To DV or not to DV?

[ozymandiz]

I have managed to scrape together ?800/$1200 to buy a DV Cam to start making short films. Can anyone advise as to a good camera for that price or any shops that sell new DV cams for cheap? I don?t care about the appearance of the cam, or its size only good quality images & sound for semi-professional film making.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated


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[penshuffler]

If you really care about the quality of the images, why not shoot it on super 8 and then Rank transfer it to video? You could get a super 8 camera quite cheaply, and on K-40 super 8 the colour and resolution are superb.

This is just my opinion, but all video is flat and dreary in comparison to real film images. You could still edit and have the final format as DV. Just a suggestion.

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[Levi]

I use both super 8 and DV. I recently got a DCR-TRV30 and it is the best camera i've ever had. Look on eBay for used cameras. You can get some really good deals.
www.ebay.com

Good Luck!
Corey

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[Pryce_Jones]

Hi,
For my 2 cents worth... I bought a Canon XL1 it cost me ?2500 about 18 months ago. Now I know this is out of your budget but I just want to say something. The quality of this Mini-DV cam is second to none (so it should be for the price) - (there are many other good ones too) BUT.. the cam is so big and heavy!! that it is a real bore to take out. Sometimes I wished I had bought a smaller one and get slightly less quality but something I could through around a bit more and perhaps put in my (large) pocket. So think on this "Size does matter"!. Hope this helps. Pryce

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[This message has been edited by Pryce_Jones (edited August 30, 2001).]

[Rat Lowelle]

For about $1,700 (sorry, don't know the current pound conversion) you can get a Panasonic EZ30 which is a 3ccd DV. Great color quality. Good sound, too if you're not working with mics.

Also if there's a public access TV station in your area you might want to see if they have anything they can let you borrow to help give you a better feel for it.

Here's a link to PA stations in the US: http://www.silcom.com/~taxabo/tv.htm


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[Curtin-Parloe]

Look around at car boot sales for super 8 cameras. My sister got a canon 318M for less than ?5! at ?10-15 for the film and the same for developing, you can't get cheaper.

I use Hi8 video, because that's what I got for holidays. I splashed out ?150 for a capture card for the PC, ?100 for a bigger hard drive and ?200 for a minidisc recorder (because sound can be even more important than vision)
and used them for work, charging expenses, so it only cost me ?150 in the end.

My point is, if you've already got something, use it. If you're brilliant at making the things, then you'll soon be able to demonstrate it, whether you have a cheapo camcorder or a (insert massively expensive 70mm camera setup here).

cheers

paul

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BAD EYE - Coming Soon www.curtin-parloe.co.uk/badeye Curtin Parloe 2001

[Alex]

The one advantage of shooting some super-8 film along with your DV is it FORCES you to think like a director and like an editor and it FORCES you to think efficiently and succinctly because the film rolls are only 2 and 1/2 minutes to 3 minutes and 20 seconds long.

Once you can master making a short Super-8 Film, your DV experiences should be better ones because you suddenly have more freedom in the amount of footage and sound you capture, but you also have gained an excellent level of expertise from your Super-8 Experience.

The two divergent formats of Super-8 Film and Mini-DV really complement each other nicely.



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Alex