Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

savone · Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 111 Location: Philadelphia, PA

I recently sold on of my businesses and will be finding some extra time on my hands. I have been thinking of diving into the footage a bit but had some questions I wanted to through out there.

1) I do not have a big budget to jump in. So far I was looking at the Canon HV30. Any comments on this choice?

2) Can someone point me to the footage submission guidelines? I cant seem to find them in the FAQ. I would like to know how long the clips need to be, format, etc..

3) I have a few hot lights I used for photography, I assume you could also use these for video as well. Is there any other major pieces of equipment I would need to buy? (not including software).

Thanks Guys

varius · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:36 am

1) Good choice.

2) Yeah, that's something we'd like to have summarized in one point, too. ;-) For starters: Submit as Quicktime MOV, codec should be MJPG-A or MJPG-B for interlaced or PhotoJPG for progressive. Clips can be 5 to 60 seconds long, best is between 10-20 secs.

3) Tripod, good fluid based video head.

Good luck. :)

dapoopta · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:47 pm

Nice to see a newcomer :-).

HV30 is a great starting camera, and actually a good camera for a while (you won't have to upgrade right away). I shoot with the hv30 and love it.

There are 2 tools out there for software that are freeware: HDVSplit and StreamClip

HDVsplit is to rip your tapes to computer, streamclip is to encode m2t files that were ripped to encoded .mov files.

The only extra items you will need to buy with the camcorder are tapes (~$3 a pop, don't buy the HD, just go with miniDV and use once= same quality)
Batteries - get an extra batter or 2. I got some on amazon and they work great. I think they were ~$20 for 2 of them. Then I got a charger for those also on the side since the camera charger needs to be plugged into the camera :-P.
If you want a external mic. I haven't got this yet, since onboard sound is good enough for me, since my clips do not rely on the sound to sell them. Better sound might attract more buyers.

That is about it. A sturdy tripod as varius said, fluid head is nice , but not necessary from day 1. If you are doing photo you can prob use one of those. The fluid comes in with pans and tilts.

Good luck!

fa63yyc · Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 812 Location: Calgary, Canada

Savone,

Welcome aboard. You may want to wander through older forum posts, we've put quite a few with reference to "how to improve various skill sets". This is a rather different world than the stock photo side of the house. Yes, it can be more expensive and time consuming, but the rewards are that much more as well. You'll appreciate it when you get your first $13.25 sale. Ten of those a month feels quite nice. Please feel free to ask questions. We'll do our best to help you out.

cheers,
Francois

Rekindle · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:02 pm

Welcome,
Not much else to say other than the Canon HV30 is a great camera to get into video stock with. I've sold lots with my older HV-20. Go for it and stay HD, since it can be down converted to lower quality if need be.

dapoopta · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:28 pm

Side topic to the HD stuff... I know we have discussed the SD vs HD probably to death... but Don, do you find it worth down converting videos and submitting in both formats?

fredgoldstein · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:10 pm

Great start and welcome. I myself bought the sony EX1 because I really beleive in video stock and I better get to work because an $8000 camera is not going to pay for itself.

cheers,

fred