Amateur Filmmaking/First off equipment

From Open project development

First off equipment.

[edit] We use

- a Panasonic 3ccd 250GS

  Pros - good colour separation, good price point, has some manual control over image
  Cons - sometimes has trouble focusing on what we want it to, low light performance is not great

- Manfrotto tripod and a 501 liquid head

  Pros - great tripod, nice weight (can use it as an impromto steadicam), smooth head, 
  like the quick release plates that Manfrotto has
  Cons - not anthing that comes to mind

- Manfrotto Monopod

  Pros - Portable, lightweight. Provides decent stability on the run
  Cons - Limited range of motion for the camera. The fulcrum for movement becomes the base 
  of the monopod, so tilt shots become stunted

- Premiere Pro 1.5

 Pros - very powerful editing software. Many options for image control. Quite stable if 
 set up properly. Decent rendering times on a good computer.
 Cons - Significant learning curve. Took us about a year to feel that we've mastered it 
 through self training and trial and error. A few glitches here and there.

- Home Depot 500 W Halogen work light

 Pros - Lots of light. Good colour representation
 Cons - Much to focused. Not enough span to cover an interior scene. Can create very 
 harsh shadows. We need to design/build a difuser of some sort.

- Home Depot Clip-on Spotlight with a 100W florescent bulb

 Pros - Softer light, decent spread over a scene. Good for a secondary light source
 Cons - Alters colour of scene. Not bright enough in certain situations

- Azden Shotgun Microphone

 Pros - Good sound reproduction, good battery life for a button battery, cheap 
 batteries that can be found in a dollar store, high sensitivity
 Cons - picks up a bit of wind noise, even with the supplied foam windscreen. Has a solid 
 hotshoe mount to the camera, so it's possible that some vibration noise is picked up 
 from the camera mechanism

Drop us some reviews on your equipment!