As an aspiring writer/director I’m going to need something to film on and after some research I’m leaning towards the canon60d. I’m new to cameras in general but have done a little bit of research and I’m not sure if I want a prime lens or zoom lens either way please recommend some lenses under $400 thanks.
Also any suggestions for a cheap tripod?..And yes I’ve seen [media=youtube]G9S9jZW3Jxc[/media] video lol.
Prime lenses are generally considered sharper lenses and for under $400 the 85mm F1.8 is a really great lens. But with primes you are going to physically be the zoom on the lens. It will definitely increase your skills at framing but you are going to run into issues where you want to get something into the frame but you can walk backwards anymore.
Zoom lenses rid you of that problem but if you want the same sharpness as that prime then you would definitely have to look into an L series lens but that just broke your $400 budget. Now I’m not saying that you wont get good results with a non L zoom its just a drastic difference.
Also to consider is the F stop of whatever lens you are looking at. Depth of field is so important in film/photography to bring attention to whatever you want within that frame.
Ideally I’d want a set of prime lenses to get the best of both worlds, but for now I’m going to get a refurbed canon60d with the kit lens and then sell the kit lens and pay the difference for this lens.
F stop 2.8 is pretty good and it has vibration compensation.
Since you’re going canon, the Canon 50mm 1.4 is a great place to start. If you wanna spend a lil extra, go for the Sigma 50mm 1.4. I have it and its quality is damn near close to the Canon 50mm 1.2L which is about $1k more. Look into 35mm prime lenses as well. 35mm seems to be a universal focal length for videographers.
Feel free to PM me if you need more help.
As a general rule of thumb I value quality over quantity however, when it comes to film being able to shoot from various distances on the fly rather then a few ranges with clarity is much more important to me at the moment.
Can anyone tell me exactly step by step how to get final cut studio running on my pc (windows 7 64 bit)?
Final Cut is for Mac only. Get Premiere or Vegas if you’re on Windows.
It can work if I run a mac osx emu I would just like to know exactly how to do it.
Why would you run an “OSX emulator” over Windows for a resource intensive application? If you’re really insistent on running Final Cut over Premiere of Vegas, better to do a “Hackintosh” and install OSX on your comp.
There’s no such thing as an “OS X Emu”. You may try to setup a virtual machine running OS X, but it’s not an easy task and there’s no guarantee that will work itself, specially with a CPU/GPU intensive application. If you are planning on editing HD material, forget it.
IF you wanna give a try, go for a whole hackintosh setup. There’s no easier method and it’s more likely to work than using a VM, unless of course you buy the real thing.
It has been a while since I went tri-pod shopping. I will say check customer reviews online for some insight.
Is the 60d the best dslr (for hd video recording)I can get for 1k?
I would suggest avoiding the Hackintosh if you are not super computer savvy and want something stable. It has been a while since I set a hackintosh up, but when I had one working, one update could “brick” your system, and getting new things compatible was a nervous touchy process. It really pain in the ass. Really the $1500 for an iMac will be worth it than to constantly have to reformat and restore your corrupted Hackintosh drive.
While I agree with the choice for an original piece of hardware, hackintoshes work flawlessly with updates for a while now. 
Good to know thanks.
Prime lenses are generally much much faster so you’ll be able to do, relatively, low light shooting and if you’re a serious filmmaker then they’re pretty much the only thing you would/should consider.
For personal preference, if I was to buy a DSLR for video I would go for a Panasonic GH2.
As for editing… if you’re intending to learn Final Cut then you will HAVE to get something that runs OS X native, i.e. a Mac or hackintosh. For Windows land then look at Avid Media Composer. It may not be as “cool” as FCP but it’s what I prefer to use and it’s what films like Avatar are cut on.
FYI… I’m a film/video technician for a film department at a uni
Edit: Just to add… with the 60D you’ve got a crop factor so your 50mm will not be a 50, it’ll be more like an 80! Don’t forget this or you’ll come undone when it comes to thinking a lens is/isn’t what it says it is.