camera?

T

TeLL

hi, im new here, name's Mike btw :).

I've worked on some indie projects in the past, havent worked on anything in about a year and a half, and I miss it terribly, im planning on starting myself up again, but since my friends are all gone to university in film/media, i have no camera to my disposal, yet I know nearly nothing about camera specs, I'm looking for something decent, my budget is preferably uner 1000$, but if it HAS to be 1500$, so be it, as long as the camera will be good for use for a few years, as I develop my skills.
any recomendations? also, would going for an older, but more expsneive camera be worth it? say a camera worth 5000$ a couple years back, and get it for 1000$, or is the tech too dated?

thanks so much:)
-Mike
 
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Welcome Mike.

$1,000 to $1,500 is a difficult range. But the good news is the camera is a very minor aspect of the skills you need to be a good filmmaker. Learning how to work with actors, how to tell your story visually, inspiring the crew, finding locations, scheduling people and lighting and sound all all more important at the beginning stages.

Excellent lighting and sound along with a great script and actors will help a movie shot with even a $300 camcorder watchable.

There are three things that are VERY important when getting a camera:

Three CCD’s
Manual controls for the iris, shutter, focus and white balance.
A microphone input.

In the around $1,000 - $1,500 range there are currently only 5:

The JVC GR-X5 is a nice starter camera with manual controls and a mic input. It can be found for under $800.

The Panasonic series (PV-GS300, PV-GS400, PV-GS500) are terrific 3CCD cameras. It seems the 400 is hard to find and that’s too bad. It’s a great little camera. But the 500 is still an excellent starter camera with the essentials.

Sony DCR-HC1000 is very similar to the Panasonic cameras. If you’re more comfortable with Sony, this is the camera for you.

Several cameras are now moving from tape to hard drive. Called HDD (hard disc drive) there are a few in this price range that should be considered. The major downside is the MPEG-2 compression.

Sony DCR-SR300 has a 40GB non-removable hard drive. It holds 9.5 hours in HQ mode. As is all too common with Sony there is no mic or headphone jack so this camera is not acceptable for movie making - it’s stuck in the “vacation” level.

I like the new JVC GZ-HD7. I’ve seen these on line for as little as $1,200. A really nice Fujinon lens makes a huge difference and full manual controls is important. Three 1/5’ 16:9 progressive scan CCD’s are pretty impressive for a camera in this price range. It records directly to a built in 60GB hard drive.

Close is the Canon HV20. It records in HDV (1080i) and 24p (60i), has a mic input and manual controls of white balance and focus but it uses one 1/2.7” CMOS sensor rather than 3 CCD’s. For me the jury is still out on the CMOS. And it’s so small the handling is difficult.

I'm not a fan of HDV. I still use my JVC GY-DV5000 - which is SD - for feature shoots. It's a very professional camera that sold for $5,000 and now can be found for much less. I don't know if that's right for you, but it opens up the possibilities. HDV might be a better choice for you.
 
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For the record, you can combine the (~$1000) HV20 with a $250 blackmagic intensity card, and capture full 1920x1080 24p in 4:2:2 colorspace. Of course, you'd have to have the computer close enough to the camera during shooting to do it, but for about $2k you could have a viable HD solution with a 35mm adapter.

On the other hand, I agree with what directorik said... Sound and lighting is much more important than the camera you use.
 
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Thanks guys!!! to be honest, I was looking around and I saw the HV20, its got lots of attractive features, but I don't know enough about CMOS vs CCD to know which is better.
oh and I have a dual core laptop, so it can come with me anywhere.
I'll look into them all though, except for the sony DCR-SR300, I may not be able to do much manually yet, but I want to have the option.

I'm also going to look into a good boom mic, but I also dont want to limit myself by buying a camera without the right capabilities, and also, I want to make feature length movies, I find shorts to lack the depth I want in a video, n hopefully these movies will be shown on silver screens.... who knows
 
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The Blackmagic Intensity card is a PCI card, so it wouldn't work on a laptop...

I can attest to the DVX looking damn sexy on the silver screen. the canon XL's aren't too shabby either.

I think I prefer ccd to cmos, but the HV20 I just picked up shoots some mighty good looking images. My previous camera (Panasonic PV-GS200) surprised quite a few people with its quality.. 3ccd looks good for sure. Sadly my firewire port on it died, so seeing as I needed a new camera I figured I'd step up to HDV.
 
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I actually started looking into old-school cameras, I saw a WV-6000 Pro on ebay for 160$, thought I'd give it a try, worst off it would be a nice decoration, lol. what type of capture card would it need?
 
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I decided to try out some old panasonic, in a couple months ill upgrade to something in the 2-3 k range, but right now, this has everything im looking for
thanks for the input though guys
 
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