Useful thread on camera technology

This conversation between Mark Fogarty and Dave includes a lot of hardware tips we wanted to share. You have to read it from the bottom up, like an email thread.

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Any Sd card works. I just bought a standard 32GB card. You will want the largest size you can get and have multiple for doc filming.

If it is new, it should have the warranty in box. That price is comparable to what it is on Amazon ($999) You my want the safety of buying from a reputable seller. Look at their ebay ratings before purchasing. if they have a long history and few complaints, they should be okay to buy from.

We have several groups and meetings.

Our networking meeting is the 2nd Tuesday of the month at The Wild Colonial. Many people have had success meeting collaborators at this meeting. We also have a documentary group, a writers group, an actors group and a visual effects group.

We also run classes. The latest one is a screenwriting class but we have run all kinds of classes in the past.

The groups are run without money because they are all run by volunteers who take up the cause and organize the group for their own purposes as well as ours. The group leaders and members find many benefits to being a part of the group. They share resources, find collaborators, find work or get feedback for their work.


If you check out one of our meetings, please let me know how it went.

Thanks,

M


On Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 7:39 PM, David Turner wrote:
Hi Mark, it the pest!

I ordered a Tamron 18-200 on ebay for $257.97 & it includes 3 filters & a 5 year extended warranty.

Now: I know SDHC cards come in various classes / speeds. Since I intend to use it for video,
what would you recommend?

Last but not least (you're not getting off that easy, lol), there's an ebay seller with a new 60D for $929.00.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170626071706&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_627wt_936

He doesn't mention warranty, but I'm assuming it must come with a warranty from Canon. If you have the time,
click on the link & tell me if you think it's kosher.

My TRV900 sold this morning. I've noticed where you can buy a Canon 50mm 1.8 new for like $130.00, give or take.

Now do you have other courses or groups in addition to the documentary group that would interest me? How do
you guys do this without charging fees for these groups?

Thanks in advance,



If you are looking for a good quality HD camera in the 800 - 1,000 range you should look at a Canon 60D or T2i.

This still camera has the best image quality for the lowest cost.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-T3i-Digital-Imaging-18-55mm/dp/B004J3V90Y/ref=sr_1_17?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1301610081&sr=1-17


The problem with the panasonic you are looking at is it is consumer grade, so the image quality will be okay but the audio will be terrible. Also they are difficult to adjust and you will have trouble getting good results. Even with the Canon 60D or T2i you will have limitations, but from my experience, trying to get a consumer grade camera to record decent sound is next to impossible. You probably will want to buy a camera that can shoot at the 24p frame rate.

The Canon 7D, 60D or T3i are the cameras everyone buys right now and the T3i and 60D are roughly the same price as the Panasonic. You will still have problems getting great sound but you can either use a separate sound recorder or use a beachtek adapter to allow you to plug in a high quality microphone.

Do you need to shoot HD? I would say so. You should probably shoot in Progressive frame mode as well. Interlaced is out of fashion.

Also, if you have SD footage you need to use you can try "Instant HD". It is a plug-in that will upconvert your footage to HD and it is fairly reasonable in price.

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-instant-hd/

Hope this helps. Good luck,


Mark Fogarty
RIFC President
On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 3:49 PM, David Turner wrote:
Hello, Carol from The RI Film commission referred you to me.

Here's the situation: I began work on a documentary on the
RI Institute of Mental Health (IMH), & when I started this it
seemed shooting in standard definition was acceptable, however
I am very seriously considering the purchase of a Hi Def camcorder
(Panasonic HDC-HS250-K). I currently have a Sony VX1000,
but plenty of outboard gear. Do you think the quality of this
Panasonic would cut it?