Essential Tools To Make Movies With Your DSLR

So you've bought a digital SLR camera with an eye to making moving pictures with it. Congratulations! But the basic box can't do everything. Here's what you need to get cracking on making movies ... for about $1000. The basic philosophy here is to make up for the camera's non-video shortcomings as cheaply as possible, so you can have as much left over for lenses, which is where all the technical fun and creativity is for me (and probably for you).

COMPUTER, SOFTWARE and CAMERA

This guide cheats from the outset by not including the price of a camera, computer and editing system; you likely already have a Mac and iMovie is free of charge. With Apple's Final Cut Pro soon dropping in price to $300, there's no excuse on the software front even if you do want top results out the gate. Equivalents exist for Windows and Linux, but I haven't tried them. There's always the option of a free trial of Adobe Creative Suite.

If you haven't picked a camera yet, start out with an entry-level HD DSLR camera to leave as much money left over for lenses. Popular options include Canon's T2i/T3i and Nikon's D60 and D3100. The T2i is the least expensive; don't be tempted by the older T1i and its lower-res video.

LIGHTWEIGHT SHOTGUN MIC ($50 to $150)

Get a lightweight shotgun mic. A popular choice is the Rode VideoMic, but almost anything is going to be a radical improvement on the camera's built-in one. You can shave off even more by going for a Audio Technica ATR-6550 .

AUDIO RECORDER ($75-$300)

You can plug your mic directly into your camera, but having even a basic external lets you get the mic closer to whatever you're shooting and generally out of your face. Often recommended are the Zoom H4n and Tascam DR100, both $300, because they're pocketable but have convenient prosumer features like XLR inputs. But you may as well just go with something even smaller, cheaper and easier to duct tape to a boom, like Tascam's DR-3 or the Zoom H1.

LOUPE OR MONITOR ($75-200)

I found it distractingly hard to maintain focus using the camera's tiny LCD display while on my feet. Because of how DSLR cameras are constructed, you can't use the normal viewfinder while shooting video. So if you're going to be moving a lot while focusing, an external monitor makes life easier.

For free, you can hook up a laptop to the camera via USB and use a remote-viewing application such as Canon's EOS Utility. If you find this too clunky, however, a strap-on loupe like the LCDVF makes the camera-back LCD display far more useful. This means you'll have to keep your eye planted on the camera, though.

I prefer the Lilliput 7" 668gl, a 7" external LCD panel which connects to cameras via HDMI and runs from batteries. That model seems to be a little old now, however, so a newer one might offer a better deal.

TRIPOD ($10 at a thrift store!)

Frequently recommended for DSLR video are fluid head models from Manfrotto -- this $100 one from Ravelli is well-reviewed too -- but I found a very nice tripod at a thrift store for a few bucks. Old tripods' bulk and weight are a bonus, lendubg a stabilizing effect to lightweight DSLRs; much better than cheap junk from big box stores.

FAST PRIME LENSES (The rest)

If you've been pinching your pennies and scouring eBay or Amazon deals, you might have got here with more than $700 of your budget left. You will spend all of this on fast prime lenses. This will buy you a wide-angle, normal and telephoto set of three with some change left over for filters and bags.

I got a Canon EF 28mm f/2.8 from eBay for $200, a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 (Nikon also has a "Nifty Fifty") on Craigslist for $100, and Rokinon's 85mm f/1.4 on Amazon for $270.

Bear in mind the image cropping caused by sensors in DSLR cameras, which effectively zooms in these lenses by 1.5x or 1.6x; given the cost of wide angle primes, you might want to pick up that cheap 18-55mm kit lens after all, even if it doesn't shoot as well in low light.

I HAVE CASH LEFT OVER

Get a decent bag to throw it all. A hotshoe LED lamp such as the Bescor LED-70 is a $75 entry point for video-friendly lighting, but you may be better served just making some reflectors out of foil and cardboard.

Also consider a stabilizer--think Steadicam--which makes it much easier to get smooth motion, especially with ultralight DSLR cameras that shake if you so much as breathe on them. Alas, it's evidently hard to get results out of cheap ones such as Manfrotto's $80 585-1 ModoSteady or no-budget handmade affairs. So be prepared to leave that $1000 budget way behind with the Hague DSLR MMC ($300) or Glidecam 1000 ($350). The Tiffen Steadicam Merlin clearly gets good results even from beginners, but it's $800!

Finally, quality lighting equipment is bulky, heavy and expensive, which creates an even greater barrier to entry for beginners. Check out this intro from Adobe on the basics.

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