hey everyone. well as some of u probably no, right now i'm just using my parents digital camera that can do clips. but i have started my search for a camcorder. wat i'm looking at now is the lower end of canons optura series, namely the 10 or the 20, culd someone recommend wat they wuld get in my situation (about four to five hundred dollars to spend) doesn't even have to be an optura or even a canon, though i wuld like good manual features. thanks in advance.

I own the Optura 10, got it a year ago for about 450, so I imagine you can get it even cheaper now. I am very pleased with it so far, I've used it on many short films and it works for me. It's no 3 ccd camcorder, but if you use it in daylight, or in a well lit scene, it works great, and even in darker scenes, I can live with the noise it gives me. If you have good editing software that can color correct and all that jazz, then you can make the images off that camera look even nicer. It has ok manual features, just exposure, white balance and focus basically, that's all I really need. Only problem is that it will probably only come with the smallest canon battery which if you're lucky lasts 45 minutes, so you have to buy a bigger battery, which you can get for 60 or 70 bucks, and it will last at least 2 hours more. Also, I had about 400 more dollars to spend at the time, and instead of buying a better camera, I used that money to purchase a decent shotgun mic (azden sgm 1x), an xlr adapter, some mic cable, and to build a cheap steady cam. I'm happy with that decision, because sound is just as important in a film, so I made that tradeoff, and so far I don't regret buying a cheaper cam. It's really what you do with it that matters, and what you particularly need at the time. I hope this helps somewhat.

thanks hoyafilm, i think that's wat i'll get.

hoya, what do you think of the Azden SG mic, and have you had a chance to compare it to a Sennheiser ME66/K6 at all. Im planning on getting the Sennheiser just want to know what else it out there.

I think the azden sg is a great mic so far. I've only used it on one film, and it worked fine, but then again I have never used any other shotguns so I can't compare it. I have used it to record acoustic and electric guitar, and it sounds much better than the junky mic I was using previously. It picks up a pretty good sound, if not just a little bassy in the acoustic, so it might do that to some voices as well, but I had the mic like a foot away from the guitar, so maybe it was just a proximity effect, I don't know for sure. I think its a good mic for the price, but I hear that the sennheiser is really good, basically what the pros use, so if you can afford it, buy it.