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What type of camera would be best for this task?


I was working under a director/camera operator, and I noticed that while shooting downtown at night, he can get the footage, to look really bright, and really good, with a low amount of noise, since we were shooting documentary style, under natural lighting mostly.

I noticed how in his camera, everything is in focus at night, which is the complete of the cameras I am use to. I am use to ones with a really shallow DOF, especially under low light conditions. But I like how he can open the aperture all the way up to f1.8, he said, and it's still all in focus.

I would like a camera that can do that at night, when it comes to shooting scenes with a lot of action in, where you would want a lot in focus.

But I also like shallow DOF as well when it comes to the more quiet scenes, and dialogue scenes.

I was wondering, is there a camera, where you can have the best of both worlds, without having to spend the extra money on a 35mm adapter, to get shallow focus? Mainly I want a camera, where I can go from a deep DOF under low light at night in the city, but also go to a shallow DOF as well, without light being the dictator in what the DOF should be.

But is there a camera that is low cost, that can do that?

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No.

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Check out the Sony A7S

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The Sony A7s seems like a good choice as well. However, I am afraid if I close the aperture beyond say f11 for example, that the shot could suffer from aperture diffraction when it comes to DSLR sensors. How much can you close the aperture, before you reach diffraction?

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