Ideas for starting film camera?

[Jvandenakker]

Hey Guys, My name is Josh and I have always been interested in film. Id love to start looking into filmmaking and I am looking at getting a Film camcorder to begin experimenting with filming. My main question is what kind of cam should I look into?
Would something like the Vixia HF M400 be a good starting point? like as far as options and how "expert" of a video quality it would make, If not what are some suggestions you could give me? are there any cameras that tend to soar above the others? Im hoping nothing over 1100 unless it is an amazing deal and you can convince me haha, but anyway, what should I be looking into?

Thanks in advance!
Josh

[Phenixone]

Hi josh. You may want to look into a DSLR with video like the Panasonic GH2. It is the best bang for the bucks. I use it professionally.

[stefanhuberfilms]

I also would suggest you a DSLR, maybe your parents have some lenses lying around, so you could start with them and then choose the camera that matches those lenses - my dad also had analog canon eos lenses - so i started with those and a canon DSLR of course

[Jvandenakker]

Yes my dad is quite big into photography and has quite a few pricey lens for canon, but I have been looking into DSLR's for video and some people have been having problems, I know some DSLR's do not have auto focus, which would make it quite difficult, are there canon DSLRS that you could recommend?

[stefanhuberfilms]

I wouldn't call it problems, but there are some things like moire to get used to and avoid it, but its doable. if you want to get into "filmmaking" i would not suggest you a camera with auto focus since it will cause jittering of the focus distance and sometimes will not work with low contrast scenes... i also own a Panasonic HVX 200 and didn't use the AF once... i would suggest you a 600D or 650D in this price range, you can get professional additions for them with Magic Lantern: http://www.magiclantern.fm/
The 650D also supports the new STM lenses which will support continuos AF...

[Jvandenakker]

Hey I have a quick question, which of these two cameras do you think would be better?

The Panasonic HC-X900? Or the Canon Vixia HFG10? , and does the Vixia has manual focus?