Originally posted by: TangoJuliet
Update 3/15/09
Well, I was given a surprise 30th birthday party by my wife yesterday and one of the presents was a HF10. I was saving up money to buy the HFS-100 when it comes out next month but hey, I got this one as a gift and now have $700 to spend on other things.
HF10 is a fabulous camera, my local buddy has one and it takes really good footage. As far as your reward points go, that's a tricky one. First, don't get the lens protectors. Canon charges about $60 for them and you can get a UV filter for about $4 anywhere (or a full kit for about $26). Most people only use a UV filter their entire lives (UV filter = lens protector, ABSOLUTELY get this, it's only about $4). Here's the UV filter:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/...V_Protector_Glass.html
If you wanna go nuts, spend $26 and get the full kit, which adds a warming filter (pretty useless since you can do this in editing in like 1 second - literally - in iMovie) and a polarizing filter, which is pretty cool because it cuts through glare (on glass, like a car windshield, and like on water - it's like sunglasses for your camera):
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/...Essentials_Filter.html
The BP-819 battery goes for about $109 online, so that's a pretty good deal, but you can get a better deal on eBay. You can get a knockoff BP-819 from eBay, complete with a car charger and a wall charger, for around $35 shipped.
The Canon telephoto lens also goes for around $109 online, so that'd probably be worth getting just to have something to play with. Since you still have 10,000 points left over, you can either get the filter kit, or just spend $4 to get a UV lens and save those points for later.
My basic Camera Kit recomendation:
1. Camera
2. 37mm UV Filter ($4)
3. Microfiber cleaning cloth (or "lens paper", to clean off the UV filter with)
4. Spare batteries (I like the $35 eBay models because they include wall/car chargers)
5. Memory cards (at least two 8GB Class 6, these are about $17 each; Class 6 = fast cards)
6. Card Reader (they make small USB stick-stick models for SD cards which are very portable, make sure it supports SDHC)
7. Padded camera bag (anything you like, as long as it's soft and padded inside to protect the camera)
8. Some kind of tripod for stabilization (cheap plastic tripod, fluid-head tripod, gorillapod, bean bag tripod, etc.)
The best thing to do is
build a basic, usuable kit to start off with, and then build from there if you so desire. I've found if you don't do this first, it tends to never happen and then using the camera is always a bit of a pain because you don't have the right tools available. Getting a base kit right off the bat ensures that even if you never upgrade anything again, at least you have everything you need to make it work and use it! The camera and UV filter (aka lens protector) are the first two things to pickup, followed by a couple memory cards and a couple batteries (this always gives you something to swap with). A nice padded bag to carry everything in, a portable card reader in case you're not at home, and something to stabilize the camera with. I always recommend the Gorillapod to start out with because it's small and it's flexible, so you can use it either as a mini-tripod or wrap it around a crib, a railing, a fence, etc.
For iLife 09, I would recommend getting VoltaicHD for Mac, a video file converter utility. It's $35 and will convert the AVCHD M2TS files from your memory cards to the format of your choice. AVCHD uses a lot of resources and is hard to edit even on an 8-core machine, so I recommend simply converting the files over to something easier to edit (note - try editing the files directly in iMovie 09, I haven't worked with AVCHD in the new version yet, so see if it's usuable on your computer). Here's the link:
http://www.shedworx.com/voltaichd
That's pretty much it - get your basic camera kit, then get a workflow down for shooting & editing movies. Good lighting is key, so make sure you either shoot outdoors during the day or turn on the lights if you're inside. Cameras are just image sensors at the core, so if there's not enough light, they're not going to give a very good picture. Stabilization is another big key - use a tripod as much as you can. iMovie HD '09 includes a stabilization filter to reduce shaky footage if you need to record by hand, though. For more professional videos, try to avoid zooming (most Hollywood movie shots don't zoom in or out). That's pretty much it to get started!
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