People are always asking me what they should get to be able to create great looking video at a reasonable price. Here's the bottom line: With video, you can spend as much or as little as you can afford, but if you don't put some money into lighting, don't even bother!
There are three categories of equipment for you to consider as you set up your home studio:
- Video Camera & Tripod
- Sound
- Lighting
If done right, you can get away with a low end (under $200) camera. Here are my current recommendations for the budget home studio (less than $400). Full disclosure: These links are affiliate links for Amazon.com. There are other options to get these products, but if you use these, I'll get a few bucks ;)
Video Camera & Tripod
Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera
This is a great camera for the price!! It's HD, has some digital stabilization features that help with the shaky hand, and most importantly: It has a mic input!!!!
Kingston 16 GB SDHC Card
You're going to need an SD card for the camera above.. this one is inexpensive, and high capacity (about 2 hrs on the card)
Joby GP1-D1EN Gorillapod Flexible Tripod
This is a fantastic mini-tripod that can be used with the Zi8. Using a tripod will allow you to have steady video, which is a big plus. (If you would rather have a full size tripod, any one will do)
Audio
Audio Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Microphone
This is a small inexpensive mic is a big improvement over the built in mic on any camera (including the Zi8). One of the nice things about this one is that it has a 20 foot cable, making your home studio setup nice and easy.
Lighting
Lighting is probably the most important part of your video setup. With good light, you can get away with using a bad camera. Without light, even a super expensive camera won't do you any good. What I recommend for the budget buyer is to go out to your local home depot and pick up a couple construction lights on stands. They'll cost you less than $50 per light, and give you a good amount of light for your setup. One thing to keep an eye on, make sure you can remove the cage that protects the light, otherwise you might wind up with some weird shadows on your face :).
Hope this helps!
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