What are the differences between video cameras used on documentaries and ones used in movies?

Question

How come the ones used in movies have a much better detail...? I am interested in buying a video camera for a documentary and am on a budget.

Would like to buy the best choice.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there is no way you are going to buy a camera used in a movie. This is why. Movies arent shot with video cameras, theyre shot with film, 35mm in fact. Now remember how much it cost to buy a roll of 24 exposure film? Movies shoot 24 frames per second, which means that they use millions of feet of film for an entire movie, equivalent to hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I forgot to mention that an average movie camera costs $100,000.

As for documentaries, some are shot on film as well, but most are shot on video. Even though they are shot on video, the cameras used still cost at the very least $3000 (for an xl2, or a DVX100b). If you have the money, great! go for one of those cams, because they are great cams. However, if not, plan on getting a minidv cam with 3ccds, as many manual functions as possible, optical stabilizer and zoom, and a mic and headphone port, at the very least. The cams that fit these specs are the pv-gs cams by panasonic. A pv-gs300 costs around $700 new, but you could get a gs400 used for that price as well. Cheaper ones start at around $300-400, so go to froogle and do a search for gs250,300, 400 any of these are good. Dont go for the gs500, its still pretty expensive, and the gs400 has more functions. There are other cams as well, but these are the only cams in the consumer range that have 3ccds and good manual functions for a cheap price. If you have slightly more money, you could try going for a used canon gl2 for $1500 off of eBay (i got mine for $1475 plus $30 shipping). I'm into filmmaking as well, so feel free to contact me at [e-mail]. Hope this helps!