What entry-level professional(-ish?) film camera?

Jri

Member
Hi,

I'm experimenting more and more with motion graphics/video at the moment and want to try some film.

At the moment I have a Nikon D3200 DSLR with video capability, but it only films for a short time before the battery is drained, meaning that I can't do extended shots and if I realistically wanted to do anything on one session - I'd need a bag full of batteries!

Pro video cameras seem to be crazy money, starting at a budget busting £1500-2000 and up, some of them cost more than my car.

Would a better investment be to build up my lens collection for my lowly D3200 and just stomach the power drainage issue with a battery extender (or the aforementioned battery collection)?

What is the second hand market like for pro video gear (bargains, stuff to avoid, pitfalls etc...)?

[Edit: Apologies if this belongs in the Hardware forum, feel free to move it!]

Thanks,

Jri
 
More batteries plus an extender is probably your best bet in terms of value. Lenses are almost always the best gear investment. Camera bodies become out-dated quickly but a decent lens lasts for decades, and for film you should only need 2 or three at most depending on what you're filming. I've seen a lot of people recommending a single lens with a range of something like a 28 – 70mm, which means you can do wide-angle shots and zooms and everything in between without having to switch lenses. The problem with a lot of entry level cameras is they don't use a full-size sensor so what you see through the viewfinder is essentially a cropped version of what you'd see on a pro camera. This is why it's useful to have an adjustable focal range so you can account for the slightly zoomed shot you will get.

A camera body only does so much, a lot of what makes video look good is the lens, the composition/focal range and the lighting, as well as using appropriate settings and knowing what you're doing. I've seen some great looking short films on YouTube shot with entry-level cameras costing £400–600 that use decent lenses, are lit well and also make use of colour-grading and post-effects to enhance a film (though again this only does so much).

Pitfalls with gear typically are cameras with a high shutter count (think of it like the miles on a car – the lower the better), fungus on lenses (not always a problem but can result in visible specs in shots) and lenses that have been dropped resulting in a sticky zoom/focus/aperture (or a combination). Fixing these issues can often just not be worth it in terms of cost. There's also the obvious issue that gear may be stolen.

I see a lot of bundles of older gear on Gumtree, but these cameras are often for photography only or lack modern video capabilities. The newer cameras, even entry level DLSR tend to have better video capabilities than older pro cameras because more people are buying DSLRs for video, so if you're looking for an upgrade a newer entry-level body might be a better idea.
 
Great knowledge, thanks for sharing.

So are DSLRs regarded as legitimate equipment for professional video (ie, would building my existing DSLR kit up be a sensible alternative to worrying about going for a purpose built pro video camera)?

Assuming that the lenses are backwards/forwards comparable, would this suggest that upgrading my camera in the future would be a fairly Nikon-centric choice, as whatever I chose would need to fit my existing kit?
 
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