Hi everyone,
I am a newbie, as in capital N, capital E, capital W, ... N-E-W-B-I-E.
I have a fair amount of experience in photography, almost none in video. I understand aperture, shutter speed, etc. and do a lot of my photography with manual settings.
I own a Panasonic G2, which I hacked, and started to discover video. My home videos of wildlife have steadily been getting better. I now use a tripod and manual focus, which helps a lot. I also have some decent glass, both manual focus and 4/3 glass.
Inspired by my somewhat better videos, I ordered a GH2 (a big investment for me), which will be here in a week or two. My wife and I will be traveling to South America in about a month, and I have the idea of making some wildlife videos while I'm there. We have lived in South America before, and I already have an idea of some things I would like to shoot.
Now, here is my question. I know nothing about the market for documentary wildlife video, as in capital N, capital O, ... OK, I won't do that to you again, but you get the idea. So today I stumbled across this thread on another forum about selling video to the Discovery Channel (and I thought to myself, there's a place that might like to buy some decent wildlife footage), except that the whole thread was very disparaging of "non-professional" cameras, and I got the distinct impression that neither the Discovery Channel, nor the BBC, nor any other self-respecting media outlet would ever buy footage out of a camera that cost less than $5,000, and better that it cost $10,000.
Is that true? Will I just be wasting my time on the mountainside, getting these beautiful shots that I envision with a GH2, only to have a suit tell me that it doesn't make the grade?
Maybe I shouldn't even bring this up, but I had thought to pick up an FZ150, as a way to get 1080 60p and some cheap slow motion footage, but surely nobody would buy anything out of an FZ150, right?
OK, that's all I have for now. I would appreciate some solid advice as to whether or not my GH2 (and my FZ150?) are professional tools, or if they are just toys I should get rid of, while I look for some real equipment.
Thanks, Bob
I am a newbie, as in capital N, capital E, capital W, ... N-E-W-B-I-E.
I have a fair amount of experience in photography, almost none in video. I understand aperture, shutter speed, etc. and do a lot of my photography with manual settings.
I own a Panasonic G2, which I hacked, and started to discover video. My home videos of wildlife have steadily been getting better. I now use a tripod and manual focus, which helps a lot. I also have some decent glass, both manual focus and 4/3 glass.
Inspired by my somewhat better videos, I ordered a GH2 (a big investment for me), which will be here in a week or two. My wife and I will be traveling to South America in about a month, and I have the idea of making some wildlife videos while I'm there. We have lived in South America before, and I already have an idea of some things I would like to shoot.
Now, here is my question. I know nothing about the market for documentary wildlife video, as in capital N, capital O, ... OK, I won't do that to you again, but you get the idea. So today I stumbled across this thread on another forum about selling video to the Discovery Channel (and I thought to myself, there's a place that might like to buy some decent wildlife footage), except that the whole thread was very disparaging of "non-professional" cameras, and I got the distinct impression that neither the Discovery Channel, nor the BBC, nor any other self-respecting media outlet would ever buy footage out of a camera that cost less than $5,000, and better that it cost $10,000.
Is that true? Will I just be wasting my time on the mountainside, getting these beautiful shots that I envision with a GH2, only to have a suit tell me that it doesn't make the grade?
Maybe I shouldn't even bring this up, but I had thought to pick up an FZ150, as a way to get 1080 60p and some cheap slow motion footage, but surely nobody would buy anything out of an FZ150, right?
OK, that's all I have for now. I would appreciate some solid advice as to whether or not my GH2 (and my FZ150?) are professional tools, or if they are just toys I should get rid of, while I look for some real equipment.
Thanks, Bob
