Newbie with some new gear needing advice.

[Foggy]

Hi folks,

After a few months saving up I have finally managed to pick up a second hand GH2 with a few extras to go with it.
It is coming with the 14-45 mm H-FS014045 lens which I believe isn't the stock kit lens and is meant to be slightly more robust? It also includes a 64gb 95mb/s SD card which will be accompanied by the 2x 16gb 30mb/s cards I already have.

I am looking to pick up a velbon DV-7000 tripod cheap and that will be all my shooting gear for now.

My aim is start off as I have been advised on here, by getting out and shooting as many shorts as I can and learn from my mistakes.I have written a couple of shorts already and as I study Media performance at University I am surrounded by a supply of willing actors.

My question is, what should be next on my shopping list?I don't intend to buy anything else yet as 1.I am now completely skint and 2.I don't want to have 'all the gear and no idea',I want to learn how to use what I have which hopefully will direct me towards what I need next.

Lens wise I am a little clueless, I am doing all the reading I can but it is a lot to take in.What lens would be nice to accompany the 14-45mm?

Having filmed showreels and played around with equipment at the University, It has become apparent that sound quality is just as,if not more important,than picture quality, nothing ruins a good film more than not being able to hear what is going on.I have read that the inbuilt mic on the GH2 is decent but Its an area that I want to improve on quite quickly, I see a few companies make mics that sit on top of the camera, but again its an area of technology that I don't have much knowledge in.

Anyway enough of me rabbiting on,any advice on the gear I have (particularly that lens) and what would be a logical next step is hugely appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[harmonica44]

Don't bother with the mics on the camera. The mic should be plugged into a field recorder or something like that with it's own PRE-AMPS. The field recorders have necessary specifications for good sound, compared to cameras. The mic should also be boomed above the actors cause once the mic is about more than 1.5 feet away, the sound quality goes down, as that is just too far for the types of mics used to get movie sound.

As far as lenses go, a 14-45 might look as good as a 50mm, if you zoom to 45mm for the close up shots. It might be good enough as a starter lens, I'm not sure. Watch movies with your favorite types of shots in then pic lenses based on those shots.

 

[Foggy]

Being M43 the lens goes out the equivalent of a full 35mm 50mm lens I would have thought anyway?

 

[David.rhsc]

Being M43 the lens goes out the equivalent of a full 35mm 50mm lens I would have thought anyway?

Technically it would be approximately the equivilant field of view as 28-90 on a full frame still camera. Honestly though, don't get all caught up in that crap unless you are the type of person who can look at a room and know you want X focal length to get Y shot with Z camera.

If you can't do that in your head then worrying about what "crop factor" your camera happens it be is an unnecessary technical distraction from what you are trying to do.

Which is to say you don't have to think about the translation unless you are already visually trained in a different focal length to film plane size relationship.

Audio experts will be around shortly to rattle off their preferred low budget choices. Of course a short search in the "Equipment and Gear" section will net you the same results.

As you practice with that zoom you'll get a sense for what focal lengths you like to use. Rather than "complimenting" that lens you'll be looking for to fill out a set of prime lenses instead. Well, if you are interested in narrative work. If you want to do docs or cover events I prefer to carry something that covers a longer range - usually in 2 lenses like 24-70 and 70-200 canon L series or something. Panasonic just came out with a couple of zooms (someone here has one and likes it quite a bit) in the 12-35 and 35-100 ranges which mimic that canon setup.

 

[rayw]

After a few months saving up I have finally managed to pick up a second hand GH2 with a few extras to go with it.

I am looking to pick up a velbon DV-7000 tripod cheap and that will be all my shooting gear for now.

My question is, what should be next on my shopping list?I don't intend to buy anything else yet as 1.I am now completely skint and 2.I don't want to have 'all the gear and no idea',I want to learn how to use what I have which hopefully will direct me towards what I need next.

Having filmed showreels and played around with equipment at the University, It has become apparent that sound quality is just as,if not more important,than picture quality, nothing ruins a good film more than not being able to hear what is going on.I have read that the inbuilt mic on the GH2 is decent but Its an area that I want to improve on quite quickly, I see a few companies make mics that sit on top of the camera, but again its an area of technology that I don't have much knowledge in.

Looks like you're having fun enough scraping shekels together just for basics, so spend wisely.
Don't buy any more lenses. You can make do with the lens you have.
Your next step is collecting better audio.

A budget minded filmmaker needs to first get a Tascam DR40 or Zoom H4n, then a shotgun mic, then a boom pole and cables.

Neither of those two recorders aren't the best, but then neither is your camera, they're bare bones basics, but those recorders good enough for that camera, will provide better audio than what you have on the camera and will certainly allow you more latitude in your shots with audio.

GL!

 

[Foggy]

Thank you folks,some interesting reading.It has taken me a couple of days to organise things and get software together.I have a macbook pro which now has FCP7 and davinci resolve lite on it, along with a couple of bits and bobs that smooth out the workflow and allow me to import the MTS files into FCP7 without too much issue.I have also looked into memory and sorted where to save things and how much storage I need for now etc,these things all take more time than I realised.


Anyway enough of my inane ramblings.Seeing as for the forseeable future my videos will be going on youtube/vimeo, do I need to massive upgrade the sound? I have read on a few forum posts that the compression in youtube and vimeo can mean the difference is negligible between inbuilt mics(when the bit rate has been improved with a hack) and a h4n or similar.

I don't buy into it as surely if you start off with poor audio and it gets compressed it will be even worse, where as if you start with good audio it'll be atleast passable?