I was recently asked to put together a list for the budding videographer using a DSLR.   I am mostly a photographer but have now shot video with the D90, 7D and T2i.  The more I shoot video the more I realize the importance of the following-

A nice wide aperture lens like Canon’s50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens ~$99  Lets you shoot in lower light and create those great shallow depth of field shots that your friends still using camcorders drool over.

I don’t care how steady you think your hands are, if you want professional looking video it needs to be rock solid and steady . Use either a tripod I recommend  Manfrotto 785 Video Grip Head Tripod $70 or use a steady-cam system like Manfrotto 585-1 ModoSteady 3-in-1 Camera/Camcorder Stabilizer and Support System.

Large cards – Video, especially HD video eats up space quick -
SD – SanDisk 16GB Extreme – SDHC Class 10 You can shoot fine on class 6 cards but the slower cards will be painfully slow to pull the video off of.

Compact Flash – SanDisk16 GB Extreme III CompactFlash Card

External Mic (if your DSLR has an external mic port) Much better audio quality over the built in mic port
Rode VideoMic Directional Video Condenser Microphone w/Mount

And you might want to read up on using all of the above in From Still to Motion: A photographer’s guide to creating video with your DSLR (Voices That Matter)

And feel free to ask for my thoughts on anything else you come across while researching shopping.  I wil be happy to share with you my thoughts and recommendations @camerarec.

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