I'm studying sociology and was thinking of doing a short documentary as part of my graduate work at university. I'm looking for advice for basic/good equipment regarding camera, lighting and sound. I have some experience with cameras (so I'm looking for a decent 3ccd camera). I think an HD camera would kill my CPU, so I was thinking about a lower end prosumer camera. So, can anyone give advice for which equipement would be goood? Stay basic please. Camera, lighting kit, sound kit! I understand the miscallaneous gear part of the equation. Don't have a budget in mind - want to see what I'm up against first. Project will be mainly indoor interviews with stills thrown in during post.

This is my first post.

Thanks,

Joe

Truth is, you can do 'talking heads' stuff with just about any old borrowed DV camcorder on a tripod, daylight from a window and a white reflector - if you already have experience with cameras you could do it. If you want more sophisticated kit then hire/borrow it from the Media Dept. at Uni.
If you're determined to spend money then for around £1200 (with care) you could get a Sony HDR-HC7 palmcorder which does 1080i HDV (and DV if you're PC can't cope). This has all the manual overrides you need for the job - its just a bit fiddly to set up, being so tiny - but the quaility is stunning (or theres the Canon HV20 - same but without the LANC socket for zoom/focus control). Add any old fluid-head tripod, a mike and stand (Rode NT3 or NTG2 rifle), an XLR to mini-jack adaptor from Maplins, headphones and maybe a Pag Light (C6 ?) and you're in business.
Beyond that, you could look at the more expensive Sony Z1/FX1 or V1/FX7 or assorted HDV Canons & JVC camcorders that are easier to control manually, if you know how, but honestly, is anybody going to notice the marginal increase in quality on the presentation ?
And what about edit and effects software - do you want to tart-up the talking heads with some exciting graphics ?