Best camera for music videos in 2024

Welcome to our guide to the best cameras for music videos. Shooting a music video is a challenging but exciting form of filmmaking – normally you've got a story to tell and a strictly limited timeframe in which to tell it. Many celebrated filmmakers got their start in music videos, from David Fincher to Spike Jonze. 

Nowadays, the prospective music video shooter has a lot of digital cameras to choose from, and for this guide we’ve compiled a selection of the ones we think currently get the job done best, based on our experience of testing and reviewing. We've included mirrorless cameras and professional (but comparatively affordable) cine cameras, as well as more specialist options like an action camera and a stabilised gimbal camera.

You can scroll to the bottom of the page for a few pointers on what we look for in a camera for music videos, as well as some detail on how we test the cameras we review. For more general options, you can also check out our guide to the best cameras for videography. 

Jon Stapley

Jon is one of our go-to specialists when it comes to all aspects of photography, from cameras and action cameras to lenses and memory cards. Here, he has worked with our review team to put together this up-to-date list of the best cameras for music videos.

The quick list

The best camera for music videos in 2024

Best overall

There are loads of expensive options out there for shooting music videos, but if you need something affordable that’ll get the job done, the Sony ZV-E10 is a great place to start. It’s a mirrorless camera that takes E-mount lenses – this is a system that has been going for a long time, so you’ll have plenty of options available to you.

The Sony ZV-E10 shoots great-looking 4K 30p footage, which is a resolution/frame rate combo you’d expect at this price point. Its video autofocus is very good, and having Sony’s Eye AF is an excellent asset for music videos, as it lets you keep focus locked onto your singer’s eyes even if they bob and weave around the frame. The vari-angle touchscreen lets you get creative with framing, and there are 3.5mm jacks for both a mic and a pair of headphones.

The ZV-E10 isn’t perfect – it’s infamous for a pronounced ‘jello effect’ (rolling shutter) when panning from side to side, and the lack of optical stabilization is something to bear in mind when planning moving shots. You can use digital stabilization to keep footage smooth, but this will incur a crop, so keep your subject nice and central.

Best full-frame

The Panasonic Lumix S5 II is some of the best value for money on the camera market right now, especially for the kind of run-and-gun filmmakers who are going to be shooting music videos. It delivers pristine full-frame image quality with some of the most effective image stabilization in the business and superbly accurate phase-detection autofocus. Also, unlike some cameras which automatically crop to the 16:9 aspect ratio when shooting video, the Lumix S5 II uses the full 3:2 aspect ratio of its sensor to capture video at up to 6K 30p. This is sometimes referred to as ‘open gate’ video, and is great if you need to crop into a 9:16 ratio to create vertical clips for short-form video channels like TikTok or Instagram Reels. 

If you have a little more pocket change, Panasonic also released a slightly souped up version in the form of the Lumix S5 IIX – see our piece on Panasonic Lumix S5 II vs S5 IIX for a rundown of the differences. 

Best mid-range

Possibly the best mid-range camera you can buy currently, the Fujifilm X-S20 also makes a terrific case for itself as a music video shooter. For one, like the Lumix S5 II, it captures 6K 30p ‘open gate’, meaning it uses the full 3:2 aspect ratio of the sensor – again making your life easier when it comes to creating vertical-orientation content as well as videos shot in a more traditional aspect ratio.

As the X-S20 is a pretty new camera, it also benefits from up-to-date features like AI-powered subject-recognition autofocus, which can identify things like humans, animals and vehicles in the frame and keep focus locked onto them. Its slim body and vari-angle screen make it excellent for run-and-gun shooting – and the battery life impresses, too. 

Best for live audio

Like we mentioned up top, recording a music video isn’t always about filming someone miming to a track. Sometimes you’ll want to record live performance in all its glory, and a terrific choice for that is the Zoom Q2N-4K. With a comprehensive built-in stereo microphone setup, the Zoom Q2N-4K is capable of capturing crisp and accurate sound from all sorts of different instruments, from drums to saxophones. Video-wise, it produces decent-looking 4K and comes with a variety of preset ‘scene’ modes such as ‘Jazz Club’ and ‘Concert Light’ to help you get the right look for the right situation. It’s not meant for run-and-gun shooting – with no stabilization, it’s a camera best-suited to being set up and left. 

Best action camera

In terms of hardware, the GoPro Hero 12 Black looks very similar to the cheaper Hero 11 Black – same sensor, same lens. However, this update adds a fair few features that could be very handy for producing music videos, so it gets our recommendation here. Most of these are centred around editing rather than shooting – the new 10-Bit Log encoding mode, for one, which retains the maximum amount of dynamic range in order to preserve as much detail as possible for the colour grade. There's also timecode sync, which makes it easier to edit footage if you're shooting on multiple GoPros simultaneously. In all other respects, this is another excellent action camera from GoPro, and is ideal for capturing POV footage or shooting in extreme conditions.

Best gimbal camera

For solo and run 'n' gun videographers, a stabilising gimbal is an essential accessory – however, buying both a camera and a gimbal is an expensive proposition. Step forward, the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, a camera that's effectively both in one, built around a 3-axis stabilising gimbal that enables the capture of smoother-than-smooth footage even while moving. Thanks to the intelligent ActiveTrack 6.0 system, it can also intelligently follow a subject while you're moving, which is excellent for music videos, where you'll likely often want to keep the frame centred on a single person. The screen is doubled in width from previous Pocket cameras, which makes monitoring much easier, and the ability to record in 10-bit D-Log makes this camera much more than a gimmick.

Best pro cine camera

It used to be the case that cinema cameras were too expensive for the average user to even consider. However, the Sony FX30 is priced at the same level as a consumer mirrorless camera, and yet delivers a raft of cinema-line features that make it a superb choice for high-quality music video work. It takes a 6K sensor and oversamples the capture down to 4K for sublime quality. It can even capture 4K at 120p for slow-motion effects (a common feature of music videos) – though be aware that this incurs a 1.6x crop. Like most Sony cameras, it’s got an absolutely first-class autofocus system, with 759 phase-detection points that’ll lock onto basically any moving subject, and Real-Time Eye AF. 

Best mid-range-cine camera

While Blackmagic’s “Pocket” range of cine cameras has seen a few 6K additions to its lineup, we can still happily recommend this capable 4K camera for music video shooters. It captures 4K video with a resolution of 4096 x 2160, and uses the entirety of its Micro Four Thirds sensor – no crop. Being part of the Micro Four Thirds standard also means the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K has access to an enormous range of lightweight lenses.

This is a video camera first and foremost, so you get pro video features like Dual Native ISO and compression options for CinemaDNG RAW and Apple's ProRes 422 codec. While there’s a standard 3.5mm mic jack, the mini XLR port offers phantom power support, meaning it can power a more sophisticated external microphone with active sound processing. Also, while the price of the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K already looks pretty good, it looks even better when you consider that it comes with a free licence for the DaVinci Resolve editing software thrown in.

How to choose the best camera for music videos

A good music video camera needs to capture great-looking video – that’s a given. But it also needs the ergonomics to be easy to use in creative ways, allowing you the freedom to shoot from unusual angles. A fully articulating screen can be helpful there.

Optical stabilization is also highly useful, as music videos often include a lot of dynamic camera movement. Also, while music videos will of course generally have a track laid over the top, it’s not uncommon for diegetic sound elements to be incorporated too, so a mic input is handy – and if you're also going to be filming live music, 'handy' can be upgraded to 'essential'. 

These days, you’ll likely also need cut together a version of your video (or at least clips) into vertical orientation for mobile viewing on TikTok or Reels. A camera that can shoot using the full breadth of its sensor will make your life much easier when you’re cropping footage into this different aspect ratio, and others.

How we test cameras

When our reviewers test cameras, there are two key areas of assessment – our imaging lab, and real-world testing. We'll come onto our lab tests in a moment, but we believe it's hugely important for cameras to be tested in the scenarios that real users are likely to put them in. For video-focused cameras such as these, that means assessing the quality of the video the cameras produce in a range of real-world settings, indoor and outdoor. We look at the quality of the footage and audio captured, assess how the camera feels to use, and measure how easy it is to produce a finished, polished video from the raw footage the camera has created.

In the lab, we put cameras through a series of scientifically controlled tests designed to get the most accurate picture (no pun intended) possible of what they can do. We use two key assessment tools – Imatest Master and DxO Analyzer – to look at the following:

1. Resolution (ISO-12233): We use a resolution chart based on ISO-12233 from Applied Image inc to indicate the limit of the camera’s vertical resolution at the centre of the frame. The higher the value, the better the detail resolution.

2. Dynamic range (DxO Analyzer): This is a measure of a camera’s ability to capture detail in the highlights and shadows. We use DxO’s transmissive chart, which enables us to test a dynamic range of 13.3 stops.

3. Noise (DxO Analyzer): We use the dynamic range transmissive chart to analyze the signal-to-noise ratio for RAW and JPG files at every sensitivity setting using DxO Analyzer. A higher value means the signal is cleaner.

FAQs

• Lenses. If you've chosen an interchangeable-lens camera, then you'll need at least one lens, and if you're after lots of different types of shots then you may need more than one. If you're not sure where to start, a good catch-all lens for video is a 24-70mm.
• Lighting. Being able to control the shape, quality and intensity of the light is a hugely important part of making your videos look and feel professional. For music videos, you'll want something portable and quick to set up – check out our guide to the best LED panels. 
• Gimbal / stabiliser. For introducing motion into your shots, a gimbal is a must. In-camera stabilisation is useful, but in most cases, it's not the same. See our rundown of the best gimbals.
• Batteries / memory cards. Oft-forgotten, but essential. You can't afford to have your shoot day cut short by a dead battery or a full card. Bring spares. Lots of spares. More than you think you'll need.

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