Pro cameras start in the $2000 range and can go into orbit from there.
"I obviously want a camera that is as cheap as possible, but I would also like a good picture." MiniDV is the way!
Forget DVD camers,,junk. Consumer Hard Drive camers are so-so.
For pro cameras you can get external firewire HardDives, XLR mic connections, if want more than two mics then a mic mixer is needed.
If the laptop has firewire you could do a live capture from the camera. You need a big HardDrive in the laptop.
Here is a link that may help. John
http://www.tsof.edu.au/resources/video/howto/
I've been looking at making an independent film in the near future, but while I can write scripts and build props, I'm a little lost as to the actual shooting part of the film.
As the film is extremely low budget, I obviously want a camera that is as cheap as possible, but I would also like a good picture. The camera would need to be able to support an external microphone (and perhaps several, if this is possible?), and I would also like to be able to record to a hard drive, as I could employ a laptop and a portable hard-drive to store about 300g of footage and save money on DVDs. I'm not sure if it would be possible to record directly to the hard drive or laptop, so perhaps someone who knows better than I could tell me? Presumably there would be no drop in quality using this method rather than recording directly to DVD?
As far as pictures go, as I've said, I'm no expert on this matter. Will the price of the camera really make an astonishing amount of difference to a scene shot from a tripod indoors, in good lighting conditions? What are the most important features to get on a camera?
Any feedback would be appreciated.

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