Lets talk video...

Hyburnate

Hyburnate

Hyburnate

Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
15,662
Location
Near Northants / MK
I'm currently trying to work out the best video camera for videos (funny that!). I need to put together quite a few videos, most will be headshot videos of someone talking (a vlog style but on tripod and then cutting to cutscenes), and focusing on detailed items so it would be beneficial to have a shallow depth of field for the latter and image stabilisation.

I know I need to get an off-camera microphone and that's fine, my current basket is:

Sony A6000 Mirrorless Camera in Black + 16-50mm Power Zoom Lens

Rode VideoMic Pro-R Microphone


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Is this money well spent? The budget is around £700 including VAT

Would an off camera light be worthwhile? I've never really shot video before.

Any help would be much appreciated
 
D.P. said:
For me I would sue soemthign like the back magic pocket cinema if I was really in to video.
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Way out of budget sadly. I'm not into video to be honest but it's a works purchase that I'll be using (hey I do computers), to record videos. Thankfully got what I thought was a decent budget but for what I'm looking at I think that's OTT :p
 
I guess it's how shallow do you want to go and if your happy with 1080p over 4K....

You could look at getting a secondhand Canon 6D or Sony A7 going down the full frame route for the extra dof but, you then still need to factor in a fast lens with IS :-/
 
Zaf said:
I guess it's how shallow do you want to go and if your happy with 1080p over 4K....

You could look at getting a secondhand Canon 6D or Sony A7 going down the full frame route for the extra dof but, you then still need to factor in a fast lens with IS :-/
Click to expand...

The issue is, as this would be a company expense I'd want to get a secondhand 6D from a VAT registered company, plus I think I'd rather go new for warrantys sake purely because again it's business and my time to try and get something sorted through a third party or whatever could end up costing more than new.

Is there anything tragically wrong with what I specced? I'm not too fussed about 4K to be quite honest. When I look at what our competition are doing (nothing other than videos read clearly from a script), 1080p will suffice.

e; I'm going round in circles with this, so much conflicting information on the internet and everyone has a different opinion :(
 
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We use an old Panasonic G6 with either a 20mm f1.7 or Olympus 45mm f1.8, provides very good 1080p footage and is very easy to handle.
The power zoom lenses while ok have variable apertures so zoom changes the required exposure settings as the aperture closes down so we avoided these and as the subjects are static we don't need the zoom anyway.

For sound I would look at some wireless options with clip on mics for your subject rather than a simple hotshoe mounted external mic, they are very easy to setup and provide a far superior quality.
 
You could go the other way, modern mobile phones produce very good video, my S7 at 4k even.

With the money saved you can get a lapel mic, a camera rig/stabilizer or tripod and some decent lights, because it's the lights that will really make your videos.

I would honestly spend more money on decent lighting.
 
Decided to go for a G7 in the end, turns out the A600 doesn't have a mic input. The G7 lacks a headphone output but that's just something I'll have to work around somehow :p Lighting will be coming at a later date as we learn more and more about it.

We need something for fortnightly use so this will do until we prove the concept :)
 
If you really are on a budget for lighting, I used to use a strip light gaffer taped to a very old tripod...! Worked a treat.

If you're just doing talking heads, grab yourself a cabled lavalier mic. Saves money and eliminates any worry of wireless dropout (especially if you can't monitor the incoming audio).

Don't want to teach you how to suck eggs here.... but for shallow DOF, take a step back and zoom in (may need more light though). When lighting, watch for double nose shadows. Google '3 point lighting'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLlMl2KuZi0
 
A6000 doesn't have a mic input, imo a huge omission by Sony. The A6300 does have it, and will do 4k video too iirc.
You'll need an external audio recorder to go along with it and sync it up later on.

Or... You can get a Sony ECM-W1M bluetooth mic which has a 3.5mm input that I'd probably use with a lavalier mic.

[edit]
Ok... so I'm running a bit late here... :o
 
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