Oscars success: all 2019 Academy Award-nominated feature documentary films shot on Canon

"The EOS C300 Mark II was an obvious choice for us. We knew we wanted to shoot for a big cinematic experience, so we were shooting in 4K. We needed to have a camera that was easy to use, that was very dependable. Also a big advantage for us is that it is a great vérité camera."

Shooting took place in a range of locations, from high on California's El Capitan to the cramped interior spaces of Alex's van, so a range of prime and zoom lenses were needed. They included Canon Cinema Primes, the CINE-SERVO 17-120mm, Compact Cinema Zooms, CN-E 14.5-60mm and EF lenses. For capturing the climactic free solo climb itself, Jimmy used one of the "big guns" in the Canon range, the CINE-SERVO 50-1000mm lens.

"Ultimately, the film looks beautiful because of the Cinema cameras and Cinema lenses we were able to use," he says.

Claudia Raschke, director of photography on the Oscar-nominated RBG, says Canon equipment was essential to that film's appearance, too. It's a documentary about US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ("RBG") and was shot using Canon EOS C300 Mark II cameras. "They are lightweight, I can move around quickly, they have a fantastic sensor – I can use the craft to support the story," Claudia says.

She chose to shoot with Cinema EOS primes and zooms partly because she wanted to accurately capture details in Ruth Bader Ginsburg's physical appearance. "Her skin tone was very striking and I really wanted to make sure I could reproduce that and create this incredible glow that she carries," Claudia continues. "One of the things that really struck me was the amount of reflectance [that Canon lenses capture] within the skin tone. It just kind of blew me away."