help me spend money!

November 20, 2004

hey people, i am a multimedia nut and a business owner. i made a ton of cash this year and i need some deductions. any suggestions for a complete high end HD setup that, if i wanted, i could easily resell without losing too much?

sky's the limit!

let me know what you've found to spend money on!

thanks!

Phil Rhodes · November 20, 2004

Hi,

Forget about reselling equipment unless you plan to do it within a year. Video equipment devalues like it's just fallen off a cliff, particularly in areas of current rapid innovation.

What do you want to do with this equipment? I'd hesitate to reccomend you buy an F900 because of the compression, but any uncompressed storage solution is going to require you to be tethered to some external device. Alternatively you might be more into feature-style filmmaking and want one of the upcoming cameras that's more that way inclined.

Personally, if it were just for my own use, I'd buy a varicam and a Kona-based post setup, but that's not the best possible quality.

Phil

chris · November 20, 2004

There is a way to invest in pro HD equipment and be able to resell it later with minimum loss. What you need to do is cleverly play the manufacturers against each other. Add some big name to your project. There are other tricks. You should be able to get a discount that is below dealer cost. Buy equipment that will hold value the most. Sell within a few months, if you can. Try not to damage the boxes.

The camera that will hold up its value most is HVR-Z1, but it costs only $4,900. You can preorder these cameras and Sony wide angle adapters for this camera. Thse cost about $500 ea. Sony HDV deck M10U is $3,700 and is also likely to hold its value. These items are unlikely to ship until February 2005. This is the latest state of the art HDV gear that is likely to sell quicker than Sony will be able to make it. The problem is that it costs too little.

I would not recomment Varicam or F900. Both of these cameras are to become obsolete with the next generator HD gear to be introduced starting in 2005. It will be particularly Sony HD XDCAM, JVC HDV and Pro HDV, which will record up to 1080/90p at 50 Mbps. Panasonic too is planning blue laser MPEG compressed products.

The latest HD gear that is likely to depreciate the least is the Sony CineAlta SR equipment. That includes the F950 camera, SRW-1 field recorder, MPEG4 processor, and studio recorder. You should be aware though that Sony is likely to come out next year with F950 based camcorder, which will diminish the value of F950 and SRW-1 field recorder with the processor.

Thomson Viper is also a good camera, competing with F950; it has an advantage of a mode with Cinemascope aspect ratio.

Regarding postproduction, this stuff is losing value like crazy. The one that is hot right now is the XBOX with CineForm Prospect HD software.

Also hot are new Sony X300 FOV box cameras.

The following gear is also likely to keep its value, if you select carefully: lighting, audio, support systems.

I don't have any price lists in front of me, so excuse inaccuracies; here is how much you could spend on state of the art high end production equipment, in thousands of dollars:

220 two Sony F950 CineAlta SR Cameras

050 two Sony X300 cameras w/Canon zoom lenses and remote control

011 two Sony Z1 HDV camerras with W/A adapters

007 two Sony M10U HDV recorders

250 two Thomson Viper cameras w/viewfinders

030 two Sony #750 viewfinders for F950's

005 Sony #750 remote control for F950's

165 two Sony #5000 studio SR recorders

140 two Sony SRW-1 field recorders and MPEG4 processors

030 batteries

080 field monitors

100 lighting

050 audio gear

200 support systems

200 lenses

150 NLE w/monitors and software

030 offline gear

100 generator

050 truck

100 home theater (8K Sony projector, screen, surround system)

200 misc.

___________

2,188 K

less 20% discount

1,750 K

I have no idea what you want you gear to do. Here is a general top quality digital cinema setup that could be used for film, TV, and video production.