Adam Stephens

Some really helpful info guys. Thanks so much for your time and advice. This has made me think a lot harder about my choice in a really productive way. I might have rushed into something I would have ended up regretting if not for you guys. My primary ambition for a new camera is shooting video, small scale, short scripts, to get experience shooting and editing. Stills, however, are still near and dear to my heart. That being said, I think I'm zeroing in on the Nikon D5200. One other question I would like to pose, either to you kind people who have already donated time and knowledge, or anyone else who happens upon this topic: How concerned should I be with sensor size? While researching digital cameras, I find of the whole long list of tech specs, that I hone in on sensor size pretty quickly and maybe fixate too much, possibly because I'm so used to shooting on 35mm, and using digital cameras' sensor size as a possibly not very good benchmark for whether I should be interested or not. I feel like I'm bordering on sexual innuendo now, so I'm going to end here. Thanks again for all of your time and help.

Thank you so much for all the advice and info Matt. I've got a lot to think about before I put in the money. I didn't know much about the Panasonic GH4. I looked into it further after your recommendation, and it definitely sounds like a beautiful camera. But the price, especially when factoring in several hundred more dollars for a nice, dependable zoom lens (it's definitely a longer term goal to even think about a set of primes of my own), it's just a bit too rich for my blood at the moment. I think I'm going to have to stick to the nicest Canon or Nikon dslr I can find. And afford.

I'm a fairly recent art school grad, photo concentration. I spent two years in the mopix program a few years prior to that, shooting on 16mm b&w reversal and physically cutting in a dungeon to edit, not even a year before they switched over to digital almost completely. After that, I got through my last year or so of photo classes by the skin of my teeth with my old 35mm point and shoot, arguing with professors about why I wasn't shooting digital, trying to b.s. them that it was purely an artistic choice because I didn't want to admit that I was too poor and struggling to keep a roof over my ahead that I couldn't get a digital camera. Well, I've finally been able to climb into a more comfortable money position, and to my utter surprise, am now able to drop money on a nice DSLR, tripod and some other accessories. In addition to needing a new camera to take stills in the 21st century, I also need a camera to take quality HD video to shoot a handful of micro-budget shorts that I've been writing. Now, I promise I'm not a caveman when it comes to digital. I've been working around them while doing freelance set p.a. jobs on commercials and helping filmmaker friends with their shorts and try to stay as up to date as I can on what's available and what's new, via online and professional magazines. I don't need too much hand holding. I just hoped I could put some feelers out for what professional cinematographers out there enjoy using, especially for the value. I'm looking to spend around $1,500, tops, on the camera itself, before accessories, and have been leaning, initially at least, towards the Canon Rebel t5i. Any advice I could get from you guys would be greatly appreciated