Best Camera for a High School Sophomore Starting Out

[Alexinho00]

I'm a sophomore in high school and a beginner in filmmaking. What kind of camera should I look into? I'm almost 16 so I'll end up getting a job to save up for some stuff. What kind of camera should I look into? (Preferably prosumer)

 

[filmmakerone]

Look into the Canon HV20 and the Panasonic HDC-SD5.

The Canon records a compressed HDV 1080i to miniDV tape. You can find this camera for under $1000 if you shop around. The Panasonic records AVC-HD straight to memory cards. These sell for about $800.

Both should serve you well for years to come.

Tracy

 

[director15]

the Panasonic HDC-SD5.
Tracy

Yeah, that's the one I've got. Great camera.

 

[filmmakerone]

The Panasonic HDC-SD5 is a VERY cool camera. The one knock against it is that it has no audio input. It only takes sound through its onboard mics. Not the ideal setup for most shoots. It makes for a decent reference track, but I like to feed better sound to the "tape".

If you can find the previous model, the Panasonic HDC-SD1, it does have an audio input. The camera specs and resolution are close, but not identical. Being "last year's model" you may be able to find a better deal on the SD1 than the SD5.