If you’re reading this magazine, you’re probably either thinking about getting into filmmaking or are already in it. And, just as importantly, you probably don’t have much money to do it with.
When you don’t have much money to shoot a film, the thought of paying $200-$400 a day to rent a camera seems a bit absurd. As microfilmmakers, we would far prefer to invest in equipment we will own and can use in future films (just as most folks would prefer to pay a mortgage on a house they own, rather than pay rent on one they don’t). With that in mind, I thought I would share our recent search for a replacement camera and some simple tips for getting a good deal, without getting fleeced.
Here at the magazine, we still do a lot of SD work in addition to HD work. The greater latitude in low light combined with excellent interaction with adapters like the RedRock Micro make SD something that we are certainly unwilling to retire at this stage of cost vs. technological maturity. As such, when the XL1-S (which we’ve used for projects in the past) went down, we wanted to replace it with another SD camera.
I did want to make sure that when we replaced it, we upgraded to an SD camera that had an intelligent 24P compression algorithm for a more film-like feel. This narrowed our scope to either the Canon XL2 or the Panasonic AG-DVX100B. While both use proprietary conversion codecs, the Panasonic is easier to deal with, by and large, and I have seen it yield excellent results in films like The Coatroom and Alex Ferrari’s Broken. (Technically, the model used in both of these films was the AG-DVX100A, but the basic differences between the A and B are simply in layout improvements, rather than quality.) Additionally, while Canon does make good cameras, those in their XL-series do possess a number of quirks that I do not find useful (like an auto-sleep mode that can make lengthy camera setups a nightmare), so the decision to go with the DVX100B was a pretty simple one.
When you go out to find a camera, you will rarely find the best deal on the camera you want locally. (If you live in a large city this may not be the case, but, as a rule of thumb, it is true.) This leads to using the internet for purchasing, which can be an absolute nightmare. Finding reputable dealers that are selling the cameras at nearly full MSRP is not a problem. However, if you’re trying to find a deal, you can quickly stumble into the murky waters of the gray market and fast-talking snake oil salesman. The bad news is that, because so many of these sellers operate so far on the fringes of what is legal, should you make a mistake with who you trust, you could lose thousands of dollars with no way to recoup your loss.
With that said, I’ll share with you how we avoided the sharks and the gray market, but still emerged saving a bundle on the camera we wanted. So that you can follow along for future purchases you make, I’ve reduced this to a handy dandy list you can follow in order. (We got out of order on one of the items in this list and added some undue anxiety to our shopping experience. As such, we’ve got it listed in the correct order so you don’t make the same mistake!) Some of these will seem logical, but some of them may seem a bit strange. However, if you follow them, your chances of getting a good camera at a good price that will last is greatly improved.
To find stores to check out for the following list, I personally typed the name of the camera we were looking for into Froogle.com, set it to display from Least Expensive to Most Expensive, and then scrolled halfway through the listed results for the camera we wanted. (The first half of the list will usually pertain to accessories for the camera.) You could also use any price comparison site that lists cameras in price groupings with the sellers that offer them.
