Video Camera for an amateur, guerilla, family movie maker

October 21, 2019 9:26 AM

I’m using my iphone & imovie right now for mini movie-making. Help an overwhelmed, clueless beginner pick a digital camera within a budget of under $500-700. More info inside.

I want to make mini-movies with my kids and its time to graduate beyond my iphone. What would be the best option for an amateur wanting to “cinematic” shots? I'm likely going to go the eBay route trying to get more bang for the buck. My kids and I write mini movie scripts of all sorts, so there isn’t a particular type of shot, however I anticipate more indoor shooting. I know there is much more to it than just a decent camera, though, so any additional advice on books regarding shoe-string movie effect tricks, or software recommendations (beyond my amateur iMovie) would be appreciated. I made some home made soft boxes but that is about as fancy as I have gotten.

posted by Mikey51 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

The Shut Up and Shoot Guide is “for” documentaries but will teach you the basics of lighting, shots, etc necessary for docs or narrative films in a way that is very comprehensible to the beginner.
posted by nightrecordings at 9:37 AM on October 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Basic video cameras will do all that you need visually. DaVinci Resolve is a pro-level editor and free, but has a challenging interface for beginners. Make sure you budget for good sound! Especially for fiction stories, bad sound will ruin an otherwise gorgeous video. Indoor shooting gives you more control over the sound you record; there are more good wearable mics than ever. If you have iPhones for each actor, B& H Photo has a good selection.

Whether you go that route or not, consider B&H as a resource; they've helped amateurs and pros for years, and will help you find the sweet spot of value for your budget.

Good luck!
posted by conscious matter at 11:37 AM on October 21, 2019

I have a budding videographer who bought a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G7 (here's a dp review link) that ran about $500, and another $100 for an external microphone (first purchase was a Rode VideoMic GO but it had a flimsy plastic mount that broke twice, replaced once under warranty and then we gave up). I believe the replacement was a Rode VideoMic PRO.

Very pleased with the product, flexibility and results - IIRC to get 'cinematic' you need to have manual controls and the G7 records in 4K. My videographer records in 4K and then in a Mac program (not sure what is being used) downsamples to HD, and the results are awesome.

I've been told sound is super-important in videography, there's no way you can get decent results with any built-in microphone. Feel free to message me and I can send along the videos on YouTube that have been done so far - as a parent I'm proud to help enable that kind of skill.
posted by scooterdog at 11:39 AM on October 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

I can't answer the literal question asked - camera recommendation - but from a holistic perspective I would say that modern cell phone cameras are adequate tools for high resolution video capture, and the biggest bang for your $500-700 toward producing better finished films would be a high quality microphone or two, plus some lighting rigs. Cell phones are also better than camcorders if you're doing actual guerrilla filming (ie, shooting in public without permits) because they're small and ubiquitous.

I use an older model of the current Canon Vixia HF R800 when I'm not filming on my cellphone. The main advantages are high optical zoom and no lens distortion at the edges of the frame that are common with small format lenses like in cellphones and gopro's. I actually spent this entire weekend filming a video project, and most of the video was taken on people's cellphones. The audio was professionally recorded in a studio.
posted by smokysunday at 12:06 PM on October 21, 2019

This may be obvious, but don't overlook DSLR cameras that also shoot video. A popular five year old mid-level camera and kit zoom lens is in your price range, and you're likely to be able to find a wide range of alternative lenses, filters, spare batteries, etc for decades. (You can also take photos with it.) I've seen a Canon EOS 7D produce stunning video in the right hands, but have no particular reason to recommend it above competitors.

Nting saving some money for audio. Though, you're not unlikely to discover just how loud your refrigerator actually is if you're not careful. Getting good sound is hard and worth spending some time thinking about.

(I'm absolutely not an expert, so take my advice with a grain of salt. This is all second hand from having spent time hanging out with no-budget video artists.)
posted by eotvos at 4:13 PM on October 21, 2019

The video quality of iPhones is fairly decent compared to generic consumer camcorders, which is why the sales of camcorders have fallen lately.

Audio is tricky, and clear talking dialogue audio makes a difference in narrative video stories. For home video, there's another level of investment in shotgun microphones & digital audio recorders.

(like any narrative, having a personal view to reflect is more important than these various technical thingys)
posted by ovvl at 7:22 PM on October 21, 2019

To echo what others have said, the video quality out of recent iPhones is so good that you could get a lot more bang for your buck spending the money elsewhere. I’ve got a two year old iPhone X, which can shoot 4k60p, which is something that even the latest Sony DSLR can’t do (although, yeah, the bitrate and color depth is probably not as good)

Besides getting a better microphone, you can get an iPhone gimbal for ~$100. With practice, you can create some pretty slick looking tracking shots. (Moreover, phone gimbals are way cheaper than DSLR gimbals).

In terms of apps, you download Filmic Pro, which gives you a lot more options to film in manually.

If you combine a gimbal with an external microphone, film in a flat profile using Filmic Pro, and colorgrade in something like DaVinci Resolve, you can get some pretty nice results.

There are a bunch of YouTube channels about iPhone cinematography that you can teach you how to use all these tools.
posted by alidarbac at 8:48 PM on October 21, 2019 [2 favorites]