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Thank you for your input. I will serious
reconsider all options. However, my choice is mainly based on the idea
that I want to begin with vlogging and then move up to more professional formats
that might make it onto cable TV and into film festivals.
I am neither poor nor rich. I've worked for
29 years doing what I didn't really want to do to enable myself the luxury of
doing what I want to do without putting my soul up for sale. I just want to be
able to access the "tools" I'll need and to be able to produce small files for
vlogging (if necessary) and HD footage for theatrical release. That seems
like trying to stand with one foot on one side of the ocean and other on the
other side of the ocean.
I don't know if you saw my long answer to Jen
posted earlier. I am greatly reducing my initial investment and, I
believe, proceeding cautiously.
When you say I should "spend it on all kinds of
other things", could you suggest what they might be? The revised system
I'm considering now reduces the original price tag dramatically.
Your observation that getting a new system in two
years for $3000 will probably kick ass of anything I could buy today for $7500
is well taken.I bought an $800 Sony digital still camera which was stolen about
two years later. The replacement had the same power and only cost about
$250.
Such price considerations strike me as especially
relevant to the screens. Apple has the best but they seem hugely
overpriced.
Cameras present a really difficult choice.
I've been working with a Sony mini-dv HC42 one chip camera. The quality of
the visual video is great. However, you have limited options for improving
sound--a $69 zoom mike or a $150 Surround sound mike. Neither is a
wireless mike like the one I have for my Hi8 Camera.
I really don't like walking around with a huge
intimidating camera. Because I have a small camera, I have gotten some
amazing, relaxed, let-it-all-hang-out interviews which would not have been
possible with a big 3-chip camera. In fact, I am so intrigued by the
possibilities of getting "real stuff" with even smaller cameras, I want to
explore them as well. They would be used for vlogging only--small files,
easier uploads, etc.
Actually, I might say that my experience with
computers exemplifies an all-to-common mistake. It took me four or five
years to finally "get" my first computer. That was because whatever you
read about the newest computer, there would be a comment that in six months
there would be a computer twice as strong for half the price. (That's a little
bit similar to your observations.)
Looking back, I realize the advice a neighbor gave
me years before I got my first computer was really the advice I should have
taken. He said: "It doesn't matter what computer you get. Just get
one and get started and involved." He was so right.
That is why I have decided on getting the (perhaps
overly lavish) system I'm going to order. It's not going to destroy me
financially but it is a package that seems to let me jump and then grow a
bit.
I gather a lot of decisions like the one I am
making are subjective. I really didn't plan on starting with just
iMovie. The "genius" (? don't you think Apple is being a bit egocentric
here even using such terms) said it took him "one year to master iMove' but that
a friend of his mastered it in 30 minutes. Such descriptions bring the
entire "genius" concept into question. Judging by that
description his friend may be a genius but my assigned
"genius" would seem to be a retard (by video standards--but he said 'video'
wasn't something he understood well').
Finally, I want to say that reading the postings in
this group has been like going to a vlogging school. I've started vlogging
files with all sorts of categories--technical, financial, promotion, personal,
etc. These files will hopefully be like an e-book for me as I get further
involved.
I've saved the freevlog tutorials. However,
my EOVideo conversion system doesn't seem to be able to turn them into MPEG
files. I'm resorting to filming them with my Hi-8 camera and then burning
them onto a DVD so I can literally go frame by frame and learn the
process.
Thank you for your advice. I've purposely
delayed making any decision so I can rethink everything.
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