Shayan Scott

If you are interested in making creative looking shots and attracted to the bokeh and shallow depth of field look, low light handling, etc… you would benefit from a DSLR. But if you just want a basic video camera that will get you good enough HD footage for documentary/news style shots, then get something like a Sony XA10 for £1600+, it will get you going just fine. If you are intending your footage for broadcast, you should check with that broadcaster what cameras they approve and what codec they require, and make sure you go for a camera that meets this. I am working to a budget of under £2k, I will use my camera for corporate videos, creative videos, TV commericals and short films with my camera. I just bought a Nikon D5200 after seeing some great footage on Vimeo comparing it to other higher priced cameras. It's a very affordable place to start, and the lens choice is huge. Nikon are doing cash back deals this month. You'll need about £85 for 2 storage cards a second battery. Bower/Samyang/Rokinon Cine lenses are reviewed as being very good budget primes, so perhaps look at 35mm & 85mm. The Tokina 11-16mm is supposedly a good lens to consider too, but if you want to make life easier for you while you are starting out, try and find a lens with a low fixed f-stop and a macro zoom within 20-70mm. Sigma would be a good place to look for that. Anything from around £200-£600 per lens is a good place to start out and when you can afford and get the best out of Carl Zeiss glass, you can start selling your cheap ones. Whatever lens you get, do consider getting a UV lens filter. Make sure it's the right diameter for your chosen lens and not too thick. Good option is a Hoya Pro-1 UV filter £35+ and you might be able to get a unmarked 2nd hand one for 2/3rd's of the price of a new one. Once you have sorted your picture, you now need to consider your sound. Audio capture on DSLR's are generally poor. You will need money to invest in a mic, and if you can afford it, an external recorder too. You would roughly need about £300 to get a fairly good setup but running a Rhode shotgun directly into your DSLR would suffice for a beginner. Forget radio microphones if you are on a budget, very expensive and you might have to buy an annual licence too. A good tripod and a rail rig are your next costs. If you can get both, great! But this is where you need to decide what type of shooting you will be doing. Better to get a good tripod with fluid head and a budget rail rig with follow focus if you are on a tight budget. For the tripod, Manfrotto 190 is a good starting place, 501 head is good enough too. I am trying to find a suitable rail rig on my budget so have no suggestions for that, but I'd love to get the Zacuto Crossfire if I could afford it. There is a lot of garbage on ebay but occasionally you will find a good deal to be had. Once you have a rail rig, you can attach an external audio recorder, a bigger LCD monitor, flags, follow focus wheel, and so on. If you have no budget to invest in all that, then a simple run and gun style shoulder rig will work fine, and you can get cheap follow focus alternatives like a lenstrap if strapped for cash. As others have mentioned, you will need to consider what your style of shooting is going to be because you can quickly spend lots of money trying to get the most versatile and best setup for a great shooting rig, but the beauty of the DSLR option is you can start cheaply and still get fair results while you build up your skills and get more adventurous. I hope this is helps. It's where my own research and testing has taken me. If your budget is nearing £5k, a used FS100 is a good camera body. Again, lenses, tripod and audio should be the best you can get within that budget. Anything over this budget, I would suggest getting yourself onto a good cinematography course and get hands on experience with good equipment and not need to rely on general free advice from people like me. All the best in your endeavour. Shayan