It's very surreal to waltz through my local big-box store and think "Wow, I could make a real movie with that Canon." It was even more surreal to see some of that same gear in the Black Friday ads. As we've seen with the "DSLR Revolution," the democratization of filmmaking comes from amazing imaging devices becoming accessible (cheap) to the masses. Well, this year the revolution continued, as they say, as there were a lot of filmmaker-relevant deals going on for Black Friday. But what about a roundup of (still ongoing) Cyber Monday deals? Griffin Hammond of Indy Mogul provides a nice video of his "MEGA DEALS" after the bump:
I have to agree with Griffin's perspective on all the Canon camera packages. Basically, Canon's doing their "Hey, it's the holiday season throw in some kit lenses!" deal they've done in the past. The Canon 7D, the Canon T4i, and the Canon T3i deals are all solid. I found the T3i a bit cheaper on Amazon, though. I'm also with him on the Marshall Monitor. I've had good experiences with Marshall, and the price is pretty great. That deal ends November 30th, though if you're in the market for a monitor, SmallHD's new offerings look pretty appealing as well, but they're a bit pricier. Griffin also mentions the RØDE/PluralEyes 3 deal I covered previously. (So that's a blogger and a vlogger mentioning a good deal... why aren't you getting it already?!)
At 1:51 Griffin recommends the the older Canon T3i over the T4i. He suggests saving that extra money toward a new lens, and I have to agree. Sure, you'll have the range of 18-55mm with the kit lens, but you should get at least one fast prime, even the ultra-affordable Canon f/1.8 50mm if you have to. Both are stellar cameras with similar features, but if you're going to be using them for motion picture purposes, the benefits of the T4i really don't outweigh the better price of the T3i in my opinion (and if you're interested, take a gander at the specs comparison from Snapsort). Of course, maybe I'm just a cheap skate...because hell, I'd even opt for the T2i just for the 1080p24 video.
I will say that I don't recommend some of the other offerings Griffin lists, like the Transcend SD card or the Coby handycam. I am more of a GoPro kind of guy, but I've seen quality results out of the Contour (and that is a bargain price). Even if I don't purchase any of the items he lists, Griffin's video introduced me to the price-comparison web app InvisibleHand, which I am now interested in trying. Again, most of these deals are ongoing past Cyber Monday, which isn't surprising.
Has anyone seen any other awesome ongoing Cyber Monday deals for filmmakers out there we should know about? Please comment below!
Link: Best Cyber Monday Deals for Filmmakers! : Indy News November 26, 2012
