New Member - IndieTalk

FatalFire · 09-14-2008, 11:57 PM

Hey everyone.

I've been lurking this forum a little while and thought I would start posting.

I'm in the UK and on a film making course at a university. I'm just about to start my second year and all is going well so far. I have only ever really made one short which was just to practice sync sound and continuity editing. I had some kind of story for it but it ended up not making any sense at all once I cut it down to the 5 min limit but everyone thought it was good for a first try. My second short I had to make was pathetic because I had no time to spend on it since I was ill at the time. But I spent the summer dreaming up film ideas that I could be making this year so hopefully I will have stuff to share.

I'm planning on buying a canon xl1 soon or something similar since at my college they only let you sign equipment out for 2 days and you get fines if they are late. Is this a decent camera to buy? I dont have a hope in hell of saving enough cash for a HD camera yet, I thought I would forget about HD for another year at least.

indietalk · 09-15-2008, 12:10 AM

Will Vincent · 09-15-2008, 09:56 AM

Yes, the Canon XL1 is a nice camera. Though depending on how much you're going to have to pay, I wouldn't rule out other options. The Canon HV20 & HV30 are very nice cameras, that while small and shooting compressed HDV (or 4:3 or 16:9 standard definition) produce a beautiful image, and they can be had for very reasonable prices.

Whether or not it's necessary is debatable of course, but there are certainly a lot of camera options available. Personally I always preferred the look of DVX100 footage to that of the XL1, but either is a great choice.

FatalFire · 09-15-2008, 03:07 PM

The thing is i'm really short on cash but I want a decent camera with manual controls and 3ccd. I'm looking to pay up to about £900 so I will be getting a second hand one probably off ebay. The DVX100 seems much more expensive than the XL1.

As an alternative I was thinking about the canon xm2. Can anyone suggest equilivent cameras in the same sort of price range? I'm in the UK so I can't use NTSC format