Two weeks ago, Mission: Impossible 7 director, Christopher McQuarrie, shared on his Instagram a picture of a few crashed cams during the production. Those were a bunch of smashed Z CAM E1 cameras on the set, which have been utilized as action 4K cams. After a bit of research, it’s was interesting to explore that the Z CAM cameras were used on previous Mission: Impossible movies as well.

The Z CAMs on Mission: Impossible

It appears that those cheap action cams were used on vehicles to shoot Mission: Impossible movies. Thanks to Z CAM Nederland who published the picture on its FB page, we can explore Tom Cruise doing a motorcycle stunt with a full-frame Z CAM rigged out on the vehicle. This picture was taken during Mission: Impossible 6. Nevertheless, in the new Mission: Impossible 7, even cheaper models of the Z CAM were revealed.

The Z CAM E1 on Mission: Impossible 7

A few weeks ago, the film director, Christopher McQuarrie has uploaded a picture to Instagram with a few broken cameras from the Mission: Impossible 7 production. Surprisingly, those were the cheapest models of the Z CAM cameras, which is the E1 model that is known for being “The world’s smallest Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens 4K camera”. The E1 was announced five years ago with a price tag of less than $700. Currently, this camera is unavailable for purchase. The Z Cam E21 is twice the size and the weight of the GoPro ($314.99 on Amazon) but has a sensor nine times bigger. Check out McQuarrie photo below:

Why using Z CAM E1 in a multi-million dollar production?

That’s a good question! Although there are many more professional alternatives regarding small actions crash cams (Komodo anyone?), the Z CAM E1 was chosen. Furthermore, this is the only Z CAM model that is limited to an un-gradable codec. It doesn’t support RAW. The option for RAW over HDMI is relevant to the entire lineup of Z CAM cameras with the exception of the Z CAM E1. So why use it and not other much more advanced models? Feel free to answer that.