The invention relates to a digital motion picture camera including at least one optoelectronic sensor device for the recording of motion pictures. The sensor device has, in an areal arrangement, a plurality of sensor elements for the generation of a respective received signal in dependence on a light exposure. The camera further has a control device for the controlling of the read-out of the received signals of the sensor elements as well as a digitizing device for the digitizing of the received signals. The camera moreover has an optical viewfinder for the visual observation of the motion pictures to be recorded and a beam deflection device which is interposed in front of the sensor device and by which the reception beam path can be split at least into one recording beam path for the sensor device and one viewfinder beam path for the optical viewfinder. The sensor device can be controlled by the controlling device for the recording of the motion pictures at a pre-settable variable picture recording frequency.