Production quality Video equipment

For the video guys around here…What cameras are you using for producing your shows? I have been encouraged to produce a number of “How To” trapping educational videos and thought if I get into doing that, I may start recording all my clients hunts. A lot of pretend money to put out there to dive into this. So far, I have been most impressed with the Cannon Hi-Def XHA1S. What other cameras should I seriously be looking at?

here is a link that may be usefull.Campbell Cahttp://www.campbelloutdoorchallenge.com/meras.

Randy A few questions for ya first. What is your budget? Are you looking to do Hi-Def? What will you mainly be filming? Will you be filming in low light time periods?

It started out as daytime and night (with flood lamp) for making a few education DVDs for trapping. As discusions have continued, a lot of focus is shifting over to predator hunting in the midwest as that is a series of shows not commonly shown. So yes, the importance to low light is there. As for a budget, that is still being discussed. As a gross number I kicked out to the other two guys involved in this, I figured we would be in the 20K range. Our thought was to do all our own editing As I know that is more of a job than anyone realizes. I haven’t gotton to the point of writing a formal business plan yet. I’m just trying to get a handle on the major equipment costs and if I could make this work. If it begins to look good, then I’ll write the plan to borrow more money.

I think $20 K would be a little high. Camera, Mics, & Gear $5,000-6,000, Computer and Editing Software another $5,000. Editing you own stuff (a ton of time). Randy, feel free to shoot mew a PM. I just went through this the last few years.

As far as a camera goes, when I went through this process I knew low light would be a huge concern as I would be doing a lot of filming deer hunting. Trust me there is a big difference in cameras ability in low light situations. They are not all created equal. You may give something up< (better day time color) but IMO Low Light Ability is critical. Not going HD at the present time is what forced me to buy a Sony PD 170 with a 1.5 LUX. We tried to film with other cameras at low light and were extremely dissatisfied and may have lost 15 minutes of film time in the evening and about 7-10 minutes in the morning (which is a critical time in the whitetail woods) compared to the PD 170. I’m from far an expert here as Whitetails4ever might be a better source, but if HD is not in the plans, I would consider the PD170. I will start researching this Winter for an HD Camera to possibly see action this coming Fall or the next. Once I do some research I will let you know what I find. I do know the Canon you mentioned is what a lot of Outdoor Film people use for an HD Camera.

Be careful of Internet scams as they are all over the place out there. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. I was given B&H Photo a s a reliable on-line dealer. They have been awesome to deal with I and I would highly recommend them and their pricing is real competitive.

Any other questions, feel free to shoot me a PM or ask here!