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by timgrable

Question by Jentwez: I want to create a high quality film and I need tips on what video cameras to get?
I also want to take high quality photographs, they can be one camera or two separate ones (one for filming the other for taking pictures). I just really need tips on what to get. I want to make short movies in very high definition on YouTube for a project I’m doing. Thank you!
My budget would probably be around $ 300 or less. I really want to make urban style type of videos.

What I need more right now is a video camera.

Best answer:

Answer by Dennis C
Hi Janet:

Cameras & camcorders range from under-$ 50 USD to many-thousands, and Y!A users range from 13-year old teens to well-seasoned retirees, so you need to give us a bit more information about how much you have to spend.

And your subject matter & visual approach for your YouTube project can influence the equipment selection greatly.

So rather than a bunch of “blue sky” model recommendations, I’ll stick with the general “tips” you are asking for.

1) Set a budget of what you can afford to spend. Photography has traditionally been an expensive hobby (especially in the “film only” days). Video is cheaper than the old “home movies”, but you still “get what you pay for” as far as quality.

2) You seem to be interested in both “filming” and “taking pictures”, so don’t get wrapped-up in the “Megapixels” hype, which is fairly meaningless for video once you get above 2.07MP (multiply 1080 by 1920 pixels, for HD, and you’ll see what I mean). Higher megapixels only affects photo blowups, and still won’t do you any good if your lens is cheaply made.

3) Don’t get a camcorder or DSLR that shoots video your computer can’t edit! HD video takes a lot of computing power, tons of RAM, large & fast hard drive storage, and high-end video cards. Match the edit software to the “codec” the video is made with.

4) Buy the best video tripod you can afford. Tripods don’t get obsolete, and a jerky low-end pan head will frustrate you more than any other piece of gear. Still-cameras can pretty much sit still on top of any cheap mount, but a moving camera shot takes smooth, precision-tooled mounting & control.

5) Sound & microphones are more important than you may realize. People will watch a grainy YouTube video with good sound, but too-soft, echo-ey or distorted sound on the best-looking video will drive viewers away. Make sure you have an external mike input on at least one (if not all) of your camera heads. This is also vital for music videos.

6) Learn about “3 point lighting”, and if you plan to make still-photo portraits, then study portraiture techniques. Good video (and photos) require good lighting, and more is better to prevent grainy poorly-detailed video footage.

7) As far as lensing, if you are on a low-end budget, look for Optical Zoom (not Digital Zoom, which is worthless). Some cheap cameras, like the Flip, and some not-so-cheap cameras like the GoPro Hero series have a fixed lens with no optical zoom. Digital zoom is added to many of these (which is just pixel-cropping) to make them seem “better”.

8) Another lens-related feature is O.I.S. (for Optical Image Stabilization), which helps prevent shaky video & stills when your lens is zoomed-in or hand-held. Some cameras handle this better than others (and some call this feature by different names).

9) My final recommendation, as far as YouTube projects, is to not let a lack of budget or equipment stop your creative efforts. Two of the most-watched (and now, well-paid) YouTube stars are Jenna Mourey (“JennaMarbles”) and Hanna Hart (“My Drunk Kitchen”), both of whom shot & edited almost all their famous videos with the iSight webcam on their MacBook laptops.

Feel free to post an “Additional Details” update to your Question to give us a price range, and we can recommend specific models or feature lists you can afford.

hope this helps,
–Dennis C.
 

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