There are three things that are VERY important when getting a camera:
Three CCD’s
Manual controls for the iris, shutter, focus and white balance.
A microphone input.
In the $1,000 - $1,500 range:
The JVC GZ-MG505 is also in the $800 range. It has a mic input and records
to a 30GB HHD.
I like the new JVC GZ-HD7. I’ve seen these on line for as little as $1,200. A
really nice Fujinon lens makes a huge difference and full manual controls is
important. Three 1/5’ 16:9 progressive scan CCD’s are pretty impressive for
a camera in this price range. It records directly to a built in 60GB hard drive.
It has manual controls, a mic input and an excellent focus ring which is
surprisingly rare on small cameras.
Both the JVC HD5 and HD6 (available in March) have a mic input and both
record to HDD - the HD6 can record 1080/60p through HDMI - pretty impressive.
The Panasonic PV-GS400 is terrific 3CCD cameras. Unfortunately, it’s hard to
find and that’s too bad. It’s a great little camera. The 500 doesn’t have a mic
input - what are they thinking?
Sony DCR-HC1000 is very similar to the Panasonic cameras. If you’re more
comfortable with Sony, this is the camera for you.
Close is the Canon HV20. It records in HDV (1080i) and 24p (60i), has a mic
input and manual controls of white balance and focus but it uses one 1/2.7” CMOS
sensor rather than 3 CCD’s. For me the jury is still out on the CMOS. And it’s
so small the handling is difficult.
The HV30 adds a 30f (Canon’s “frame mode”) in addition to 24p.
The Sony HDR-SR12 has a mic input and a good sized 120GB HDD. It uses a
1/3” CMOS chip and like the Canon is really small. Because of the input placement,
the mic cable kept getting in my way.
You will need a good microphone and a boom pole.
What you're looking for is a good shotgun mic. That in itself is a generic term
that means any long barreled mic. You want a good condenser (externally
powered) mic with a “lobar” pick up pattern to put on your boom pole. Lobar
pick up means the mic focuses its audio pick up to a narrow area. This is why
you want to use a boom pole to get the mic as close the the actor as possible
- you’ll get clean dialogue tracks with less ambient noise.
http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/
Sennheiser is the mic most used by professional sound recordists. They are
expensive and worth it. Check out the ME-66 and the ME-67. The MKH60
is the best if you can afford it.
http://www.audio-technica.com/
Audio-Technica is cheaper. Check out the AT835B. It’s a workable mic, a
little muddy and not as directional as it should be. The AT835ST is a good
mic for the price, but it, too, sounds a bit muddy - the vocals don’t sound
crisp enough for me.
http://www.azdencorp.com/
I’ve never used Azden mic’s. They’re inexpensive and I don’t hear too many
good things about them, but if that's all you can afford it's MUCH better
than using the camera mic.
A good mic is an investment. It will last longer than your camera - why
skimp? A great place to check prices and purchase is B&H Photo
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
The further away the mic is from the actors, the higher the volume needs
to be. The higher the volume, the more “noise” you get. Your goal is to have
a very high signal to noise ratio - more signal (the dialogue) less noise (the
background). Even a very good, expensive Sennheiser mounted on the
camera will pick up a lot of background ambiance because it’s far away from
the actors.
So you need a boom pole. This can be as simple as a painters pole with a
microphone shock mount on it - or a 3 or 4 section, expandable Carbon
Fiber, Graphite Fiber or Aluminum boom pole. The lighter the pole the better.
Expandable is also very convenient. A pole that’s a fixed six or eight feet
(painters pole) can pose problems if you’re shooting in a small space like a
bathroom or small apartment or if the boom operator needs to be twelve
to fifteen feet away to be out the the lights.
Speaking of lights.
Learning to use light well will go a long way to making your picute stand out.
Even with a small, inexpensive camcorder you can make your viseo look more
professional simply by lighting well.
Lowel makes nice kits. Tungsten lights with stands, barndoors and hard case.
You can also check Arri lights - more expensive and worth every penny. Not
the Lowel kits are bad - I have a 6 light kit with the Omni’s and Tota’s that I
bought new in 1990 and am still using it 18 years later.
For a nice beginning light kit I recommend:
A couple of
work lights with stands from any home improvement store.
Five or six “scoop lights” - those
clamp on work lights with the silver reflector.
Three or four pieces of
Foamcore from any art supply store to use to bounce the light.
Two or three
paper lanterns that you can get at Ikea. I hook each one to a dimmer
(home improvement store again) to get better control.
Some colored gels (check on line or if there is a small theater in your town they often
have extras) and some black wrap. Check
Studio Depot
This example kind of puts all the following links in perspective.
