Professional Filming Question

Hey everyone.

I have bit by the wakeboarding filmers bug! All I can think about is making a really professional-looking wakeboard video. I am from the central florida area and many of my best friends are pro wakeboarders. I want to come back this summer from school to make a professional-looking wakeboard video. They all said they would for sure be in it and I even have a plane lined up to do some aerial footage.

Ha, now that the planning is done...I am in need of some equipment. What is the BEST, BEST! video camera to shoot top of the line wakeboard/surfing footage. I am looking to spend anywhere from 1000 to 3000 bones.

What about housing?
Wide-angle lense?
Editing programs?

I need the works guys.
THanks

$1k to $3k won't get you the best. it just might pay for the housing though.

if your budget's in the $1-3k range, look into getting a panasonic dvx100b.

as for the wide angle lens, a century optics .7x will do.

editing program? if you're using mac, final cut pro. if you're using pc, adobe premiere pro.

Thanks man...especially for the wicked fast response. Yeah i figured camera wise i may start out low budget. I looked at the panasonic dvx100b test vids on youtube and the picture is pretty good. But no videos found shooting wakeboarding or surfing. How well does its picture look with action shots and how well does it handle in housing??

THanks again man

check out the vids at www.dpcfilms.com. most of the vids were filmed using the dvx.

man I owe you for sure.

What housing do you recommend?

and any good fish eye lense?

Just to let you know. I have a DVX100B with a Epic housing for sale. I live in Orlando. Let me know if you are interested. As for DVX wake footage, They used a lot in the Truth, Esoteric was shot entirely on the DVX. The Chick Flick and Delta Sessions 2 I think as well. You can also check out the teasers for Pendulum and Box of Fun. Both of these are shot on the DVX with the exception of the slow-mo footage. There are a bunch of other wake films using the DVX as well. The DVX has a decent wide angle compared to most cameras but sacrificed the telephoto to achieve this.
Now for the Best camera "in the wake industry" (this is all opinion) Most of the top filmers in our industry are now using the Panasonic HVX. Justin Stephens, Sean Kilgus, Ronn Sidenglanz, Collin Harrington and Myself. Just to name a few who are using it.
You also might want to check out the DVX Users forum at www.dvxuser.com You can check out all kinds of footage and find answers to almost all your questions regarding the DVX and HVX as well.
Best of Luck and get in touch with me if you are interested in checking out the camera.

brinks...sounds good. I checked out the HVX, looks sick. I may hit you up on that offer. I go to UNF in Jax but I live in Auburndale, about 25 mins from Otown. Why are you sellin the cam and housing? How old? Wear and tear? How much?

I bought and HVX so I don't need it any more. I think there is about 115 hours on the heads. It was never used to capture or preview footage. The HVX doesn't fit in the housing I had for the DVX. I have had the camera about 1 year and it was taken very good care of. I think I am going to list the camera with housing, Filters and a soft case for about $2200 obo including all the original Accs. and a copy of The DVX book and DVD.

Right on man...sounds sweet. Are you the brinks that was workin on the pendulum film? I saw some sample shots of that film with some buddies of mine. If so, amazing work man.
Ha willing to bet that you arent interested in holdin on to the dvx gear till June. Im working on gettin enough singles to get everything buy then.

Delta Sessions 2 was shot with a Canon GL 2 which are readily available used for a great price. If you can afford the best roll with the HVX200.

My bad on DS2. I wasn't 100% sure about that one, Great film anyways.
I am working right now on "Pendulum" Don't know when it's going to be done. Between school, work and home, I haven't had a lot of time.
Hit me up when you have the money and see if I still have it. I haven't listed it anywhere and I am in no rush to sell it. Although it just sits in the bag in the corner of my office.
Best of luck

taylor steel from the surf side of film just bought 2 of the Sony PMX1 The surf camera men are raving on the new Sony picture $6600 for the Sony PMX1 $4900 w/ a 16gig card for the Panasonic HVX200 www.samyscamera right now

DS2 has some footage from my (at that time) DVX100. Actually Delta Sessions 1 had way more DVX footage then DS2 but a lot of GL2 as well from Arun's cam. Other then the color intensity it's hard to see the difference on DVD. There is little doubt when you see HVX footage.

-Thread Steal-

Hey Rich do you know if you can import 720p or pn as Pro Res in the new FCP update? I know you can with the new AVC-Intra Codec but i havent seen anything about regular DVCPROHD. I was just curious if you have heard anything about that.

You can but I don't think there is any reason to, DVCPROHD is a pretty efficient codec on it's own and you won't gain anything by importing it in the pro res format. In fact I think I remember reading that Pro res is so similar in it's compression structure to the Panasonic codec that a lot of guys were already using a similar workflow with DVCPro HD. I thought that at the point I upgrade I might try to HDV - prores transcodes as well.