This chapter will focus on identifying the resources that you have right now at your disposal.

This may seem like a fairly obvious place to start, but when you start to dig deeper into all of gear that you already have that you can use to produce a video, you’ll probably be a little surprised. Aside from the obvious – your camcorder, you’ll want to make a list of what you have available.

Here is a quick list of things, some of which you may already own:

1. Video Camcorder
2. VCR
3. DVD Player
4. Television Set
5. Personal Computer with DVD burner
6. Digital Camera
7. Scanner
8. Music CDs / MP3s
9. Synthesizer Keyboard
10. Microphone
11. Headphones
12. Portable Lights
13. Tripod or Stabilizer

Let’s go through these items one by one and look at uses for each.

The Video Camcorder

The video camera or camcorder, of course, becomes one of the main visual and sound capturing devices for the raw material. I should also mention that mobile phones are very popular as well as video capture devices. Moreover, there are other visual devices that can also provide source material for your project such as a still camera, a scanner, or software such as animation or imaging programs. We'll focus, however, on the camcorder in this section.

Your camcorder can also become the source device to transfer captured footage onto a PC editing system or to view directly on a television. Several factors influence the quality of the end product with the camcorder:

• The “format” of the camera
• Lens
• Lens filters
• Image capture system
• Viewfinder
• Specialty features
• Audio
• Accessories

Video Format

I originally wrote this chapter going into detail about the various video formats which lead to a discussion of analog and digital, SD, HDTV, NTSC, PAL, etc. etc. Frankly, there are way too many formats out there – whole engineering text books have been written on the various formats with pros and cons of each and they need to be updated each year because the technology changes so quickly.

If you already have a camcorder, then a discussion about format is irrelevant – you have what you have. You’ll probably want to skip ahead and learn how to get the most out of what you have. If you are looking to get into a new format or system, then please read on. I will do my best to help you understand what you should be looking for and how best to find a product that will fit best with the type of production you are undertaking while maintaining the highest possible quality.

As I said earlier, technology is changing continually and rapidly. All of us have had the sick feeling of spending money on the latest and greatest gadget, only to find an upgrade to it out 3 months later that is cheaper and has more features. Hopefully this doesn’t cause complete paralysis when contemplating the purchase of a camcorder – your kids aren’t getting any younger! With a little forethought, you’ll be able to pick out the right camcorder that will be useful and provide great video for years to come.

Many of the questions that I receive today from friends and relatives are along the lines of recording format. All are looking at digital camcorders – I can think of no reason to purchase an analog camera other than to perhaps transfer old analog material to digital media. But, there are a lot of choices when it comes to digital formats. You might be thinking “Digital is digital right?” Not exactly. Capabilities and the internal technology used to process the video from lens to storage media varies widely between digital cameras. In other words, different digital formats produce different levels of quality.

Even if the camera has the ability to capture a high quality picture through the lens, the image sensor, the recording media and even the internal software, may only be capable of recording a portion of it. Not all digital camcorders are created equal in terms of how they record the image – some use very high compression – meaning they dump out some picture detail in order to get the size of the image small to fit on internal storage. Quality is sacrificed for quantity.

Quality can be measured in several different ways, but for our purposes, we’ll explore two factors: resolution and compression. Resolution, put simply is the amount of detail that can be captured in a picture. Compression relates to the efficiency in which captured images can be stored.

Resolution represents the amount of detail that can be captured in a single picture. Video, is just made up of a series of individual pictures displayed many times a second. Think of resolution as a series of dots that make up the details of each picture - the more dots crammed into the picture, the more detail is revealed, and the higher the resolution. In the digital video world, these dots are referred to as picture elements or pixels. The unit of measure for resolution is stated as “pixels per inch” or PPI.

We can break digital formats for television into two general categories – Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD). The resolution standard of the various types of SD and HD cameras vary but generally SD has a resolution of 720 pixels wide by 480 pixels high here in North America. In Europe, they use a different standard which provides more vertical resolution at 720 X 576. The shape of the video ends up looking like this:

This matches closely to the shape of most non wide-screen TVs. Standard Definition is nearly square, that is its width is almost the same as its height. This is referred to as the Aspect Ratio. In the case of SD, the aspect ratio is roughly 4:3. Something to keep in mind is that the resolution DOES NOT CHANGE with the size of the TV set. Whether your set is 12 inches (measured diagonally) or 42 inches, you have the same number of dots. This is why the picture will sometimes look fuzzy on larger TV sets which have larger gaps in between each dot.

High Definition Television is higher resolution than standard definition. It has two primary standards for resolution: 1280 X 720 and 1920 X 1080. The aspect ratios of these two standards are 16:9 - much wider than they are tall thus they’re considered “widescreen” formats. Lets take a look at how each of the digital formats compares:

I’ve overlaid each of the formats on top of each other to give you an idea of how the resolution of each one compares to the others.

If you are looking to purchase a new camcorder, you’ll want to consider the camera’s resolution as a factor in its ability to deliver a high quality picture with as much detail captured as possible. Generally speaking a high definition format is going to give you higher quality than a standard definition format.

The second quality factor related to format that I’ll discuss here is compression. Compression is basically the reduction of information within or between images in the video to save transmission and storage space. Compression is achieved by processing the captured video and storing it using a specific compression / decompression algorithm called a codec. That is as technical as I’m going to get here I promise.

What you need to know is that the higher the compression the worse the quality becomes. However, high compression allows for more material to be recorded in the camcorder. If, for example, you want to get the smallest digital camcorder possible, you’ll probably end up buying one that uses an internal flash memory drive for storage. Because the storage space is limited compared to larger magnetic tape systems, the camera will most likely use a codec with high compression to allow you to store lots of video.

If you have one of the lower quality formats, don’t despair. After everything that has been said above and in the chapters to come about the quality of the gear, the success of your project is ultimately going to be decided by the content – not the format. A high quality format can never make up for poor production practices or an interesting story - period.

I switched to a MiniDV format a few years back after shooting for a long time on Hi8 and SVHS. It is a very portable format and very high quality. You can get camcorders that shoot on the MiniDV format starting at a few hundred dollars. Digital 8 is very similar to MiniDV in terms of quality. Consumer-grade HDTV cameras are now widely available. The popular HDV format, which shoots high definition on the MiniDV tape format, now provides a nice stepping stone from SD to HD. While it uses the larger resolution of HDTV, it uses high compression to keep video file sizes reasonable.

There are other “tapeless” camera systems available which use solid state memory as a recording media. You will typically spend more for these types of cameras if you want to match the tape systems quality-wise. On the lower end, however, they can be very cost effective and provide an impressive amount of video storage capability if you don’t mind some quality loss. They are also very portable which is a really big deal. You are more likely to carry your camera with you if its size makes it convenient to do so. This is yet another reason why mobile phones are very popular devices to record video.

As things continue to evolve, be prepared to deal with multiple formats! As you go throughout your life you’ll probably switch more than once as technology continues to improve. As you upgrade, consider how you will get you old footage onto the new formats. Tape degrades over time as well as optical disc media. I’ll go into preservation strategies later.

Lens

The lens is one of the more important features on your camera and easily the most overlooked. Vendors spend a lot of time discussing how far you can zoom in but perhaps don’t spend enough time discussing some of the other things to look for in a good lens:

1. Built in or removable – this becomes important depending on what you want to accomplish with your camera. For the home user a built in lens will probably give you all the flexibility you need and may be your only option depending on your budget. A removable lens system may provide you with a lot more flexibility and some consumer grade video cameras are now coming with removable lens systems, but they’re very expensive relative to built-in lens cameras. Moreover the costs of individual lenses can also be quite high. If you’re in the market for a new camera and are thinking about a removable lens system – research the costs of the lenses that you may wish to purchase.

2. Lens quality – here we want to ensure that the lens you do have isn’t creating any kind of distortion of the picture as the light passes through it. A couple of quick checks you can make – Draw a grid on a piece of paper with a ruler using a thick marker and about 1 inch between each grid line. Hang the grid on a wall and aim your camera at it. Mount your camera on a tripod so you can focus on the grid lines without any camera movement. Video tape the grid and then watch the playback. You’re looking for nice straight lines here. If your lens is distorting the picture in any way, you’ll see not so straight lines.

3. Macro function – many cameras have the ability to go into a Macro mode an disable their normal focus function allowing you to get very extreme close ups of things. This is very handy if you like to shoot nature scenes with extreme close ups of plants or insects.

4. Zoom functions – here you’re looking for a nice wide zoom ratio. The zoom ratio is determined by a factor of the widest to the narrowest focal length. While many cameras have a “digital” zoom as well, you’ll want to first look for a camera with a good optical zoom ratio.

Lens filters

Professional videographers rarely shoot without some type of lens filter. To find out if your camera accepts filters, consult your camcorder manual under the “specifications” section. It will tell you how big your lens is, and what types of filters your camera accepts. Filters are generally measured in millimeters and range in size from 37 to 62mm. They screw into the front of the lens and perform many functions.

The most basic filter is a clear UV filter which mainly acts as a lens protector, but can also filter out unwanted light and help to clarify the picture somewhat. Remember, it is much easier to replace a UV filter than buy a new lens. If you don’t have one, and your camera accepts filters, get one right now. In fact, put this book down, go buy a UV filter and then continue on because I guarantee you the next time you shoot, something will happen to your lens and you’ll be glad you have it! It is much easier replacing a lens filter (for about the cost of a nice dinner at Red Robin), then hundreds of dollars to repair the lens of your camera.

Did you get your filter yet? Ok, good, now you may proceed.

The next most popular type of filter is the polarizing filter. This filter acts like a directional screen which only accepts incoming light from certain angles; this type of filter works very well for outdoor shooting. You can rotate the filter on the lens so that you filter out unwanted light from certain angles.

Another type of filter is the softening or diffusion filter which casts a slight blur to what you’re shooting. This type of filter is very effective when shooting close ups to soften the less desirable features of the face like wrinkles or other imperfections. If you don’t have the cash for this type of filter, but want to get a similar effect, you can try using a nylon stocking pulled tightly over the lens. Don’t laugh – it works (and I know you’re going to try it – just make sure you cut the other stocking leg off or you’ll look ridiculous). You can also use a UV filter with a bit of Vaseline smudged on the lens.

There are myriad other filters available that provide different color options – even ones that turn day into night when you want to simulate a night scene. Others simulate the feel of a fiery dusk by coloring half of the filter with a red hue and leaving the other half normal. Colored filters can provide some nice special effects options. A blue filter can simulate night shooting; a red filter to produce a dark room effect.

Spend some time combing video magazines or the Web to find out what other filters are out there. While there is a lot you can do in post production to change the look of the video, you can maintain very high quality in this case by doing it using a filter.

Image Capture System

All video camcorders today use Charged Couple Devices or CCDs to capture the incoming light from the lens to form an image. However, not all camcorders are alike when it comes to the size and number of CCDs. There are three attributes that typically define the image capture system – the number of physical CCDs that the camera contains, the size of each of the CCDs (represented in inches) and the resolution (represented in number of pixels). The larger the CCD, the greater number of pixels, and the greater the resolution.

Most SD camcorders only contain a single CCD. Typically measuring ¼” in size, these cameras can capture around 250,000 pixels of information. In higher end “prosumer” or professional grade SD cameras there are typically 3 CCDs present – one for each of the primary video colors -red, green and blue. Usually measuring 1/3” to ½” inch in size, these CCDs can each capture 680,000 pixels or more providing a much higher resolution and much higher quality image. HD camcorders may also contain a single or multiple CCDs, but these are capable of capturing images at a much higher resolution as explained earlier. Generally speaking a 3CCD camera is going to give you better color and a crisper picture than a single CCD camera.

If you’re in the market for a new camera, a good test is to head to your local electronics store. While the live images they produce are always displayed on monitors near the camera, see if a sales person will show you the recorded image played back from the cameras as a comparison.

Viewfinder

Another easily overlooked feature is the viewfinder. Most new cameras come with a color external LCD viewer which is a handy feature to have, however there are a few things to keep in mind. Sometimes they can be difficult to see in bright light, they tend to drain the battery more quickly when used, and they don’t typically provide enough clarity to do fine tuned focus. If you’re in the market for a new camera, be sure the camera includes a standard viewfinder as well as an external LCD. It is also important the viewfinder come with its own focus adjustment to account for eye relief-called a diopter control. This allows a small lens in the eye piece to bring the picture in the eye piece into sharp focus.

Viewfinders also provide information about the cameras status. There is typically an onscreen display that is superimposed over the view of what the camera sees through the lens and can include:

• A tally light indicating that the camera is recording
• Low battery warning
• Minutes of storage
• Color balance indicator
• Low light; insufficient exposure
• Low-light boost (gain selector switch) circuit in operation
• Indoor/outdoor filter in place
• Zoom lens setting indicating how much further you can zoom in or out
• Auto/manual iris status
• F-stop or exposure setting
• Shutter speed setting
• Audio level meter
• Timecode display
• A zebra pattern for setting maximum video levels
• Superimposed masks for the safe area and the 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios
• The presence of customized camera setup profiles to accommodate specific types of subject matter
• Camera warm-up diagnostics
• Date and Time of day

Specialty Features

Specialty features can include a number of enhancements to the standard video camera. These can include some or all of the following:

1. Audio Input Jack - Many cameras come with an audio port to plug a microphone into. It is important to note the type of jack so that you acquire the right type of Microphone or have some conversion plugs handy.

2. Analog Audio/Video Output Jacks - Nearly all cameras come with Audio and Video Ports that allow you to connect them to a standard NTSC TV set. Most come with the standard Yellow/Red/White RCA-type jacks, however some have a proprietary port and a special adapter cable. It is invaluable to have A/V INPUT as well as OUTPUT. One of the things you may want to do is to transfer footage you have on an older format to the newer format especially if you’re converting from analog to digital. Your camera can do this for you if it has an A/V input.

3. Auto Exposure – this feature can be a blessing and a curse depending on how the scene you are shooting is lit. This feature senses the amount of light coming in through the lens and adjusts the aperture or opening of the lens to automatically deliver the proper exposure. The camera, though, has no idea what the subject of a particular frame is so the auto exposure feature may incorrectly expose for the wrong thing. You may have seen this when shooting an individual in front of a very strong light source like an open window. The auto exposure will typically expose for the light behind the subject leaving the subject as a dark outline. One feature that can help compensate for this is the Backlight feature – see below.

4. Auto Focus - It is readily apparent what this feature does, but it you have to understand exactly what it is doing to fully appreciate when to use and more importantly not use the feature. Remember, your camera has no clue what is being shot – it only sees things as a group of pixels. By comparing the contrast values of adjacent pixels, the camera can determine whether or not the majority of the picture is in sharp focus. However, what the camera determines should be in focus may not agree with what you believe should be in focus. In those cases, you’ll need to switch to manual focus. More detail on this later on. One note on auto-focus functions. If your camera seems to run its battery low too quickly, an overzealous auto focus may be a contributor. As you’re walking around with your lens cap off, the camera is continually adjusting focus Between shots, put your camera into standby mode or flip it to manual focus

5. Backlight - The Backlight function enables the camera to electronically compensate for bright backgrounds behind a subject and to show details that would otherwise be silhouetted. This feature does have its limits in what it is able to do.

6. Date / Time Stamp - This feature is only a benefit if 1) you have actually set the correct time and date before using it and 2) it is only used for the first few seconds of the first shot of your day. You don’t want the date and time cluttering up your shots for the finished product. In digital cameras, the date and time of the recording is automatically “encoded” into the digital video and can be viewed at any time.

7. Digital Image Effects - Many cameras include digital effects which change the attributes of the video as its shot. These include video cropping effects like “Wide screen” mode, color effects like black and white or sepia tones, motion effects like Strobe and Tracer, and others. While these effects can have some pretty cool results, you should always shoot the same scene without them if possible in case you don’t like how they look in the edit session.

8. Digital output – Digital cameras typically come with a digital output port which will allow you to connect them to your PC. The most common port is an IEEE 1394 or “Firewire” port.

9. Edit seek – This function typically manifests itself as a couple of buttons labeled + and -. This handy feature lets you review your footage without needing to put your camera into a playback mode mode. It effectively allows you to move to the last frame of recently shot video before continuing to shoot to ensure you don’t record over your previous shot. When your camera shuts itself off, is powered on with a tape in it or is brought back from standby or sleep mode, the tape position will tend to “walk around” meaning that you won’t be in the exact place you left off from. Whether the camera walks forward or back depends upon many factors. The edit seek function will let you precisely line the tape back up where you wish to start recording from.

10. Image Stabilizer - This feature could also be called an optical stabilizer or Steady Shot. When turned on it will compensate for any shakiness caused by the operator when shooting the camera without a tripod. There are two kinds of Image stabilizers: optical and digital. Most cameras come equipped with the less expensive digital variety. It’s not necessarily important to know how these stabilizers work, the key to note is that video quality can be affected by the use of a digital stabilizer slightly for the worse. If your camera has a stabilizer, you might do some fields test. Shoot the same scene with the stabilizer on and off and compare the quality. Nothing beats a solid tripod, but many times they just aren’t practical depending on the environment.

11. Iris setting - This feature controls how wide the aperture, or lens opening is each time a frame of video is recorded. The wider the aperture setting, the more light enters the lens. You’ve probably seen video before that seems washed out or overly bright. That happened because the iris was opened too wide allowing too much light in and overexposing the scene. Most cameras on the market today have pretty good Auto Exposure control, but sometimes you will want to set the aperture manually. The rule of thumb with the iris setting is to make sure that the subject that you are shooting is properly exposed.

12. Neutral Density Filter – This feature is an electronic means of reducing the amount of light and color hitting the image sensor by a certain factor – almost like putting a gray filter over the lens- in order to allow for more flexibility in aperture and shutter speed in intense light situations.

13. Light or “Hot Shoe” Mount - this can be a standard or proprietary set of grooves on the top of the camera to accommodate a spotlight or an external microphone.

14. Low Light shooting – also referred to as low LUX which is essentially the unit of measure for low light recording. The lower the LUX value, the better the picture will be in low light situations. Some camcorders may also provide a Nigh Shooting mode which provides an infrared emitter mounted on the front of the camera and a shooting mode which is able to record in infrared mode.

15. Removable media storage device – many cameras offer slots for removable media. Camcorders that include a Still Photo feature will often record to removable media rather than to their primary storage media.

16. Shutter Speed - Video is basically the display of up to 60 individual pictures every second or more depending on the features of the camera. Shutter speed controls how long the shutter is open for each of those pictures (exposure time). Typically, video is shot with each opening lasting about 1/60th of a second - pretty fast. This setting can be changed however to go even faster - 1/250th, 1/500th, even 1/1000th of a second. The advantage here is that each image will be sharper with the higher speed. Typically faster shutter speeds are used for high action scenes like sports that have a lot of quick movement. For most scenes however, you’ll probably want to leave the shutter speed settings alone - on their default setting of 1/60th. Faster speeds require more light in a scene.

17. Special effects – some cameras come with an array of special effects, mostly ones that affect the image itself. Black and white, Sepia tone, “strobe” effects, fades in and out are some of the popular effects. My advice – ignore them. Keep your master footage as clean as possible and add these effects in the edit session. Cameras are meant to capture footage – if you put an effect on something, then you’re stuck with that effect forever. Saving it for the edit gives you options. Chances are, when you see your footage with the camera effect on it, you may hate it. If you want to use the special effects in your camera, my advice is to shoot the scene twice if you can – one with the effect, and one clean.

18. Still photo mode – this feature allows for still photos to be captured and either recorded to the primary storage media or to removable media.

19. Tripod Mount - small female thread for connecting the camera to a tripod, monopod or stabilizer.

20. White Balance Control - adjusts the color balance to different lighting conditions so the color looks natural – something that is white in real life, looks white on camera. Sometimes difficult lighting conditions can confuse this control and you have to set the white balance manually (fluorescent lighting is especially difficult on most cameras’ auto white balance feature). To white balance your camera, point the camera at something that is white (a T-shirt, a piece of paper, etc.) and then press the white balance button to let the camera calibrate itself to that color.

21. Zoom - Every camera will have a set of buttons that control the zooming function. Most are labeled “T” and “W.” T is for Telephoto - zooming in, and W is for Wide Angle - Zooming Out. You might also have a manual zoom knob near or attached to the focus ring on the lens. This is probably one of the most overused features in the typical home video (besides the pan). Also referred to as a “push” or “pull,” zooming should mainly be used when composing your shot before you begin taping. From now on as you watch movies on television - take special note of when zooms are actually used.

Audio

All camcorders come with a built in microphone, but not all camcorders are equal when it comes to the quality of the captured audio. While most are great for capturing general audio , they’re not so great if you’re trying to capture sound from someone speaking without getting all of the background noise as well.

You should look for a camera that gives you some options with respect to audio capture. Make sure there is a microphone jack available on the camcorder so you can plug in a microphone – most have a 1/8” microphone port as well as RCA style audio input ports. When plugged in, the onboard microphone of the camera is typically deactivated and the only sound will come through this input. If a microphone jack exists, there will typically be a headphone jack as well, which is very handy when you want to closely monitor the audio that is being recorded. This is where a good set of headphones will help immensely.

The VCR

I’ve debated back and forth mentioning the VCR. The only reason I still own one is to transfer an occasional video from the old SVHS footage that I have in the archives. I haven’t sat down and watched anything on our VCR in years. However, you probably still have one hooked up to your entertainment center and as such may be a resource for you even if it is just to test videos that you send to folks who, heaven forbid, don’t own a DVD player yet.

DVD Player

If you’re creating movies on your PC, you will most likely be authoring DVDs as the final output. You’ll need a DVD player to test your DVDs on and see the final output on a regular TV. Odds are, you already have one of these. Not all DVD players are alike, however. If you have an older model DVD player, you may have trouble playing DVDs that you author on your personal computer or ones sent to you by others. If you’re in the market for a DVD player, look for one that is able to play the DVD±RW which indicates that it can read consumer DVD writable formats.

I will mention here that technology is progressing very fast on the DVD front. Blue-ray Disc appears to be the High definition DVD format of choice now after a lengthy competition with HD-DVD. While the battle was reminicient of the VHS Betamax battle of the 80's, in my opinion, this time, the better format won.

The TV

The most basic use of your TV is to view your video whether you’re “logging” footage after you have shot it, to overseeing the final edit session. You can also use your TV to create some fairly cool special effects which we’ll look at a bit later on.

All TVs are not alike however, especially when it comes to the types of video inputs that are supported. For a TV to be useful for home video production, it must have suitable inputs to act as a video monitor.

Personal Computer

Depending on the type of machine you have and what software you’re running, the PC can be a great help in everything from planning your video on a word processor (“pre-production”), to capturing and editing your video, to creating graphics, animations, special effects, and finally outputting to digital formats such as DVD and streaming Web content.

Today’s PCs are easily fast enough to edit full motion, SD video and many are capable of editing HD video. Many also come with analog capture capability which can capture video from a standard analog camera or VCR. In today’s world of media production a PC is central to the home project.

Whether it’s a Mac or a PC, there are many tools out there to fit almost any budget.

Digital Camera

Sales of digital cameras have far surpassed film camera sales and as of 2006, over 60% of US households now own a digital camera. Video slideshows have become a very popular way to integrate still photos into video projects.

Music CDs / MP3s

If you plan to add music to your project, you’ll need a source of music. If you’re editing on your PC, then a CD-Rom drive can be along with off the shelf software for music capture. Many people today “rip” their music to Mp3 format and listen to it on portable MP3 players. This same audio format can be used in many PC editing software packages to add soundtracks to your home video projects. It goes without saying that music that you don’t own distribution rights to shouldn’t be used in any commercial production.
Synthesizer Keyboard
Those piano lessons may just pay off – especially if you own a synthesizer. Again, look for how audio comes out of the synthesizer. Chances are, you may have RCA-style audio output jacks or you may have more common ¼” jacks. Adapter cables that convert ¼” jacks to RCA style can be found at any Radio shack or you can use an audio mixer. If you have the talent, you can add a custom soundtrack to your project using your synthesizer.

Microphone

Microphones are great for recording only the sound you want on tape. How many times have you watched your home movies, only to have the subject of your video drowned out by background noise – a passing car, wind, or kids playing in the background? You can buy different types of microphones depending on the type of projects you do. I have a lavaliere microphone similar to the ones that news anchors use which is a small microphone that can attach with a clip to a tie or shirt. It is very portable – I keep it in my camera bag and it works great when I want to do a quick interview and want to make sure I capture only the sound of the speaker.

If you’re really a fanatic about capturing great audio, there are many high quality microphone systems that you can buy. Some microphones are “directional” meaning they only record exactly what they’re aimed at – these mics can be placed on long sticks or “booms” so they can held right over the action.

Headphones

Headphone jack – when you’re trying to capture and want to hear what the camera hears, plug a set of headphones that you got with your walkman or mp3 player. Most cameras will come with a 1/8” “stereo mini” headphone output. Remember, cameras typically “hear” things different than your ear does and a set of headphones will give you a very accurate view as to what the camera is picking up.

They’re also handy when you’re editing late at night and don’t want to wake up the house while you’re editing your project.

Portable Lights

I can’t say enough about how important good lighting is to the success of a project. If you can control the lighting, then you should. There is a whole industry that caters to portable lighting for video production. A set of lights is referred to as a light kit. A kit is a set of lights, stands and accessories that come packaged in a rugged case. The contents of the kits vary depending on the need and the situation that you anticipate being in. You can also create your own kit. I found a great article on building a budget Light kit here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/articles/lighting/spears1.php

So, how does your list compare to the one above? You may have found that you have more resources at your disposal than you thought. It is important to take inventory - it will make planning your next project much more effective and even more affordable

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