Glad you found it helpful! Have fun making your reviews!

Take good care!
Stacee

http://www.ecobranderpromos.com

Glad you liked the Z305 review. It was fun to make. I don’t have any experience with Nikon DSLRs but most if not all HDSLRs will do 1080p. Regarding the focus noise, I’m not sure how Nikon lenses work but on my Canon 7D, the built-in microphone will pick up noise from my lens when the Image Stabilizer is on. It sounds like a little motor so I can’t shoot video with it on. Check to see if that’s the same with the Nikon lens you were using.

If you’re still trying to decide on a camera, there are 2 Canons that are just above your budget range. Check out the Rebel T2i or the Rebel T3i. They have the same HD specs as my 7D only cheaper.

For some reason, I keep buying Canon cameras. I’ve owned about 6 of them all the way back to the original Canon ELPH that used APS film! And now with a Canon DSLR, I can upgrade the body in the future and still keep my lenses. You’ll be able to do the same if you go with Nikon. So your investment in lenses won’t go to waste.

For tripods, I use a professional Sachler tripod at work but it is very expensive. I don’t own it but I would very much like to have one for myself. I’ve seen 2 budget tripods that have good reviews. One is the Ravelli AVTP Professional 75mm Video Camera Tripod with Fluid Drag Head and the other is the Fancier Professional Heavy Duty Video Camcorder Tripod. Both have fluid heads and are under $150. If you ask me, I’d go with the Ravelli AVTP Professional 75mm Video Camera Tripod with Fluid Drag Head. The ball head is much like the Sachler and it’s fast and easy to level the camera with no matter how uneven the surface your camera might be sitting on.

Good luck on your search for a camera package and have fun making videos!

I have to say your review of those speakers was as professionally done as they come, very very impressive indeed.

I need some advice, i am student to my budget is very limited at $600 , yet i want to buy a good dSLR. I’ve shortlisted Nikon D3100, it looks to have the best of both worlds with stills and 1080p recording, one of my friend’s has it so i tested it and the results are great both stills and video.

But one thing i noticed while shooting 1080p with D3100 is that every time i would focus on an object the sound of the lens focusing would get captured and was extremely obvious during playback, is there a work around for that?

I see that both your cameras are Canon, is that down to personal preference?

Also what do you think about the D3100?

And which budget tripod would you recommend for me?

Thanks a lot and keep up the great work

Glad you found the tips helpful. I’ve never done book reviews but there is an interesting review/promotion niche for new books (and probably already released books). Do a Google search for “book trailers”. They’re basically like movie trailers, some are simple photos and text graphics. Others are a lot more involved with actors portraying a section of the books. In any case, they could give you some additional ideas or inspiration for your book reviews.

And definitely you don’t need professional equipment to make professional looking videos. In my projects for televised commercials, yes, I definitely use professional cameras because the equipment is available to me but not for my personal web based videos and DVDs.

Thanks for the great tips. I have been a bit hesitant to shoot videos because I assumed you needed professional equipment and training.

You have very clearly explained how I can do some book reviews of my books.

Blessings,

Judy H. Wright
http://www.judyhwright.com

Thanks for commenting. I saw your comment on Pat’s site about responding to everyone’s list posts. Now back on topic, you’re right, music really sets the tone of the video. It really does wonders for voiceovers that can sound dry all by themselves. I think I left out any mention of music because I was too focused on just tips for when you’re actually shooting and not post production. But yes, music is an integral part of a finished video and there are royalty free music libraries you can buy or a better solution is to buy the music one track at a time. Many times when you buy an entire music library, a big percentage of the music is unusable because there are lots of tracks that sound outdated or just don’t fit the type of videos you make.

Yeah, I learned the “cheap white background” trick way back in my early production days. The studio I used to work at had huge wide rolls of different colored paper that we used for backgrounds. So I took that concept and scaled it down to something I can easily recreate in my home or office. That’s where the paper roll idea came from. I need to see if I can find some bigger posters with a glossy finish because the reflections are nice for some projects.