Movie Production Camera and mic?

[dalewakelin]

So i have decided i could do with a proper movie production camera, i will probably need a mic too, i will need to out door filming and have a separate or detachable mic. I would like a camera with depth of field but i don't have a lot of experience with professional grade cameras. So mic + camera + storage for £400. I had a look at black magic cameras but they are way out my price range. Any help appreciated no idea where to start. Cheers.

 

[Feronix]

Don't know about cameras but Rode do some epic shotgun mics which are perfect if you don't want the mic onscreen, but still want to be on camera yourself (vlogs and whatnot).

What kind of videos are you looking to make?

 

[Kei]

It's not really possible to get anything "professional" for £400. Even second hand stuff from 6/7 years ago costs a lot more than that.

You can cheat and use a DSLR that has a movie mode. (though even most of them cost more than your budget) Sadly these don't have proper support for pro mics that require a half decent preamp or phantom power. (you can get around the phantom problem with battery powered mics like a sennheiser ME-66 with K6 power pack) Although you potentially still have issues with balanced connections (XLR) and impedance mismatches. Personally, I have a sony Z1e with a few different mics, but even this isn't movie standard as it's intended purpose is news gathering. (ENG) It can only shoot in SD (720x576i50) or HDV, which is 1440x1080i50 anamorphic 35mbit and better than that, only onto DV tape. Even that which is around 8 years old is still worth £1000 or so just for the camera. Add in the mics at ~£3-400 each and you can see why it's a damn expensive game to enter.

 

[BigBlue1]

The Nikon D5100 can shoot awesome video with a very filmic look if you set it up correctly to do so.
Here is a short article that gives you a good start.
I have shot some excellent quality films with this camera. It will shoot video at 1920 x 1080 with 30fps, but I use 24fps for a more film like appearance.