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In the beginning, one needed to arrive on a film set with a large camera. No matter what the production type was, shoulder-mount cameras were sending a clear message: look out, you are dealing with professionals.
But times have changed, technology has advanced, and now very capable small cameras are everywhere. With box-type cinema cameras, mirrorless bodies, smartphones, and the like, the market has never been so democratized. If you don’t care about appearances, in so many cases — and regardless of the camera brand — a small camera will do the trick and help you gather high-quality footage.
CIPA, the Japanese Camera and Imaging Products Association, recently published its latest statistics, clearly showing that in 2025, the compact camera segment grew the fastest. True, if you dive deeper into these numbers, some of those cameras are very basic and outside our area of interest — but others, like the LUMIX S9 or FUJIFILM X100VI, are paving the way.
For this week’s poll, we want to find out if camera size matters to you. Personally, I couldn’t care less — if anything, the smaller the better. Give me a Panasonic LUMIX S9, and based on its filming capabilities and the medium I’m publishing for, I’ll be happy 90% of the time.
But what about you? When you show up with a compact camera, do you still care what the people around you think? Or is it your talent and professionalism that people are hiring — regardless of the camera size you bring to the set?
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Please take a moment to vote, and if you have a minute to leave a comment and elaborate, we’d love to hear from you.
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Johnnie Behiri is a documentary filmmaker with more than three decades behind the camera: he learned the craft in daily television news gathering, filmed for Japan's public broadcaster NHK, and spent eight years shooting and editing for BBC News. He joined cinema5D in 2011 and has co-owned and co-run CineD and MZed ever since. Johnnie writes many of CineD's camera reviews, co-hosts our weekly Focus Check podcast, and heads CineD's manufacturer relationships and product development.