Camera/Equipment For Documentaries?

[Pose]

I think film is going to turn into my next expensive hobby . I'm really interested in documentaries, and am not sure exactly where to start with equipment. What would be some key features I'd need to look for in a video camera? I'm guessing it'd need to be considerably light & compact, good battery life, and sharp optics, so what kind of specs would I be looking for, exactly?

Assuming I get far enough to actually attain the camera, what type of additional equipment would I need? I already have a decent computer (AMD Athlon 2800, 1gb RAM, 120gb HD, GeForce FX 5200 video card). What type of video editing software would I need? Is there a standard, like photoshop is for still images?

I don't have a budget outlined yet, but if you have more than one setup in mind, start with the cheapest .

Thanks for any help.

[Skyman]

there are enough options here for me to write a textbook. you could use film (expensive) but then what format, 70mm, 35mm, 16mm, 8mm ? you can use video but then digital or analogue ? if analogue do you use sp beta hi 8, standard 8, svhs or vhs, if digital do you use digi beta, dvc pro, dv cam, mini dv, micro mv, dvd ram or digital 8. i am guessing you will go digital. i am also guessing you want to use a broadcast format. to this end i would be recomending digi beta, dvcam, dvc pro or mini dv. mini dv is the cheapest format of these, although not allways the most practical as the tapes are restricted to 1 hr in length. but assuming you choose mini dv as your prefered format, the next question you need to ask is how important is size for your camera. the larger and more expensive cameras will give you a better result however a smaller camera may help make you subjects feel more at ease and be less obtrusive. basically any 3ccd mini dv camera will do. however things you should be looking for are manuall audio control, manual shutter and aperture controls, manual focus. (suprisingly not all 3ccd cameras will have all of this stuff) also the ability to plug in more than one microphone and record audio to multiple channels is very handy. to that end models that stand out in my mind (they may have different names in north america) are: the canon xl1s and the sony pd150. an axample of a smaller camera might be the panasonic gs70 although this camera is lacking in some features with care it will still give you good results. a good tripod is essential, preferably something with a good fluid head, manfrotto velbon and miller are stand out brands here. a good directional microphone is vital as good clear audio is vital to any film senheiser mics are very good tho pricey. something like the me 66 that will also need a k6 powering module to work. if you have the budget a boom pole, shock mount, windsheild and wind jammer are also going to make field work much less problematic. to monitor the quality of your audio you will need a good pair of studio headphones, these are different to dj headphones that allow the transmission of ambient noise, a studio headphone whilst giving "natural" frequency response will also help you to concentrate of recording clean audio and listen for clicks pops whistles and any other glitches that you will experience from time to time. next is good lighting, at least a tripple light tungsten kit of between 500 and 800watts per light is a good starting point. these will require there own accesories such as stands barn doors snoots grids difusers and at least a daylight balancing gel (81a, b or c) if not several different colours of gel.

in terms of editing on a pc adobe premier is a defacto standard, or on a mac, final cut pro, media 100 or avid. also good fx and tittling programs will be needed, adobe after fx, boris fx and boris red are stand out titles. also depending on your skills as an editor a seperate audio editing package may be required, tot his end, sound forge cool edit pro or pro tools should be looked at.

for more info check out your local production hire shop, they will have plenty of examples of the infinite number of options open to you,

[Pose]

Hey, wonderful reply! Thanks a lot for taking the time to type all of that.

The good part (budget wise), is that I have all of the audio taken care of already. The bad part (budget, again) are those tripods, and lighting kits are expensive as hell!

I think I've decided on the Sony DSR-PD150. I believe it's one of the ones you listed, and everything sounds nice. And it's about half the price of the Canon XL-1S. Which brings me to my next question..PAL. I looked it up, and it says it's the format used in Europe, but that didn't help much. The Canon XL-1SE is a "PAL" Mini DV, and more than $1,000 dollars cheaper than the XL-1S. Should I stay away from this?

[Skyman]

Pal is just one format for encording video. another is ntsc. as far as i am aware pal is the more universal format. it also helps that it is higher quality (the australian video industry often like to think we are superior in that respect so we claim that ntsc stands for never twice the same colour) i can't really tell you much about the specifics of the differences but ntsc has a higher frames per second rate but less stable colour information, whilst the pal format has fewer frames per second but better colour. the frames per second thing fps is largely irrelevant, as films (cinema projection) has fewer again and still looks fine. the colour info can be important. i guess however this choice will be $$$ and market driven. if you are only going to show your films in the us then ntsc is fine. but if you are looking to export them then pal would be better. that said most of the tv's in the us are only ntsc although the rest of the world gets formats and many editing programs are pre set for either pal or ntsc (until you get to the pro versions which are $$$) also the price of the xl1-s sounds very high, we get them in australia (as a pal camera) for around aud $8,500 so 10,000 sounds very high.