My first camera

[zerocool41]

Hey guys,

I'm looking into a digital camera for my first short film...Of course i'd love to get a 3 chipper like the xl1s...but i just feel that i'm going to want to move into acutal film and investing 5 grand on a digital one would be counterproductive.  So i'm thinking in the 600-1400 range max would be decent...I've had my eye on the canon optura 200MC and the JVC 920...But the thing is that all these camera's are geared toward home movies, do any indi filmmakers use these?  

Any recc's on cameras in this price range?

[Kumar]

Dude it looks like no one has replied to your question so I will. I m not sure you would want to even buy a camera. They are so expensive, what i did was just rent the XLS1 for a few weekends. I think thats your best bet. There is no real reason to buy a good camera, If you want just get a cheap one to fool around with and then when your ready to film rent a good one.


so yeah dont buy, just rent.

[ReelHotGames]

While I hate to disagree with Kumar because, well... hey, he's Kumar.

I say buy... look at the GL1 or the Sony VX2000 you can pick them up online in your upper price range, and even though you want to move into film... And you may, you're not going to buy film cameras. Those are what you will rent.

When you want to go shoot something on a whim, because your a creative type and you want to experiment, what will you do without a camera?

Every filmmaker should OWN a video camera so you can ALWATYS be shooting.

A-B-S

Always
Be
Shoo-ting.

I love the VX2000 it is worth the cash, gives great low light pix and has a crystal beaut picture.

[Ghostboy]

Yeah, back when I was first planning on graduating from hi8 I thought maybe I'd just rent an Xl-1 to shoot a feature on. It was really a lot more cost effective to just buy the thing, and I've been thankful ever since. Not only was I able to do reshoots at the drop of a hat, I now have a great camera that has ended up paying for itself with little jobs here and there.

So yeah, go ahead and buy something, maybe not an XL-1, but definitely look into maybe a used GL-1 or VX if you don't want to spend too much money. You'll be glad you did.

And for the record, I'm all about shooting film too...it's just too expensive to do on a regular basis.

[Kumar]

Ok I agree with ABS, I have my own shity camera that I use all the time. And if I had the money I would probably upgrade to XLS1 but I dont. So I rent.

[Pedro]

I love the VX2000 it is worth the cash, gives great low light pix and has a crystal beaut picture.

I love mine too...one of the best investments I've ever made.