Cheapest 4k Camera For Filmmaking [2020] (Best Budget)

If you are looking for a cheap 4k camera to begin your videography career, this might be it. This jet- black camera looks elegant and professional.

It can capture 4k videos at a frame rate of 30FPS which is incredible considering the price. It has a CMOS sensor of 20MP which has the ability to take vibrant and crystal-clear still shots.

One of the best features of this cheap 4k filmmaking camera is the Electronic image stabilization owing to the 6-axis gyroscope. It automatically stabilizes the shot and makes sure that you are providing unruffled footage to the viewers.

Then, there is the 40m waterproofing capability. You can take the camera underwater and capture the ravishing water life using the wide, narrow and middle lens angle. It has a 2” touch-sensitive screen which is quite user-friendly and easy to navigate in settings.

Alongside this, other features include White Balance, Storage up to 64 GB, 170 degree wideangle lens, good ISO range, timelapse mode, and quick charging. It doesn’t have a very high ratio of digital zoom though.

With effectiveness crossing the barriers of land and jumping into the waters, this camera provides great video quality on the land and underwater. A typically classy product with some top notch features that are too good for the price!

GoPro Hero 7 has achieved handsome recognition on Amazon and rightly so.

It is adorned with a complete roundup of what a convenient, high-grade video camera must possess: image stabilization, picture quality, handling, and versatility. It may not be the most visually appealing camera out there but the inside takes it miles away from its beautiful competitors.

The HyperSmooth feature stabilizes the image and video perfectly and even works at 4k shooting. It is an electronic scheme that crops the image by 5% and dissolves the edges of the picture to smoothen it up so that the camera has room to eradicate the shakes. It also manages the roller-shutter problem which is a vibrating effect that is encountered when capturing fast moving objects or still objects while running.

It can shoot 4k videos at 60 fps and 1080p videos at 240 fps. The HyperSmooth feature won’t function in the 4k capturing so you have to live with the stability of your hand. It offers a completely manual settings mode as well whereby you can control every setting including aperture, shutter speed, and ISO according to your liking. It also has a good battery life of about 2 hours on time-lapse video at 1080 p and 45 minutes at 4k shooting.

It also has a time warp feature that takes focused pictures while you are moving around an object or a scene and SuperPhoto mode that auto-balances the settings including the brightness, contrast, and noise reduction to capture intelligently adjusted pictures. It frees you from the hassle of altering the settings each time you take a photo.

The microphone quality has improved and it delivers a crisp and clear sound when connected with an external device like a guitar. It has a voice command feature that enables you to control the camera by specific voice commands like “GoPro, start recording”.

When you are taking a selfie or are at a location were using both hands is not feasible like a mountain top or an unstable tree branch, this option comes in very handy. Along with this, the live streaming feature allows you to share the video or picture with your friends through the choice of social media platform and the resolution.

Combine this with the added capability of waterproofing. It is waterproof till 10 m so you can capture the moments under water and take tantalizing photos while diving, swimming and playing water sports.

It contains a smaller 2-inch touch screen which can be regarded as a demerit and is notified by some customers to get hot on continuous 4k shooting. Apart from that, this is an epic piece with countless features that are very hard to beat at such a price range.

Therefore, we suggest GoPro Hero 7 as the best budget camera for filmmaking.

Panasonic introduced LUMIX GX-85 as a commendable amalgamation of affordability, functionality, and compactness. It integrates top-notch features in a small-sized and portable body.

Panasonic LUMIX GX-85 features 16 Megapixel Live MOS sensor with no low-pass filter but that provides better digital sharpness. It is fitted with Venus Engine processor that prevents distortion, color incorrectness, and aliasing effects and goes on to give a well-focused, contrast-balanced picture quality.

It is coordinated with Depth From Defocus technology that ensures quick autofocusing capability. LUMIX GX-85 is tested to focus an object in a small time period of 0.07 seconds and has shown a heightened improvement from its ancestor model.

It includes Starlight AF mode that senses tiny differences in contrast and focuses the object efficiently. It comes with other focusing options like PinPoint AF, Full-area AF, Eye Detection and 49-Area mode that allows the user to choose multiple areas of focus in a single object.

It combines optical image stabilization with sensor-shift stabilization to offer a much competitive scheme of 5-axis image stabilization even at high resolutions of both video and photo formats including the 4k video format.

The lens can capture 4k videos of fixed resolution 3840x2160p at 21 and 30 fps and saves it in MP4 video format. It does this at a bit rate of 100Mbps which is the same as Panasonic FZ80 and 1080p at 20-28Mbps.

It can continue to shoot 4k videos till the file size reaches 4 GB after which the nest file is created immediately without any playback delay. It also incorporates the live cropping feature in the 4k video which provides a seamless panning effect in videos and the freedom to set the start and end time for the planning to get desired movements.

4K Photo lets the user, to extract still shots at 30fps from the 4k video so you can get the important part of the video after the video has been shot. Couple it with 4K-Light Composition Mode that captures brighter pixels in a single composition shot that gives an alluring coverage of nighttime scenes like fireworks or dazzling lighting.

It delivers an ISO range of 200-2560 so it is equally effective in low to bright light conditions. The camera allows the pictures to be taken in both RAW and JPEG formats. It contains a total of 22 vibrant filters that are adjustable in terms of settings and can be recorded simultaneously with an unfiltered picture.

This best budget 4k filmmaking camera also introduces a new electromagnetic shutter unit that has convincingly low vibrations because of the two-solenoid construction which makes it a highly likable option for sensitive environments like photo exhibitions and museum visits because of its quiet operation.

All of these options are packed in a small, easily handled body which is also durable along with a flip-out touch screen with very good touch sensitivity. The EVF is the same as the older model but it has an increased battery rating of 1025 mAH that gives a battery life of 290 shots. The built-in Wi-fi can be used for wireless transfer of files.

Sony 4K Handycam Camcorder delivers one of the best image stabilization capabilities in the camera and the prospect of getting it at a price tag of under $1000 makes the deal even sweeter.

It is meant for film shooting because of its long frame and flip-out screen. 4k Handycam camcorder features a 20 Megapixel 7.8mm sensor which is capable of taking high-quality pictures.

One might think negatively about the small size of the sensor but Sony has compensated this for the excessively refined BOSS (Balanced Optical SteadyShot) system which is an image stabilization system that aids in taking focused pictures and recording videos even while you are walking or even pacing. This technology is yet to be integrated into the expensive models.

It can record 4k video up to a high resolution of 3840x2160p at 24/30 fps and still shots in 6048x3400p. Such high quality capturing quality, when available at such an inexpensive rate, asks for nothing more but Sony, as always, has managed to deliver something extra for the customers.

It has a 0.24 inch EVF which makes the capturing job even easier. It has 9 shooting modes which include fireworks, night scene and snow and a shutter speed of range 1/8-1/10000 for taking shots according to the situation at hand. The screen is 3 inches and is touch sensitive, unlike A6300, and can be turned 270 degrees.

Another exciting feature is the Multi-Camera Control which allows the user to connect five camcorders via Wi-fi at the same time. This becomes extremely useful in parties and grand occasions when there are several spots to cover at the same time.

It incorporates Direct Pixel Readout which enables it to employ the entire width of the image sensor which results in smoother edges and greater color gradation.

It also contains a mic, self-timer options, 1960mAh battery and weighs only 2.65 lbs which are about 3 lbs less than the A6300. This camera is well suited for long sessions because of its weight but the internal memory is very less and it cannot store many of your videos and photos especially if you are shooting at 4k.

An external SD card is a necessity for this model. Also, the sensor is small to create space for the BOSS system but it still manages to outrun many of its competitors. The control buttons are well placed and the settings on the screen are easily manageable.

This camera specializes in a seamless combination of 4k video shooting and in-camera 4k cropping tools that helps in the creation of a video which comprises of different angles and details.

This model is supported by 18.29 Megapixel CMOS sensor that not only captures high-quality pictures but manages to shoot 4k videos while conveniently integrating with the 4k image processor that works at 24 or 30 fps. The 4k editing options allow the user to perform in-camera cropping, pre-planning, and post tracking.

Through these sets of options, ultra HD and lively videos are captured that give no sense of destabilization as the focus is panned from one object to another because all of this is done before the video is captured.

The post tracking option offers similar performance but after the video capturing. This intelligent technology has helped this camcorder to be rated highly among customers and camera enthusiasts.

It features a Leica Dicomar lens which is capable of being optically zoomed to 20x. It can also zoom up to 25x in 4k and 40x in 1080p formats.

It is integrated with 5 axis image stabilization that works supremely well to give clearer and focused picture quality. It eradicates the effects of blurring while you are working without a tripod and would seldom need a stand for the purpose of stabilization with this model.

Another exciting feature is the Wireless Multi-camera which enables the user to do picture-in-picture recording by the employment of Wi-fi. Simply connect your camera with at most three smartphones and use two of them to record picture-in-picture videos of the same setting.

It becomes a very fun activity with friends on hiking trips of adventurous outings. One of you can record the cascading waterfall from high mountains while the other can focus the scented meadows.

The HDR Movie Mode enhances the versatility of this camcorder. It can combine two pictures that are taken with varying exposure times and view them as a single video with good quality and sharp edges.

This model weighs 1.65 pounds and is not very appealing in outlook but certainly sustains the effects of extended use. It is claimed by some customers that it does not perform very well in low light conditions and only works about 30 minutes when shooting 4k videos. Other than that, it provides a good battery life of about 01.5-2 hours on 1080p video shooting.