deciding on a camera... but which way to go?

[jeromey]

ok heres my situation. im currently a high school student i have been editing on avid, after effects and sony vegas for close to two years now. well my dilema is im tired of just editing and want the freedom to film my own stuff possibly even movies. i began writing screenplays about a month ago nothing amazing still working on my first one.

problem with filming is im currently using a sony DCR-TRV280 to film school projects anything like that or just to play around with it. the thing with sony i found out the acessories you can buy are all sony made products which means no shotgun mics anything like that i can add to my camera to make it a decent tool to work with. im looking for something within the $1500-$2000 range something that i can at least add stuff to shotgun mic if necessary stuff like that different lenses anything basically im asking what option in that price range has the most flexability and good image quality?

P.S.
HDV wise my computer can handle editing it but i want to submit to film festivals and if they cant play HD-dvd's the film is going to be disqualified.

 

[Glurrk]

Re: deciding on a camera... but which way to go?

HDV wise my computer can handle editing it but i want to submit to film festivals and if they cant play HD-dvd's the film is going to be disqualified.

Currently, any HDV DVD you output is going to be downconverted to Standard Definition- therefore, make the jump to HD if you want.

 

[MarkG]

Agreed: typically you'll either have to send a DVD, Digibeta tape or HDCAM tape, so that's not really an issue. At least if you shoot HDV you'll have an HD master for the future if you need it.