Looking for video camera advice for making a movie

Question

we've been approached to help with a movie, and have now moved on to making our own, would like to know advice on a good quality video camera. but something practical

any help would be awesome.

thanks!!

Answer 1

If it's for fun, any good consumer level camcorder will do. If possible, find one with 3 CCDs for better color reproduction and better performance in low light. Look for the Panasonic GS300, GS320, GS500 or similar.

If you want your movie to LOOK like a real movie, you need to step up to a cam that has the ability to shoot 24 frames per second. The cheapest (and best in my opinion) is the Panasonic DVX100. The only other affordable cam with that ability is the Canon XL1 & XL2.

Whichever you choose, stick with the mini-dv format. It is still the standard and is by far the best video quality availavle in a consumer cam. Hard drive cam and DVD cams compress the footage too much.

Make sure you have an adequate software editor as well (Sony Vegas, Final Cut Studio, iMovie, etc).

Answer 2

What's practical to you? Sony z1 HDV cameras are good, news crews and documentary makers use them because they are high quality but still portable and expensive but not bank bustingly so. Good for independent filmmakers because you can approach good quality video production and do documentary projects and it's pretty close to affordable.

EDIT: Don't know about film cameras though if you're looking for those. They cost alot more unless you want like a super 8 and those are hard to find and probably expensive as well though maybe not too much.

Answer 3

It all depends on what your exact filming conditions are.  Factors such as lighting, space, camera movement, and format will narrow down which cameras you will need for that particular shoot.

Start with the format you need to distribute on.  That will dictate what editing equipment you need and what recording formats you can use.  This will then give you a select list of cameras which can only be used - since any other cameras will record in a format that you can't handle.

Once you have that list of select cameras, you can make your final selection based upon features required for your particular situations.  Some of these filming considerations could include one or more of the fllowing:

- CCD for low-light

- CMOS for eliminating lens flare in a night time sports scene

- CMOS for recording extra long recording runs with high capacity batteries and hard drives

- Sony XDCAM for recording spectacular video onto a disc in better resolution than HDV with the same long term storage as HDV

- Panasonic DVCPRO HD because your editor or system is set up for that format or that is required by your distributor

- AVCHD for HD video with limited storage space

- 24p or 24f with film gamma settings because a particular film look is desired or you are transferring to cellulose film for distribution

- undercranking or overcranking to manually speed up or slow down the video frame rate

- high speed frame rates for super slow motion or bullet time scenes

- a compact consumer type camcorder for video diaries, hidden cameras, or filming in very tight locations

- Infrared or IR abilities for law enforcement, surveillance, ghost hunting, or animal hunting needs