Any good cheap HD Canons?

George Ebersole · September 28, 2011

I want to shoot a bunch of exteriors around San Francisco and Berkely at night. Can anyone reccomend a good cheap HD Canon camera for this?

Thanks.

Micah McDowell · September 28, 2011

Have a budget in mind?

Exteriors at night... sounds like you want something with great low light performance, right? If you're on a low budget, 5DmkII with some fast primes perhaps.

George Ebersole · September 28, 2011

Have a budget in mind?

Exteriors at night... sounds like you want something with great low light performance, right? If you're on a low budget, 5DmkII with some fast primes perhaps.

Preferably free, otherwise I'm open to any price. And yeah, low light, fast lenses.

Chris Burke · September 28, 2011

you are probably limited to the 7D and 5D. Anything else isn't the greatest in low light. Have you considered renting? San Francisco is probably more expensive than Boston where I live, but I can rent a 5D with a L series zoom for 150 for one day which is also a weekend.

George Ebersole · September 28, 2011

you are probably limited to the 7D and 5D. Anything else isn't the greatest in low light. Have you considered renting? San Francisco is probably more expensive than Boston where I live, but I can rent a 5D with a L series zoom for 150 for one day which is also a weekend.

I've thought of renting, and if it were something that I hoped to make my money back on, I probably would. Right now I need to put together a reel of stuff I've shot recently, as opposed to stuff I worked on many years past.

It's something I wanted to do six years ago, but I got sidetracked, and now I need to do some catching up. So, if I buy the camera outright, then I can get use out of it 24/7 when I have free time. Keep it in my trunk or something, then shoot on the fly when I can.

George Ebersole · September 28, 2011

To clarify, I'd like to do some time lapse around SF, then play and insert stuff in post. Cars streaking by, night lights brighter than normal, that kind of thing.

Adrian Sierkowski · September 28, 2011

You could probably get by with something like the T2i or the 60D from Canon which'd give you the option of shooting video akin to the 7D or 5D but cheaper as a body. Even with just the stock lens might not be that bad.

I would hold off a bit, though, there's a few announcements coming from Canon soon, which may open the market up to some good deals on used gear.

Another option would be looking for a GH1 or GH2 used. The GH1 could be hacked which gave it some ok performance and it's 4/3 sensor allowed you to mount pretty much whatever glass you wanted with an adapter-- in case you came across some cheap glass (like Nikon) or already owned some lenses.

You're still looking at the north side of $500 just for the cameras; but you get something you can keep and work with later on-- such as using the DSLR for ref stills when on other shoots, or scouts, or vacation or the like. And/or could rent out/resell it later on to get some monies back.

George Ebersole · September 29, 2011

You could probably get by with something like the T2i or the 60D from Canon which'd give you the option of shooting video akin to the 7D or 5D but cheaper as a body. Even with just the stock lens might not be that bad.

I would hold off a bit, though, there's a few announcements coming from Canon soon, which may open the market up to some good deals on used gear.

Another option would be looking for a GH1 or GH2 used. The GH1 could be hacked which gave it some ok performance and it's 4/3 sensor allowed you to mount pretty much whatever glass you wanted with an adapter-- in case you came across some cheap glass (like Nikon) or already owned some lenses.

You're still looking at the north side of $500 just for the cameras; but you get something you can keep and work with later on-- such as using the DSLR for ref stills when on other shoots, or scouts, or vacation or the like. And/or could rent out/resell it later on to get some monies back.

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to hear.

George Ebersole · September 30, 2011

You could probably get by with something like the T2i or the 60D from Canon which'd give you the option of shooting video akin to the 7D or 5D but cheaper as a body. Even with just the stock lens might not be that bad.

I would hold off a bit, though, there's a few announcements coming from Canon soon, which may open the market up to some good deals on used gear.

Another option would be looking for a GH1 or GH2 used. The GH1 could be hacked which gave it some ok performance and it's 4/3 sensor allowed you to mount pretty much whatever glass you wanted with an adapter-- in case you came across some cheap glass (like Nikon) or already owned some lenses.

You're still looking at the north side of $500 just for the cameras; but you get something you can keep and work with later on-- such as using the DSLR for ref stills when on other shoots, or scouts, or vacation or the like. And/or could rent out/resell it later on to get some monies back.

One more question, so a regular HD video camera won't do time lapse? Is that correct? I have to buy/use a digital still camera?

Adrian Sierkowski · September 30, 2011

Depends on the video camera. My EX1 does interval recording, but in truth a DSLR is best for such things shooting in RAW with it's big light sensitive sensor.