1. Ergonomics and connectivity
Cinema cameras have controls and connections that have evolved over decades to meet the requirements of professional cinematographers, with ergonomics that make them comfortable to use and easy to handle in a variety of shooting durations and styles. For steady handholding, a cinema camera offers a proper, adjustable handgrip with the Record button right under your thumb, often along with a second Record button on the body for when the camera is on a tripod. Cinema cameras also have built-in ND filters so you can expose the image correctly, regardless of the environment you are shooting in.
There are also useful professional tools such as waveforms, false colour and adjustable zebra patterns to accurately examine the image. The cameras are also compatible with Canon's Cine-Servo lenses for smooth changes in focal length controlled by a rocker switch that fits right under your fingers on the lens barrel.
Cinema cameras also have multiple mounting points, so it's easier to fit larger external monitors, follow focus rigs, matte boxes and external batteries. Plus if you want the camera to fit into a broadcast workflow, live stream or multi-camera shoot where syncing is crucial, they have advanced technology and connections such as 12G-SDI, timecode, genlock and remote control input.
On the audio side, cine cameras also sport professional XLR inputs supporting 48KHz 24-bit audio recording with up to four channels. In addition, audio levels can be manually adjusted with dedicated physical controls and live monitoring via headphone output.