Well its definitely something professional, but I am not familiar with the newer stuff in the PRO field. I just wonder if its 4K or something else, like 35MM film or some other exotic format. Thats an interesting viewfinder there on the top, and I see its set-up for remote audio(For interviews and such---see the two antenae on the side of the viewfinder). Its about the size of my old pro Betacam-SP I had in the 90's. I also see Pro BNC Video ports on the back, and it likely has XLR inputs for the external mic. Looks well used with all the scrapes on the back. Wonder if its a rental. That is quite common for independent film-makers. Heck I used to rent my camera out locally by the day. One company had to shoot some sort of medical surgeries periodically and would rent a day or two. Back in those days I charged $175.00 a day for the camera, and $75.00 for the tripod. This one video outfit whom I used to edit with sometimes, needed a second camera for this gig. Since it was a hospital shoot it had to be sterilized, and always came back cleaner than it was when it left here. So I felt pretty safe letting them use it. Of course $175.00 was cheap for rental as pro rental places were likely 50-100% higher.
Independant outfits who might be bidding on such a job as this on the C&TS sometimes rent for a period of time, and just factor that into the bid for the jobs. Might be cheaper in the long run than spending $20K or more for the gear which also needs to be insured and periodic servicing. Also video cameras become obsolete in a few years, and that original investment might be worth nothing.
I would be interested to know more about the way this whole thing is being done. I know its none of my business, but its nice to keep up on what is going on in the world of video these days. Did they use a tripod at all???
Greg