dcr trv250 Upgrades (lights, mics, lenses?)

It depends on how much money you have to spend.

First, do you have a tripod? Then get one. They start at $40 and go up. I'd try for one at least $100 because the cheapies for $40 at Walmart are junk and will break in a few days.

If you camera takes an external mic plug, then picture up a Azden shotgun mic for around $100.

Lighting is tricky because you could spend tons of money here. Also just because you do spend big bucks doesn't mean you know what the hell to do with it. Here's a link to an article I've written. Take a look: http://scottspears.net/Lowbudgetinglighting.htm

If you get some lights, you should track down a book on lighting.

Scott

Here's a good (free) e-book about how to build some light-related items from cheap and readily available PVC..

http://www.software-cinema.com/documents/tt-book.pdf

You would still have to get the lights and some fabric to use with them, but it might get your mind going places it wouldn't otherwise go, and it's definately a much cheaper alternative to paying high buck for 'professional' lighting stands/diffusers/etc.. after you check out Scott Spears' excellent lighting on the cheap site, take a gander at this ebook.


Additionally, if your camera does not accept an external audio input (I'm fairly sure that one does, but I may be wrong) you could record audio onto a DAT or mini-disc, and sync it up later, DAT would probably be preferable, but the mini-disc might be cheaper. Check ebay for mini-disc recorders, there's a bunch of those portable ones that are usually available for around $100.. they're fairly cheap, and very portable (ie: SMALL). Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers
-Will

As Scott said, it depends heavily upon how much you have to spend. You could spend several hundred to multiple thousands of dollars (easily).

If you have the money it may be a good idea to upgrade to a "prosumer" camera of some sort. This, of course, depends on what exactly you are doing with the camera. Can you explain more?

Britek makes some good lights at a bargain price. You can get a true three light setup with barndoors and focus controls for approx $400!

damn

damn ive been lookin up info on my camera, it doesnt have an exterior mic, and i dont think there are any audio options or upgrades. the only audio thing to choose from is 12 or 16 bit. anyone have tips on how to get good sound, our last video we used the 16bit thing and we picked up alot of background noise and the talking wasnt loud enough, should we use the 12 bit maybe? or do i just need a new camera?

the lighting looks a little better when i keep it on landscape mode instead of auto, this a good idea? or should i just try to get more lights?

i wanted to spend about 100$ for new mic and 50-75 for a light or something. i really dont know what to get i just dont have anything to ask for for x-mas so was gonna see what people recommended for camera upgrades.

Ahh yes, now that I have had the time to look up the specs for your camera I see that you do not have an audio input. So using an external mic directly with the camera just wont work.

The bottom line is you'll most likely never be happy with the audio that the internal mic captures, especially for dialogue. Without buying a new camera the only other way to do it would be to use something else to record audio onto. Preferably with a mic on a boom, running into a DAT or similar. Then you'll have to match it all up during editing, which is where the audio and visual markers (clapper-board, etc) will come in handy.

If you don't use a clapper board you can always just clap your hands together or somethign in front of the camera, and just before the clap say what scene and take it is so that gets on the audio.

Although you could get by with whatever you have available, your best bet would be a DAT or something similar. Personally I think my first choice would be a portable minidisc recorder, because its small and the minidiscs are not only cheap but hold quite a bit of data. This will increase the size of your crew by at least one, if not two people. Specifically for the sound. One person to hold the boom, and another (if possible) to watch and ride the audio levels. In a pinch you could get by with a cassette or something else, but the quality would suffer.

If you are interested in getting a new camera, I guess it would depend on how much you have available to spend (or since it sounds like it is for xmas ideas to give people for what you want, how much THEY have to spend on you).

As for your question about what mode to use the camera on, well it would kind of depend on what kind of look you're going for, and where you're shooting, but auto probably isn't the best choice most of the time. How big of a lighting setup you need is probably kind of at your disgression too, but I would suggest that the more control you have over things the better. So, auto = bad, and more lights most likely = good.