Camera recommendations

[Mathew Zucker]

Hello

I have increased my budget a bit so any advice or recommendations for a HD camera for about $3500 gratefully appreciated.
 
I'd prefer to capture to a card or hard drive over tape.

I am a still life / product photographer and I'd like to get my feet wet shooting video.

I plan on using the camera primarily in a studio, shooting close up / macro  i.e jewelry, cosmetics, shoes.

I use a Mac. I do not need to capture still images as I have a Phase One for that.


Thanks
~Mathew
http://www.mathewzucker.com/

[flashfredrikson]

Hi Mathew,

if you are on a mac, final cut ist imho the way to go and for "beginners", final cut express is a nice programm, but even with imovie you can do quite a lot of nice editing, and if you get into it deeper, you will want to get fcp studio. I have been with fcp since version 1 and it is just a joy to use.

For cameras I would definitly go for HD Video, maybe used, even if most people can't watch it on their tvs (if it gets broadcasted). But for showing your movies on the net, the extra size is nice and everybody has those big screens and is looking for the fullscreen button...
For macro work I think I would get a 1/3" chip cam, will help you a lot with dof. With a Nikon (which would be in your pricerange) or Canon DSLR, macro work will become really hard in those times you wan't everything in focus.


cheers,
martin

[Morgan_Moore]

Er you have a camera and lots of nice lenses ?

Surely a 5dmk2

A note on shooting still life

it seems that it is very hard

if you want to make the camera move you need very smooth gear to do so

if you want to shoot liquids then you need a very high frame rate $100k phantom camera

You can of course make video of the highest quality by using a bunch of frames from a stills camera

The movement is equally challenging - see timescapes.org

S