Here's a few pointers to think about.
Tape will store more info than disc or chip at the moment. Recording direct to the hard drive is not an option unless you want another lead coming off your camera.
The part of a camera behind the lens can be worth $10,000 but if you shoot through a $100 lens you have a $100 scene. Very often the techies spend a fortune on developing things for an extra effect and ignore the most important thing, the lens.
The better the camera the better the lighting should be. You can ruin everything by not having good lighting and each set up should be different for each setting and models. Great lighting with an average camera will out perform a great camera with average lighting.
Get off camera mikes, two is good. So the illusion is not spoiled every time your touch the camera and leave a click or the sound of you breathing. Position one over the models to capture the over all sound and one rifle mike aimed at her pussy to capture the squelching. ;)
Consider if the style and niche of the scene requires top end cameras, plus your skills as a cameraman, lighting, sound and director warrant top end equipment. Mine don't. Because all good equipment does is show everything more clearly, every good point, great moment, beautiful model is shown in better detail,l resulting in harder cocks.
And every mistake, zit, rash, boil, bruise, poor make up, plain model, poor porn, badly directed scene, models who does not give a shit will also be shown clearly and result in floppy dicks.
If only producing porn was as easy as spending money on a camera and learning how to light and audio.
