Camera suggestions

[para.investigation]

Hi. I'm an ambitious, humorously uninformed, student film maker.

I've shot a couple of films in cheap DV, which turned out alright. I have a basic editing setup (Win XP, Adobe Premiere)

Soon I'll be in the market for a new camera, but I don't know where to start. My budget is about $2000.00 CDN (roughly 1580.00 USD).

Any suggestions?

[TJ_the_director]

mulder,

try to find a used sony dvx2100 at a reputable place like B&H PhotoVideo. it has EXCELLENT low-light capability if you're into investigation and stuff.

[sn-films]

The Sony VX-2100 is an excellent camera. If you can't find a used one in your price range, Panasonic has a series of 3-CCD cams that fall into your price range. You will notice a significant improvement in picture quality when stepping up from a 1-chip to a 3-chip camera, and with some of the Panasonic models, you will have some $$$ left over for an external mic, lens filters, etc.

[para.investigation]

I've heard some good things about the Sony DCR-TRV950. A friend of mine used a couple of TRV900s on his last shoot. The quality of the footage really impressed me. After some quick research I found a couple of places selling used TRV950s around the city.
I couldn't find any info on the TRV950 on the Sony site. Has it been phased out? Does Sony have a new line of 3ccds? Is the TRV950 still worth looking into?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 20, 2005 09:38 PM: Message edited by: para.investigation ]</font>

[richard.fisher]

This site: http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ has lots of in depth, helpful reviews of just about every camera you might be intrested in, along with forums dedicated to each camera.

Just to echo the sentiments of sn-films, if you have $2,000 CDN for you entire equipment budget, definately spend $200-400 of that on a decent external mic.