camera question

May 26, 2005

hey everyone,

i am a junior and college and don't have like any money at all. i am aware that good camera's are going to cost a pretty penny and i have looked at them, but i was wondering what the best camera would be that costs hopefully no more than about 1200 dollars. i know that the better cameras are more expensive and i honestly just can't afford it. all i need is a camera to call my own that will get the job done and will last. i looked at some panasonics and used sony vx1000s. any information would be extremely helpful.

~the poor filmmaker,

joseph wood

May 26, 2005

You're asking about film cameras or video? You can get a perfectly good camera for your $1,200. Not a video camera, of course, but why would you want one of those if you're going to make films?

Edited May 26, 2005 by Ian Marks

May 27, 2005

You're asking about film cameras or video? You can get a perfectly good camera for your $1,200. Not a video camera, of course, but why would you want one of those if you're going to make films?

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a video camera, for making short films and for shooting various activities for like church or friends or schools. i saw some sony vx1000s for cheap, but if you know of any other ones that are good quality than please tell me. thanks.

~joseph

Jon Amerikaner · May 27, 2005

a video camera, for making short films and for shooting various activities for like church or friends or schools. i saw some sony vx1000s for cheap, but if you know of any other ones that are good quality than please tell me. thanks.

~joseph

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Check out B&H Video they carry everything:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

For your purposes I would suggest buying a camera in the $500.00-$600.00 range and spending the rest on a tripod and microphone. There is not much difference between a $1,000.00 camera and a $500.00 camera. The biggest problems with most of these cameras are that they are too small to be held with any stability. Buy a fluid head tripod designed for the weight of your camera. In my humble opinion, using a tripod is the first step to establishing a professional look with these cameras. The built-in camera microphones are omni-directional and pick-up every noise within earshot. I would suggest purchasing two additional microphones, one on-camera shotgun microphone for general recording and a unidirectional microphone and cable for more isolated and distanced (from the camera) recordings. The camera, tripod, and microphones should give you the flexibility to shoot many different things with better quality results.

Chris Cooke · May 28, 2005

When you're working out prices, also consider that most mini dv camera's under $1000 don't have built in XLR inputs. You'll have to add that feature on later. A smarter choice might be to step it up to Panasonic's dvx-100's. These are very good camera's (for the price) and I've seen them for sale on places like ebay for around $3000. Since panasonic released it's very similar dvx-100a and it's brand new hvx-200, the price on the dvx-100 has dramatically dropped. I've used this camera extensively for shorts and tv series.

Robert Hughes · May 31, 2005

Be wary of buying used ebay video camcorders. The cameras may last for years but the tape mechanisms are very fragile and easily broken, and their lifespan is measured in hundreds of hours. I've bought more than one used camcorder that died miserably within 6 months, and would have cost more than they were worth to repair.

June 7, 2005

got a question for you guys. i am looking at some panasonic cameras. i am looking specifically at the PV-GS250 and the PV-GS400. are these good cameras? are they known to be good? i would really like to hear your opinion. i am interested because of their affordable price and that they are 3CCD cameras. thanks for all the information you have provided already it is extremely helpful and very appreciated.

~joseph

Alex Borowicz · June 7, 2005

PV-GS250 and the PV-GS400

As you said, both are 3CCDs. This is a good start. The 250 is a 3.1 megapixel camera, while the 400 is a 4 megapixel. Not sure if you're after stills, but if you are, there's something to consider. The 400 in my experience produces very good color in nearly all light, while the 250 performs well in all but low light.

It's too bad that the 250 still has low light problems, as it's an improvement over the 200, with new CCDs etc. Speaking of which, we can get a feel for the cameras by comparing their CCDs.

250: 1/6 inch

400: 1/4.7 inch

the 250 has 640/800 pixels video-effective, while the 400 has 700/1000 or...1070 maybe?

All in all, the 250 is better than a number of Panasonics, but it still needs some work, while the 400 performs well above the other PV models and plays level with both sony and canon cameras.

The 400 is not a bad choice at all.

Brian Wells · June 7, 2005

Sony PDX-10 is pretty affordable as a second-hand camera and has reasonably high acclaim for its' native widescreen recording format. It records 40-minutes in DVCAM (more robust format than miniDV, but uses the same tape.. you need a Sony DVCAM for playback, though).

This camera isn't hardly "on the map" with the independent film community, probably because of what Panasonic has been doing lately, but is a very capable camera. This is one I'd feel okay about on eBay as it's not so much a target for fraud as the dvx100 has been.

Hope this information didn't come in too late.. I saw this thread was a bit "dated".

Anyways, Good Luck.

Brian

Joshua Provost · June 7, 2005

I've had great results with the GS400. You can check out a number of my projects here. I've even won a couple cinematography awards using this camera.

The level of manual control is great, the best you get in the price range. There are even manual controls for picture adjustment (contrast, exposure, color, and sharpness), which allow even more control. I did some tests with these, the results are here. Using the picture adjustments, you can even squeeze a couple more stops exposure latitude out of this camera.

I'm sticking with the GS400 until I can afford a DVX-100A or whatever its successor will be (hopefully with true 16:9 mode).