Important Equipment Information

Hello all. I'm an 18 year old film student. I need some good, professional advice on purchasing various equipment. Unless I don't mention a price cap, then feel free to recommend anything. If you can, I'd highly appreciate links to whatever you feel I should look into. I would like advice on:

Camera - I'm leaning toward an AG-DVX-100, though my budget can go as high as $8,000.00. If there's a better camera within that price range, then feel free to recommend it. I was also considering buying a K-3 16MM film camera and converting it to have a crystal sync motor and improved film loading processes. The camera itself costs about $150.00 and the addition of the motor and film loading improvement costs roughly $700-800.00. I'm open to suggestions on this issue.

Editing Station - Alot of people are suggesting that Macs are good editing rigs. I wouldn't mind building a custom computer fitted for editing. I'm fairly sure that I could build a complete desktop system for a maximum of $3000.00.

Sound Equipment - I have no real stance on this yet.

Misc. Camera Equipment - Fluid-head tripod, etc. etc. Mention anything that I should buy in addition. Try to avoid highly-expensive things and stick to the basics. Also keep in mind that alot of camera accessories can be made for a much cheaper price - such as a dolly. Lenses can be included under this category, too. If you're going to recommend camera-specific things, then keep them specific to a particular camera, please.

I'd appreciate help on this issue alot. Your advice may very well lead to me buying this equipment. If you have any other advice to give me as a beginner, then please do not hesitate. Thanks in advance.

This is probably not the advice you want, but if you're in College, why buy all this stuff now? You should use all the school equipment you can. You're paying for it anyway. Even if your school doesn't have a DVX-100 or nice editing stations, they should have enough Miscellanous Camera Equipment to fit your needs. I would use their stuff as much as you can first.

Also, about your editing station, are you factoring in Software too? It sounds like you are, but then again, I don't know how fancy your system is looking to be. I'm currently looking at building a new system as well, and I'm pretty sure I can do it for around $1200 or so. But I'm not looking at mixers or miniDV decks, or anything like that. What all are you looking at putting in it?

Hey Godspeed you black emperor fan.

I am in the same situation as you, but I will try to help...

For camera, as a beginner, I will definatly go mini-dv.

Sony PD-150 and Canon Xl1 are the things to use.

For the editing

Final cut pro 4 on mac (maybe you can get the student discount, for me it is 450$ canadian.. so about 200$ u.s.)

The MAC - This is where the money goes by... 1000$ minimum and this is cheap and poor... under 2500$ used it wont last. A dvd burner is essential!

For the tripod and xlr cables... dont spend too much..

My gear:

A sony pd-150 (the camera is actually from school)

Powermac g4 upgraded to 1.4 ghz
Final cut pro 4
A Lacie 200 gb external hard drive
A Manslotto tripod

Alot of people are suggesting that Macs are good editing rigs. I wouldn't mind building a custom computer fitted for editing. I'm fairly sure that I could build a complete desktop system for a maximum of $3000.00.

Click to expand...

Macs are good machines but PC's these days are just a good if not better IMO. You can get an excellent PC RAID system (ie full redundency with backups on multiple hard drives, multithreaded processing) with a gig of ram for about $2000 if you build it yourself. That seems to be the best option unless you plan on buying an AVID system (which cost quite a bit of money...)

I wouldn't worry about software costs. Software can be obtained easily, so I wouldn't factor in that cost. As far camcorders go, alot of people recommended the DVX-100 over the PD-150.

I agree. The DVX100 costs more, but it's worth it. I actually think that the DVX100 is the best thing under $8,000. So, that'll save you mucho dinero...maybe you could buy two! I'm only like 80% sure though, so you might want to research a little more.

The DVX100 seems to be the camera to have now. The Sony PD170 (newest version of the PD150) is a good option. Sony's bringing out a 3 chip HD camera for around $5000, but it records compressed images in MPEG files which is strange.

If you're looking for film cameras, I'd check out a Canon Scoopic. Sync versions can be found for under $1000 on Ebay. Look for the MS models. The K-3 is interesting, but I hear they're hit and miss. If you want to spend more money, you might be able to find an Elcair ACL for $1500. Their great little cameras. For that price you'd only get 200 mags, but you can always get 400' mags later. Check out www.visualproducts.com for used film gear.

Tripods: Bogen makes some decent systems. Look at the 510 head.

Editing: there are a number of good turnkey systems out there. Final Cut seems to be the hotest NLE right now.

Don't forget lights. Lowel, Mole and Arri make good kits starting at $700 and go up to $2500. Lighting can make the difference between a good video and an amateur video.

Scott

Thanks, guys. Especially Scott, for the informative posts.