How to setup a home studio within one million rupees #1

                                  Here we are going to setup a basic home video studio within one million rupees. Before going to buy our equipment it’s better to have an idea about most important features of the components. Here I have listed the main equipment with their importance that may be use in a home video studio. 

                     1. Camera

                     2. Microphone

                     3. Player / Recorder

                     4. video editing computer

                     5. Video editing software

                     6. Lights 

                     7. Connecting cabals

                     8. Other

1. Camera    

There is no way to start digital video production without a camera. Therefore camera will be the most important equipment which using in the studio. Before we buy a camera there are several factors to think about. First we have to decide our purpose whether we are going to use it as professional level, semi-professional level or home use. Within one million rupees it’s better to move semi-professional level. Output parameters of the camera may be Composite, S-video, IEEE 1394 or HDMI. Video standards are also important because PAL is the predominant video standard using in Sri Lanka.  In PAL mode 25 frames are transmitted each second and each frame is made up of 625 individual scan lines. So we have to move to the PAL standards rather than choosing NTSC and SECAM.

 Then we have to consider about High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) parameters. Though HD takes up more space on camera hard drive, now it is considered as the new standard of video industry. HD allows more pixel lines per screen and provides much more stunning images. Those are the basic features that we should aware of a camera.

How does the camera perform under low light conditions? It’s good question to ask when we are going to choosing a camera. Nowadays most of the video cameras behave well in low light. Therefore it will be better to concerned about Lux rating of the camera. The amount of light is defined by Lux and equals to one candle at one meters space. These are the some examples of natural light sources expressed in Lux. Cloudy – 100 Lux, Twilight – 10 Lux, Full moon – 0.1 Lux, Complete dark – 0 Lux. Considering above details, a camera with Lower Lux Rating (1 or 2) will perform much better under low light conditions.

The video camera Lens will be the next important part to think about. Basically camera lenses can be broken down into three different categories zoom, wide angle and telephoto. Manufactures measure zoom capabilities of digital cameras under two configurations Digital and Optical. In video industry there’s nothing to do with digital zooming and they highly recommend optical zooming. It has smooth zoom and real color information can be recorded. Zoom measurements are also important and they listed as a number followed by an ‘x’ letter (6x – 20x). Larger number signifies a stronger magnification capability. For our home studio 10x or 12x optical zooming camera may be better within our budget. 

Those are the basic features that we should aware of a camera.I'll continue other components from next post.... Cheers!!