurting. So it was kind of bad for me overall. Five years ago, I probably would have ignored that. I probably would have just, you know, said suck it up. But today I don't. And honestly, after becoming a dad, I am realizing that I am carrying around a 20 pound rig the entire day. Why would I want to carry another 15 pound rig with me at work all day as well? And once that thought entered my head, I couldn't really get rid of it. Okay, you're good now, baby. Yay! And this is where the Canon C50 enters the conversation. Because when I first heard about the camera, I assumed that I would really care about the specs a lot, about the open gate, the 7K resolution, all the things that the Canon C50 review videos really kind of hammer home. And that's when I realized that my priorities had changed. It wasn't about, oh, what can this camera do for me? It's more about, oh, what can this camera solve for me? Because to me, the Canon C50 feels like a very scaled down, miniature version of the Canon C70 without the C50 being a complete downgrade from the Canon C70. It's so weird to think that the thing that I'm most excited about, about the Canon C50 isn't like the open gate and all these really cool features. It's really about how small and how lightweight and how much happier my arms are going to be when I carry this thing on a gimbal all day. And honestly, if Canon never announced a C50, I think I would have ended up having the same conversation anyways. I probably would have gotten a R5 R2, a second one. Because this isn't really about the C50. It's about a direction that I've been moving towards for the past few years. Recently, I've been gravitating towards having a lighter and simpler setup in terms of gear. For example, we used to bring this giant Godox LED panel that was very heavy. It came in this very huge carrying case. It's like 25-ish pounds. We would lug it around on a C-stand and add on a 25-pound sandbag just in case. And that thing was a massive, massive LED light. But recently, we bought a light mat. And it's very light and very quick to set up. And it outputs the same amount of light. And the quality is just as good. There are a ton of other things that I used to own or used to try. For example, EasyRig. I bought an EasyRig, sold that pretty much almost immediately because I realized that, my God, this thing is ginormous. And I don't really require any of that on a wedding shoot or an event shoot. It looks pretty awkward and out of place, especially during a wedding. I used to have a follow focus with manual lenses on my gimbal rig. And that was crazy. I used to try to use anamorphic lenses. And that was also a headache to manually try to pull focus for myself while I'm operating the gimbal. And the biggest lesson for me after reflecting on these past few years is that I was trying to buy and use gear for the filmmaker that I thought I wanted to be instead of realizing what kind of filmmaker I actually am. And of course, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have goals and try to set yourself up for whatever you're trying to go for. But for me, it was realizing that I'm not making money off of being on set all the time. I'm making my money off of being an event shooter, being a wedding filmmaker. I'm shooting a lot of fast moving productions where mobility matters. And I'm operating the camera for long hours. I'm not a DP who is constantly having a crew around me that utilizes the most out of this camera. I think most filmmakers go through this phase at some point. We're ambitious. We are hungry. We want to move on to the next big thing in our career. We want to progress. So you start buying gear that represents who you eventually want to become. So do I actually think that I bought the wrong camera? Nah, not at all. I think the Canon C70 was perfect for me. It produced incredible work. It was a great camera. But I think at this point in my dad life, as my little girl gets bigger, I think I want a camera that gets even smaller. I was trying to downsize. So I'll probably get maybe one or two more videos out from the Canon C70. And then it's time to say goodbye. I'm going to list this thing on eBay. And who knows? Maybe the next time you see me, I will be holding the Canon C50 in my hands. All right. But that's it for this video. Let me know if you have any comments, questions, concerns down in the comments section down below. Until the next one. My name is Alex Chung, and I'll see you later. Bye.