How to Invest? Sony, Panasonic, Canon

[Josiah Graves]

Good advice, to be honest I’ve found myself looking less and less at cameras altogether and thinking of saving that wad of cash and putting it into a miller, or a sachtler. Thinking there is that a solid tripod will outlast any camera on the market and even lots of the glass, plus it doesn’t matter what camera I”m using, i’ll always need a tripod.

[Bob Cole]

I still have my first “good” tripod, and it still gets some use, to support a second camera or my timelapse unit.

You have to think hard about what makes the most sense for you. My first purchase, as a budding documentarian, was a Nagra tape recorder. Similar logic to yours, except that I didn’t foresee video! But it was a good idea. I used the Nagra a lot more than I would’ve used a film camera at the time (film is expensive!), getting lots of pre-interview material, some of which made it into the doc. Plus, I could handle a lot more in post when I had my own audio deck.

You are coming along in an incredible time, for better and for worse. On the one hand, barriers to entry are way down, so a normal, non-trust-fund-endowed student can buy equipment that is incredibly capable. On the other hand, barriers to entry are way down, so … so can everybody else. And one person with a cellphone camera in front of a cute kid or kitten might make more from YouTube than you will ever see in your life, but that’s another story.