Buying Good Video Camera & Lighting ?
 

Ok we've decided that www.TrashyContent.com needs to go HD... so we want to buy a good HD video camera and some good lighting...

Anyone got any advice on what to get ? We're working on a budget of about $5000 for the camera and another $2000 on the lighting... ???

:helpme

Your budget should be the other way around. You can get away with a couple of grand or so for a nice HD camera, but quality lighting will cost you a lot more. I spent nearly $4000 just on the Kino-Flo fluorescent lighting kit that I purchased a couple of years ago which was called the Gaffer Select kit if I recall correctly. It includes two four-foot four bank lighting fixtures, with ballasts, and cables and a gigantic case, plus some extra I had to send on eight four-foot bulbs and two large pro stands to support them. And besides that I also usually film with at least three or four other large lights in conjunction with the Kinos, usually a 1000-watt Lowell Rifa light (softbox) and 500-watt version of the same with color temp. blue gels over the lights to match the daylight color temperature of the Kinos plus a couple of smaller lights like Lowell V Light and Pro lights to light the background and as a hair light. All the lighting gear together with stands and bulbs probably cost on the order of nearly $8,000- $10,000 and I consider it barely enough for quality HD work.