[Erik Feder]

Thanks again Mads, I will absolutely get the camera the night before to familiarize myself.

Your help has been invaluable.

[Erik Feder]

Hi Mads,

Thanks for the great advice. Glad your shoots went well. This rental place comes highly recommended – the difference between the Sony & Canon cameras are 10 EUR. Perhaps I should ask them why they are recommending the Sony since they’d make more renting the Canon. I will certainly double check with Adobe that Elements can work with the footage from the camera I choose – I’ve had good luck with Elements before, though that wasn’t using footage direct from a camera.

I’m thinking of buying a card reader as they’re fairly inexpensive (my mac doesn’t have a built-in reader). I have some very good mics so will probably do the VO at home, just need an XLR/USB converter.

You wrote about Iso-ing the mics on the camera. Not clear on this, if I plug each one into a channel (2 audio channels on the Sony, I assume the Canon as well) is this not Iso-ed? Something else I need to do?

Thank you again.

best,

Erik

[Erik Feder]

Looks like about $100 for the Shure XLR/USB interface – maybe cheaper on ebay. Only did a quick search, lots of times those things are more here in Euro.

Seems like a possibility though, thanks – still deciding if it’s too risky to simply do the VOs with the camera on the day I rent, with the danger of course being that I’m SOL if I need to do revisions later (though I guess i could by the adapter then).

Really appreciate the feedback!

[Erik Feder]

Hi Mads,

I posted some equipment I’m thinking of renting below in this thread and would love your feedback if you have time (replying here in case you are only following replies to your message and not the entire thread)

thanks

[Erik Feder]

Hi again Mark,

I’ve asked about this on a couple of forums and the advice to rent, not buy has been pretty consistent and I’ve taken that to heart.

I’ve found a great place here in Germany to rent from (recommended by a friend in the business); here is what I plan to rent, I’d love feedback and to know if any red flags come up, if I’ve missed anything, etc:

Camera:

Sony HXR-NX5E

They also offer the Canon XF 300 – whixh is more expensive to rent – but the guy on the phone is recommending the Sony after hearing about my project. I’d rent an extra memory card and extra battery along with it.

Tripod:

Sachtler System FSB (fluid head)

Lights (I will rent these as well as the suggestions to rethink my idea to go with natural light have been overwhelming):

LED Leuchtfläche 1000 – obviously this is German and I haven’t found out the English word for Leuchtfläche (other than an illuminated area), but it is 1000 watts and can be dimmed. Seems somewhat similar to a lightbox (though not exactly). I’ll rent some foils along with it.

Audio:

Two Sennheiser EW 112-C G3 clipon wireless mics. The Sony camera has two mic inputs so the guy at the rental place is saying I don’t need a Zoom. These take standard AA batteries.

I’d also rent a memory card reader to ensure I can get what I shoot off the camera into Premiere Elements.

Also have one more question, although I’m a musician and have mic stands and SM-57s & 58s (as well as other, better mics), I’m using a mac mini which does not accept analog line audio (strange I know). It’s a powerful little computer and I don’t expect any issues with memory or ram, but it only accepts a usb mic input. So for VOs, I will either need a USB mic (any recommendations?) or do the VO (doing that myself) with the camera. This of course limits the ability to make quick changes once I’ve given the rental camera back. Thoughts?

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

best,

Erik

[Erik Feder]

Thanks for the reply.

I’ve asked about this on a couple of forums and the advice to rent, not buy has been pretty consistent and I’ve taken that to heart.

I’ve found a great place here in Germany to rent from (recommended by a friend in the business); here is what I plan to rent, I’d love feedback and to know if any red flags come up, if I’ve missed anything, etc:

Camera:

Sony HXR-NX5E

They also offer the Canon XF 300 – whixh is more expensive to rent – but the guy on the phone is recommending the Sony after hearing about my project. I’d rent an extra memory card and extra battery along with it.

Tripod:

Sachtler System FSB (fluid head)

Lights (I will rent these as well as the suggestions to rethink my idea to go with natural light have been overwhelming):

LED Leuchtfläche 1000 – obviously this is German and I haven’t found out the English word for Leuchtfläche (other than an illuminated area), but it is 1000 watts and can be dimmed. Seems somewhat similar to a lightbox (though not exactly). I’ll rent some foils along with it.

Audio:

Two Sennheiser EW 112-C G3 clipon wireless mics. The Sony camera has two mic inputs so the guy at the rental place is saying I don’t need a Zoom. These take standard AA batteries.

I’d also rent a memory card reader to ensure I can get what I shoot off the camera into Premiere Elements.

Also have one more question, although I’m a musician and have mic stands and SM-57s & 58s (as well as other, better mics), I’m using a mac mini which does not accept analog line audio (strange I know). It’s a powerful little computer and I don’t expect any issues with memory or ram, but it only accepts a usb mic input. So for VOs, I will either need a USB mic (any recommendations?) or do the VO (doing that myself) with the camera. This of course limits the ability to make quick changes once I’ve given the rental camera back. Thoughts?

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

best,

Erik

[Erik Feder]

Thanks Mads for the very useful advice. I will absorb what you wrote and start looking into options, including checking out the cost of renting on a per job basis.

May come back with a question or two later.

best,

Erik

[Erik Feder]

Thanks Mark for the great advice. I will absorb all this and also take your suggestion to post in the corporate videos forum.

best,

Erik