Choosing the Right Camera Help

[NaturePhotos]

Greetings. I'm new on the forum here.

I am a college art student that needs a camera to do mulitple things. I am currently in the process of creating a series of clay-animated, stop-motion movies. I am also in the process of taking pictures of my works for my portfolio. I need a camera that has good picture quality with a decent shutter speed. I'm not camera "savvy," so any help is appreciated. Also, if someone could help me in understanding camera specs, that would help. I know Nikon, Sony, and Canon have great reputations, so I think I'm geared towards those (unless there is something better I need to look into!).

As I said, any help is appreciated. I need to know as soon as possible so that I can get started on my projects.

Thank you!!

[homank76]

What kind of budget are you looking at? Will you be shooting in RAW or JPEG, this will take a play in post processing.

What kind of specs are you referrering to? The best advice I have is actually go to a camera store and play with them, you may love how one feels over the other. Just about every DLSR shoots video these days, so you don't have to worry about that feature.

[inkista]

Actually, with stop-motion animation, the video function is completely irrelevant. The animator uses still images at much higher than HD resolution, and then assembles them into a video in post. IIRC, the Corpse Bride crew were using 1D Mark IIs back in the day. (You should see the photo Peter Lord of Aardman tweeted with the cameras used on Pirates).

My recommendation would be go as cheap as possible, and get used bodies that are pre-HD video. Maybe even as far back as the Canon XT or Nikon D40. Because when you do stop-motion animation, you are going to be abusing that camera in ways it wasn't designed to withstand. Chances are good the body won't last you for more than a year or two without requiring major repair, given the amount of wear and tear you're going to put on the shutterbox assembly.

A shutter box on your average dSLR is rated at (roughly) 100,000 clicks; like mileage on a car.

You're going to be doing 24 or 30 frames per second of film. For a five minute short, that's around 7000 to 9000 clicks right there, and only if you don't reshoot anything and everything you shoot ends up in the flick. Do a dozen of those shorts, and you're past the lifespan of the shutter box.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by inkista

(You should see the photo Peter Lord of Aardman tweeted with the cameras used on Pirates).

I... uh...

It's... full of stars. Or some such.

also: ZOMG GROMIT!

[inkista]

Yup. Pretty much my reaction to that photo. I haven't freaked like that over gear shots since LaForet posted images of everything he packs for the Olympics.

[OsmosisStudios]

I like to call this the "Im better than you will ever be" bag

[dalmorloson]

Originally Posted by inkista

Yup. Pretty much my reaction to that photo. I haven't freaked like that over gear shots since LaForet posted images of everything he packs for the Olympics.

That's just wrong on so many levels!

[inkista]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

I like to call this the "Im better than you will ever be" bag

For me, it's this one where you can clearly see he's packing all three of the then-extant Canon tilt-shifts: the 24, the 45, and the 90 (i.e, this was before the 17 came out). Because only La Foret would be doing that.