As the tradition calls, Sarah Shahat from IndieWire has published the camera survey regarding the Sundance 2024 Film Festival, focusing on documentaries. As usual, we ingested the data into a chart (cameras and manufacturers) to conclude that Sony’s cameras were the most popular among indie-documentaries filmmakers, even more than Canon’s. However, the most dominant camera is the Canon’s Super 35 beast, which is the acclaimed C300 Mark II.

Sundance 2024’s documentaries: Cameras and lenses

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival is taking place from January 18 to 28, 2024. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 6, 2023. Sundance 2024 presents a few high-potential films, crafted by top-tier independent filmmakers. This time, we focus on the selected documentaries (as opposed to narratives). Every year, IndieWire reaches out to the cinematographers behind the films premiering at the festival and asks which cameras, lenses, and formats they used — and why they were the right choice to create the looks and meet the production demands of their films. Sarah Shahat wrote the article. As usual, we took the data to build friendly charts in order to show a certain segmentation, if any. First, explore the list below (films, DP, cameras, and lenses). Head over to the IndieWire article to read more bout the making of those films.

1. “Agent of Happiness”: DP – Arun Bhattarai. Cameras – Canon C300 Mark II. Lenses – Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L is USM Lens
2. “And So It Begins”: DP: Bruce Sakaki. Cameras – Sony FX9. Lenses – Canon 24-105F4 & Canon 70-200F4
3. “As We Speak”: DP: Allison Anderson and Logan Triplett. Cameras – Sony VENICE 1, Bolex. Lenses – Panavision Ultra Speed Primes, Panavision 19-90 Zoom
4. “The Battle for Laikipia”. DP: Daphne Matziaraki. Cameras – Sony FS7, Sony FX3. Lenses: Sigma Art 24-70mm f2.8, Canon 70-200 f2.8, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Sony 200-600mm, 24mm, 50mm/ 85mm fast primes, 100mm Macro
5. “Eternal You”: DP: Tom Bergmann, Konrad Waldmann. Cameras: Canon C500 Mark II, Sony FX9, Canon C70, Sony FX3. Lenses – Sigma Cine Prime lenses, Angenieux Optimo Style Zoom
6. “Every Little Thing”: DP: Nathan Barlow, Dan Freene, Ann Johnson Prum. Cameras – RED Raptor, RED Komodo, Phantom Flex 4K. Lenses: Canon Prime Lenses, Canon Zoom lenses
7. “Girls State”: DP: Laura Hudock. Cameras – Canon C500 Mark II. Lenses: Canon CN-E 35mm & 50mm
8. “Ibelin”: DP: Tore Vollan. Cameras – Canon C300 Mark II, Canon C200, Sony FX6, ARRI Amira, Sony FS7, Sony A7iii. Lenses: Zeiss Distagon 35mm f 1.4, Zeiss Planar 50mm f 1.4, Zeiss CP2 28mm f 2.1, Sony FE 24-70 2.8, Angenieux 25-250.
9. “Igualada”: DP: Gómez. Cameras – Sony FS7, Sony FX6. Lenses: Sony 70-200mm, 24-70mm GM
10. “Love Machina”: DP: Peter Sillen. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Classic. Lenses: Cooke S4i
11. “Luther: Never Too Much”: DP: Bryan Gentry. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA LF, ARRI ALEXA SXT
    Lenses: Canon Sumire
12. “A New Kind of Wilderness”: DP: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen. Cameras – Sony FX6. Lenses – Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM
13. “Porcelain War”: DP: Andrey Stefanov. Cameras – Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, Sony FX30, GoPro Hero 11 Black, DJI Mavic. Lenses: Leica/Lumix Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0, Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6
14. “Power”: DP: Julia C Liu. Cameras – Sony FX9, Sony FX6. Lenses – Canon CN-E Cinema Prime, Angenieux EZ-1 45-135mm zoom, Canon L series zooms
15. “Skywalkers: A Love Story”: DP: Renato Borrayo Serrano. Camera: Canon C300, Canon C70. Lenses – Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II, Sigma AF 18-35 f/1.8 DC HSM Art, Canon EF-S
16. “Sue Bird: In the Clutch”. DP – Carissa Henderson. Camera: Sony FX9. Lenses – Zeiss Supreme Lenses, Canon L-Series 70-200mm
17. “Sugarcane”: DP: Christopher LaMarca, Emily Kassie. Cameras – Canon C500 Mark II. Lenses: Canon L series 35mm f1.4 Prime, Canon L series 50mm F1.2 Prime
18. “Will & Harper”: DP: Zoe White. Cameras – ARRI Amira, Canon C300, RED Komodo. Lenses- Cooke Panchros

The Camera Chart

Explore the following camera chart, based on the list above:

Discussion: Sony takes over Canon

In recent years, the weapon of choice for Sundance documentary filmmakers was Canon. Not surprisingly, Canon cameras are robust, reliable, and produce great imagery, which is enough to craft a cinematic doc. This year is no different, as the dominant camera is the mighty Canon C300 Mark II, which can be defined as the camera of Sundance docus. Nevertheless, Canon is not the No.1 camera manufacturer for shooting Sundance docus, but Sony is. Check out the charts below which demonstrate the camera manufacturers’ chart of Sundance 2023 and 2024:

As you can see, ARRI has a solid spot in the middle with its ALEXAs (SXT, LF) and Amira. But notice how Sony has transformed to be the leading camera manufacturer with its FX9, FX9, FX3, and even FX30. The CineAlta flagship, VENICE (1) is used in only one documentary project. But the FX9 and FX6 lead the way. It will be an interesting debate to talk about if the rising popularity of the FX3 is due to The Creator. However, we would doubt that, as the connection between FX3 and blockbusterization was revealed a few months ago, and thus it did not affect the Sundance 2024 filmmakers’ choice. It will be intriguing to see how the BURANO will play in that game as well. We guess that at Sundance 2025 will see some BURANOs, as they are made for cinematic docus. Actually, the Sony BURANO was stitched to these kinds of filmmakers. As for Canon, it’s still in a very solid place and has a place of honor in the documentary filmmaking arena (an interesting read: Why Does Canon Cinema EOS Fail in Narrative Filmmaking?). BTW, we are glad to see Canon C500 Mark II in the chart, as we think it is a very capable cinema camera. Furthermore, there are zero Panasonic cameras on that list, as opposed to Sundance 2023. Additionally, the other ‘satellites’ as we call them (RED and Blackmagic) also exist in the 2024 chart.

Watch the highlights of this article in the video below:

Let us know your insights about these charts. Do you think that documentary filmmakers will prefer Sony over Canon?