35mm film has been the standard format in movie theaters for years.
Filmmaking has evolved greatly in terms of creative requirements and technical processes. Yet there is one aspect of filmmaking that is constant: the use of a camera to shoot the required footage for the story. Since the early 1900s, filmmaking has required shooting with cameras that use film stocks. It was not until the 1990s that broadcast-quality digital cinema cameras started sharing the market of film production that used the digital format. Film cameras that use film stocks still are widely used by professional filmmakers.
Film Cameras
A film camera uses a film negative. This was the original format, and it still is the most widely used film footage acquisition format since the invention of film in the late 1890s. A film negative is in 8mm, 16mm, 35mm or 65mm formats, which primarily refers to the size of the film stock used for each kind of film camera.
A film camera works similar to how non-digital photo cameras take photos; the negative is brought to a photo laboratory for processing and printing of the photos. The only difference in a film stock or celluloid for movies is that cinematography produces moving pictures compared to the still pictures in photography.
HD Cameras
The digital revolution of the 1990s led to the popularity of using high-definition (HD) cameras for both mainstream and independent film productions. As the technology developed, the original 720p and 1080p resolution provided by HD cameras reached the point of almost being on par with the resolution of a film negative. Using these digital cinema cameras also significantly lowered the cost of professional film production as there were no more expenses incurred by buying one-time-use film stocks, developing and printing the negatives to positive prints, and scanning the negatives for digital transfer.
Digital SLR Cameras
By the late 2000s, top camera manufacturers released digital SLR cameras that shoot both photos and videos in HD format. Some of these cameras became prominent names for independent filmmakers and even big-budget productions that saw the advantage of using small but efficient cameras that work best during guerrilla and mobile shoots.
SLR cameras are practical choices for independent filmmakers and hobbyists who want to buy their own professional cameras for film shoots. SLRs are relatively affordable compared to film and HD cameras, which typically are meant for big production companies with ample budgets for large-scale professional equipment.
3-D Cameras
3-D cameras may be film-based cameras, or HD or digital cinema cameras used to provide 3-D movies in theatrical and home video formats. 3-D cameras generally work like 2-D cameras, except they also follow the concept of human eyes, where there are two lenses and two films or digital storage devices simultaneously used to produce the left and right footage of a scene. These stereoscopic images are processed during post-production and released as 3-D movies.
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