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What's A Good Pre-RED Practice Camera?

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Scott Murphy

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I'm still about three months away from having all the funding in place for my RED One purchase.

In the meantime, I'd like to get back into shooting (it's been a while since film school). I thought it might be a good idea to get a low-cost hi-def camera to practice shooting and editing with until I get my RED One.

Is there a hi-def camera that would be a good "starter" camera to mess around with before the RED gets here? Ideally I'd like something whose work-flow isn't too different from RED's and that would be relatively cheap. Say, no more than $1,000-$1,500. (I'm trying to save the majority of my cash to put into the RED fund.)

All suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance!
 
ScottInLA said:
I'm still about three months away from having all the funding in place for my RED One purchase.

In the meantime, I'd like to get back into shooting (it's been a while since film school). I thought it might be a good idea to get a low-cost hi-def camera to practice shooting and editing with until I get my RED One.

Is there a hi-def camera that would be a good "starter" camera to mess around with before the RED gets here? Ideally I'd like something whose work-flow isn't too different from RED's and that would be relatively cheap. Say, no more than $1,000-$1,500. (I'm trying to save the majority of my cash to put into the RED fund.)

All suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance!
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Hi Scott,

Have you thought about renting a RED? Seems like there are a lot of cameras out there, probably a bunch just sitting around waiting for pretty much anything to shoot. I bet you can get a good weekend or even week-long rate on a basic package.

-Fran
 
Yeah I can think of nothing in that price range that compares in any way. Perhaps a Nikon D90 just to prepare you for working with 35mm style optics and the tapeless workflow. EOS Mark II would be a better step but those are way more expensive and impossible to find right now. I'd just rent a RED. Lots of them out there now, especially if you're in a big city.

Noah
 
A Nikon D90 would be what I recommend. I'm filming with one now and it's like night and day compared to when I was filming with my Canon HV20. Granted, the workflow is nothing like what it would be for a RED, but the D90 being tapeless is a start. Using 35mm optics has taught me a lot about composition, lenses, lighting choices, and has given me quite a bit of practice on 35mm-level focusing, which is what you would face with a RED One.

No matter what, be sure to invest in a Nikon 50mm 1.2 AIS, it's such an awesome lens and will serve you well from the D90 all the way to an Epic.
 
I'm not sure any video camera or DSLR can prepare you for shooting with the Red. I had plenty of both before I got my Red and really had no clue. The best thing you can do is take a couple high-level RED courses at FXPHD and watch the incredible, on-set, video classes over and over, taking it all in like a sponge.

And buy the "Hollywood Camera Work" DVD series and watch the last 20 "Best Cinematography" Academy Award Winners.

Do that and you'll have spent your prep time much more wisely than shooting a bunch of test footage with an HDV camera.

-shooter
 
Shooting RAW with a DSLR will help with a lot of concepts. If you intend to use Nikon or Canon lenses with RED (or DSMC), then this will get you well on your way. A D90 or 5Dm2 will get you somewhat acquainted with the video aspect, but that probably isn't the course I would recommend if you want to learn shooting motion pictures with RED or RED workflow. From the video point of view, an HVX200 with a decent 35mm adapter is probably more realistic. However, I wouldn't recommend anyone buy such a setup as that at this point.

If you can manually focus and shot good images with a DSLR and you get a good understanding of RAW, you will be ready to start learning on RED. Download RED footage to play with to figure out post workflow concepts. RED RAW is a bit different than typical DSLR RAW too, but the foundation and primary concepts are the same.
 
If you are on a tight budget (like me) you might consider the following:

1. Get a Canon G10 or one of the other compact cameras that shoot RAW. It is much cheaper than a DSLR setup but still puts out a solid image (at lower ISO). You can learn all about RAW and the knowledge will carry over well to RED. Plus you will still have a solid snapshot camera when done.

I know this is not high end. But it is the cheapest strategy I know to start using RAW. I have a G9 and it takes nice images and makes a great backup still camera that you can always have with you. (Good for pre-viz, location scouting, recording a setup etc.). You have some manual control with the G10. It is not 100% but it sounds like you have photo experience already. So, this is a cheap way to get into RAW.

2. Get a used DSLR that has raw ability and put your money into the optics. Assuming Canon or Nikon the optics could still be usable on the RED. And, you will have full control plus be shooting RAW.

3. Get Adobe Lightroom and/or photoshop so you can learn and experiment with RAW processing. Note: there are other RAW processing solutions. Adobe RAW is pretty standard and very usable. The general processing is similar (though not as fine grained) in the REDCODE processing software that RED gives away.

I'm focusing on the RAW because that is the most unique part of RED compared to lower end Video Cameras (I think that is why other people are focusing on that too). If you want to play with the motion part there are tons of video cameras. But, they will all deliver very compressed footage that has already had a look baked in.

Doing that won't be exactly like the RED workflow but it will get you closer to the most unique part which is dealing with the RAW footage.

I would also second the Renting. Looks like you are in LA which means you can rent something pretty cheap. Shoot tons of footage. Then really learn the full RED workflow on that footage.
 
I'm also thinking about getting me a D90 for starters. Yes, it's very tough to get decent motion clips out of it. Avoid fast pans, keep it stable, be super careful about focus and lighting, capture good audio separately and so on... You have to be extra prepared for what you do. And I think that's good for training as opposed to a 1k$ point-and-shoot video camera.
And as a bonus, the stills can be used for practicing on color grading.
I have a Sony SR11 AVCHD right now. Cost about the same as the D90. It's nice for tests, rehearsals, home videos, but there's no way shooting even remotely film-like stuff with it. And the stills mode isn't even worth mentioning.
 
Also, you should also start to work with r3d files, in order to understand how the debayers work and what you need for your workflow. I tended to underestimate the needed computing power. There are some free files available, I also can send you some, as I did already for other users.
PM me if interested.
 
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