Micah Mcdowell
Forum Replies Created
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Mark, thanks for your insight. You bring up some points that make this an interesting situation.
I originally got into my job as a volunteer (it is a large church… non-profit). I loved the work and would have done it for free at the time, but I ended up with a great job and salary. Now, it makes me hesitate to go down the same road again, for fear that I’d end up in the same place. As far as interests, I’m a bit of a musician and interested in things of that nature, but I haven’t figured out how to make that into a career, related to video or not.
No chance of promotion; staff members have been leaving rapidly as of late, and no significant new hires. Duties just get shuffled around and folded into other people’s job descriptions, or done away with all together. In example: we no longer have an administrator for our network, so when someone has a problem, I’m now the unofficial go-to guy and get to figure out how to fix it or it doesn’t get done, ever. However, family members and friends of administration get whatever they want, whenever. Most of the poorest decisions seem to be coming from the top, so I don’t think I want to stick around.
I appreciate the advice for looking for a direction. Now, just where to go…
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Yes, I do have an Apple RAID card installed. That guide is exactly what I needed; didn’t know I’d be using Terminal commands for this one. I now have the new drive added to my RAID set. Thanks!
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One more thing keeping those big sensors out of little Vixia camcorders is that they’re diametrically opposed to the needs of the consumer market.
Pros like us that frequent this website generally understand how to manually focus, swap lenses, use tripods, etc. For a mass-market consumer camera to be usable with a large sensor, it would have to have a monster-sized autofocusing, image stabilized, 15x built-in zoom lens so Grandma can zoom in on the grandkids at the recital like she used to with her 8mm Handycam. Of course, a lens like that would be ridiculously cost-prohibitive for a large-format sensor on a cheap camera, but it’s easy for a tiny sensor.
There’s quite a few cameras doing exactly what you want, but none of them are quite that cheap because they’re made for a narrow prosumer/professional audience. It’s all about economies of scale, and there’s not millions of customers lining up for these. Thousands, but not millions. There are millions lining up for T3i’s since they’re primarily a mass-market SLR which does everything automatically for Granny if she prefers. Video is just an odd bonus for tinkerers.
There is the Sony NEX-VG20, which is pretty close to what you’re asking for in the first place. Just with a boatload of other compromises.
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For what you need, I’d consider a loaded 27″ iMac.
The IPS high-resolution display is wonderful for graphic design, and a similar quality monitor would probably run a grand if you bought it separately. You’ll want the top-tier model because it has the best GPU, and that’s not upgradable later. If you honestly have no hard budget limit, consider maxing out the build-to-order options list with the i7 processor, 2GB of video RAM, and the SSD + hard drive setup (this makes a huge impact on responsiveness and speed of program loading, though it doesn’t improve processor-intensive tasks like rendering as much). You’ll use the SSD as a system/applications drive only and all of your media will be stored on the spinning hard drive.
A year ago I would’ve recommended a Mac Pro for the same needs, but the current iMac really stands ahead. It has Thunderbolt connectivity for fast external storage if you do more video editing in the future. It also has the newest generation of processors with serious performance. Finally, it’s really just a better value; don’t forget your student discount!
One more note; don’t buy your RAM from Apple. Order with the base 4GB, and then purchase from Other World Computing or your retailer of choice. Their 16GB kit is $147.99, while the same amount from Apple adds $600.
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Yep, homemade sound effects are fun and cool to do. Another place you might find something is https://www.freesound.org/. There’s a TON of user-submitted free sound samples and effects that cover just about everything you could think of.
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With pretty much any lens on a large-sensor camera, you’ll have to practice your follow focus skills
Of course, the more you stop down the iris, the wider your field of focus, regardless of which lens you use. Depth of field is more a function of aperture size and focal length than particular lens design. The 50mm prime with the aperture set to f/5.6 will give the same focus characteristics as the 18-55mm zoom set at the 50mm position at f/5.6. That’s if my math and understanding is correct, of course… hopefully that all makes sense.
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Two questions, though it’s probably too late to help: what model of camera? What are you shooting?
Without those answers, it’s hard to give advice. Hope all goes well.
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One thing to remember; your comparison between the RED primes and Fujinon zoom is apples to oranges.
A high-end zoom that would work on RED would be way more than 20 grand… from what I’ve seen, Cooke and Angenieux cinema zooms are just getting started at $40k. So don’t go thinking that the Fujinon is five times better just because it costs five times as much as a totally different category of lenses. Completely different tools for completely different purposes. And for filmmaking, you’d probably want the primes on a RED, while for live production or documentary, you’d probably want the Sony. That’s a gross oversimplification, but it’s a start.
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The Nikon is no doubt an excellent stills camera, but for video, you WANT the T3i. It’s got 720p60, unlike the Nikon, which could be handy for action footage like what you’re wanting to do and even slow-mo. The Nikon also has issues with manual exposure control in video mode that you don’t want to mess with.
As for lenses, I’d get it with the kit lens. Use that for a while, and get a feel for what focal lengths you prefer and how you use it. The kit lens is sharp, just not fast and it’s variable aperture so useless for zooming during a shot.
Also, just go ahead and pick up a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime… they’re too cheap and good not to. Use it when you need low-light performance or narrow depth of field that the kit lens can’t provide. Later, you may consider that EF-S 17-55. That’s probably the best multi-purpose fast zoom that you could put on your camera. If you think you may upgrade to a full-frame camera someday, a 24-70 f/2.8L would be a good similar choice.
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Nnot that this would be the best option, but keep in mind that you can buy a brand-new quad core iMac for $1199.00.
It’ll run circles around your MBP, maybe even benchmarking similarly to the Mac Pro in question. Hardware expandability may be more limited, but it’s got the Thunderbolt port for high-speed storage and video i/o devices… the Mac Pro can’t boast that. You also get a world-class IPS monitor included. A similar external display would start at $200.
If you’re limited to the $1300, consider the base iMac and use the extra $100 to bump up the RAM with a third-party kit or put toward external storage if you don’t already own any already. If the budget is flexible, you can get a whole lot of iMac for the $2499 it takes to get into entry-level Mac Pros. All that being said, I’m editing at work with a Mac Pro 8-core and love it dearly. It should last for years. I’m not going to buy one with my own money though.