Equipment Buying is Stressful.
 

I don't know about anyone else - but I've been working on equipment purchases over the past two weeks, and as fun as it seems like it should be to get new gear, it is wearing me down sometimes! It is stressful to spend thousands of dollars, hoping that you've done the best to research every choice and finally making one. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that I can get new gear, and I do love that first time opening up the stuff... but getting ready and pulling the trigger to spend that money is stressful for me sometimes.

Anybody else go through this?

Yep,

Bringing the checkbook (and checkcard) for the new business to WEVA.

Me too, Roger... me too!

I love to spend other peoples money. Not stressful to me at all. ;-)

To those who don't have a lot of gear starting out, don't be too envious. More gear means more info to keep in your head about how to use it all during an event, which can make life on site more challenging. You spend a lot of effort carrying it in and out, caring for it, and getting it all ready and making sure it is all working right, everything has plenty of power, and all the buttons are in their right positions, and knobs are tightened so things don't fall apart. A person with one camera and one mic can concentrate on using it to its fullest to get good a lot of good stuff. Too much equipment can be detrimental. If you keep adding equipment, plan on getting someone to help you use it.

This is so very true... sometimes i wish i can just carry a tripod and camera bag thats it... more stuff, more work.

Hmmm... I wonder if anyone has tried following the Dogme 95 Vow of Chastity for wedding video

Bill,

The most stressful piece of equipment to purchase is the camera. Tripods, lighting, microphones are all going to last fairly well. The camera will likely become somewhat obsolete within a few years, that is the nature of the medium. Do your research, talk to trusted sources, handle some cameras, and finally make your decision. Then don't look back.

I went through it a couple of years ago between an XLH1 and a JVC HD100, and opted for the Canon. 3 1/2 -years later, I still love the Canon - never failed me once, and with a CD-Nano Flash I can opt to run uncompressed HD to Flash Drives to lengthen the camera lifespan. But less than a year after I bought the H1, Canon came out with the XH series for less than half the cost of the H1 - Don't look back.

Understand that the camera is a tool. If it costs $12,000, (or you get 2-$6,000 cameras) and you get 5 years out of it, that's $200.00 a month (about the same as renting a camera for 1 day).

sorry if i'm being off topic but what do you mean by cd-nano flash???

Santo

Santo,

HDV To HD-SDI Video Converters Professional Video Equipment HDMI To HD-SDI Television Studio Equipment

It hooks into any camera with an HD-SDI port to bypass the HDV compression, and record full blown HD, to multiple Flash cards. When I picked up the XLH1 - the HD-SDI port was there, but the only viable recorder at the time was/is called a Wafian, that is not at all portable and retails at $15k. The Nano Flash is new, but the previous version is an XDR that has been around for a year or two.

The XH-A1 doesn't have the HD-SDI port, The XH-G1 has the port - hence the $2,000 (?) higher price of the XH-G1.

There are multiple threads on the recorders here:

Convergent Design Flash XDR - The Digital Video Information Network

THanks for the info Ken.

holy cow.. how expensive is that thing. But that's the price you take for full-blown HD eh?

nice nice... I'm kinda glad in a way that my camera doesn't have HD-SDI.. otherwise.. hahaha..

Santo

Santo,

Actually the Nano Flash is cheap (relatively). Only $2995.00.

There is a lot of other things that I can buy with 3 grand. I guess it depends which one is your priority :)

I hear you Santo... that's why I haven't bought one... yet.

Oh man . . .equipment research is the worst. I love it and hate it. I see StillMotion and think "man I could get that if I had a flyer vest & sled, a few EX1 cams, and secondary ops that knew more about cinematography"....... but that isn't true. And besides, that is a crap-ton of cash for all that equipment. My market simply cannot support the prices needed to pay for that gear.

Then there is the equipment lust which just makes me dissatisfied with my current gear. What I need to do is shoot better and work at shooting better with what I have, not pine away for the equipment I cannot afford.