What gear is needed to get started

E

eofeapr

Well-known member
Hi to all

I guess I'm asking for your help learning what gear is absolutely needed to get me started ...

I've come across a great deal on a brand new cam. I was pretty decided on buying it but it's not cheap. As I read treads and learn I am bocomeing aware of the fact that a cam is only part of needed gear.

That said,,,,
1 How does a miniDV deck or the lack of one play into the equation,, would I get away with just a straight connection to a PC ??
2 Final Cut or Adobe ?? That's an open ended question but am interested in your feedback,,,
3 I'm probably gonna be OK at first butting shots together with some simple transitions but what's my next skills goal gonna be and what works best to achieve it ???

I'm sure I have more questions I should ask but too green to know it,,, Help me out please

Thnx
JOE
 
Whoa! Jumping right in? Kudos!

Get a tri-pod that is meant for the weight of your camera. A fluid head tri-pod is nearly essential.

You'll want some sort of light kit... but you can do a DIY set-up and get away with it for a little while.

And, most importantly... find a way to invest in good mics and good headphones... you can have a crappy image and if the audio sounds professional... you might just get people thinking you meant to be artsy and shoot it that way.

Good Luck!
l_8adc2af867dda6a66727dcfe348e7dee.jpg

A DVXUser entry for SPYFEST 2007
 
That's cool, the sound advice is well taken, I'd like to set music to my shots till a good mic system is a reality

what about the deck question ??? ,,, if I have to have a deck to make things happen the cam is going to have to wait a while
 
You don't have to have a deck.

You can capture directly with your camera plugged into your computer. However that's not really recomended as you will wear down your precious camera's heads.

Most people purchase a dirt cheap DV palcorder camera that they use as a loading deck for capturing to their computer.

- Mikko
 
eofeapr said:
...what about the deck question ??? ,,, if I have to have a deck to make things happen the cam is going to have to wait a while
Click to expand...

In my opinion, a deck is good if you are doing high volume work like weddings and events every weekend, capturing hours and hours of footage a week and printing back out to tape. If you are shooting only for yourself (indy shorts, music vids, etc.) I don't think you need one. If you are concerned about putting too many hours on your tape heads you can get a cheap minidv cam to use as a deck... and no, it won't screw up your 24p fr.

Grab the cam man! :thumbup:

btw, if you use PC and not Mac, you may want to consider Sony Vegas.
 
COOL

I was a PC junkie B4 catching Cam fever so that's good advice considering I have Vegas along with the other FC pro, Adobe, and a bunch of other stuff...

Man that is great news that a cheapo cam will not take away from my shot quality,,
Which causes me to wonder ,,, once a tape is used I'd imagine I should not use it again or is it OK to reuse a time or two????
 
Tape is cheap and that is not where you want to skimp. It's all fine until that one day when something goes wrong. You can reuse DV tapes. But, I WOULD NOT, unless it's a dire emergency. Check out B&H or some of the other retailers listed on here. You can get good quality tapes for around $4 a tape. Even cheaper if you buy in bulk.
 
COOL,,, good stuff,,, am getting the jist of some must know stuff

thnx 4 the help to all am turn in for night hope to C U all again tomorrow
BTW my cam choices are xl2 or dvx 100b
will post my decission ASAP

night ya'll
 
I'm a mac head now. FCP is the way to go. However, I am using the P2 workflow so this may not relate to you. However, if you see yourself doing some high-end type stuff in the next two years you might consider going the Final cut Pro route. It would pobably be a hassle to re-learn all your hot keys and what not on a new edit platform. (I'm showing my bias towards using FCP for anything professional). I used to use Premiere on my old PC lap top and it was totally fine for DV stuff. But, I can tell you that the day I got the insurance check for said laptop after it got stolen... I ran out and bought a Mac and never looked back.

l_8adc2af867dda6a66727dcfe348e7dee.jpg


A DVXUser entry for the SPYFEST festival
 
that's cool
I'm in a good place then ,, I have PC workstation and an IMac 2.1 gihz so I think I'll be all set...
Thnx
 
congrats and good luck.
my recommendation on equipment: buy some good books. lighting, sound, dvx book. those are the best equipment you can have.
 
All you really need is a strong desire, and the ability to learn. From there, it depends on exactly what you want to do, and how resourceful you are. Are you looking to do movies, docs, weddings, commercials, or music videos? How much experience do you have? How much cash do you have? Who do you know?
 
It all depends on what do you want to do. What you NEED is a DV camera and a computer, with a NLE installed. Are you going to do your own stuff or use it for work? If so, make sure you have a lavalier microphone and some way to plug it in your camera. That is the minimum setup to make any sort of industrial, or documentary. Next on the list is a tripod. And if you want me to go on and on, we could be here for a while with a budget past 1 million... ;)
 
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