Computer Set-Up/Camera Question

[rbp2005]

I am looking into getting a new Power Mac G5 (top of the line dual 2.7 ghz processor... 1gig of ram... 800gb of HD *2x400gig* ATI Radeon 9650 w/256mb DDR SDRAM... 30" HD Cinema Widescreen Display....16x Superdrive Dual Layer DVD Burner..... Mac OSX 10.4) and 2 cameras *preferably HD*

Final Cut Pro Studio (Final Cut Pro 5..Soundtrack Pro..Motion 2... DVD Studio Pro 4) Photoshop and After Effects.


Any other suggestions for 3D animation and CGI *explosions..laser streams..etc* Is the computer powerful enough or do I need a better video card or more Ram? Would you guys recommend the 1 big display or 2 23" HD displays for best use when editing and doing graphics. Will 800gb be enogh for HD video?

Any suggestions on some really good DV or HD cameras at a fairly reasonable price?

Anything else I need that I may not be concidering (aside from lights and mics which I can rent)

 

[knightly]

The 800 should be plenty. Run 1 400 Gb drive as the OS + Applications drive. Run the second as a media drive ONLY! I run with a third drive for all the scratch stuff for Final Cut as well. This way, the drives don't have to interrupt their reading one file to seek another in the middle. All three can do their thing at once and lighten the load on the individual drives (less drop out).

The Canon GL2 is a decent SD camera bump the price a little to get either a Canon XL2 or a Panasonic DVX100a. For HD, the playing field is fairly limited. Panasonic is out with theirs, and Canon is on the way with what looks to be a Bad Axe Mother Lover! I've gotten to use the Sony and didn't like it personally, it felt cheap. The focus ring had no resistance at all and kept spinning when it had reached its' end. Same with the zoom. My XL1s does this as well, but has good resistance to get smoother zooms and focusing.

That all being said, I've gotten pretty good video out of my little JVC camcorder as well. I picked it for the flesh tones and the feel in the hand.

Get a Circular Polarizing Filter for the camera you get and a UV filter. Always have the UV filter on the end of the filter stack...they're cheap to replace...the lens and the other filters aren't so cheap.

Same advice as always with DV:
Slightly underexpose
Avoid pure whites and reds in the frame
Always run with the polarizer (unless there's not enough light to do so)
Frame slightly tighter (more information on the CCD=more detail in the image)
Light well (not necessarily as much as you would for film, but do a good job of it)
Don't forget to white balance (once indoors, once per hour outdoors)