My Gear

So just because I've listed my gear on this page it doesn't mean it's the best of the best or that you'll even like it. It's meant to merely to show you that I accomplish some high end video production and here's what I'm using. If I've included links, where I can, it's for more info. It is possible that some links may go to stores where you can buy stuff so if you like any of, and purchase using my links, I may make enough money to buy an ice cream for my children...

Video Editing Software (NLE)

• Premiere Pro CS5.5 within the Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 - My main editor is Premiere Pro and I love the integration with Photoshop, After Effects, Encore and Illustrator.
• Avid Media Composer 6 - with a Mojo box. This used to be my main editor and it still rocks... but I hardly ever use it.

I have used Edius, Final Cut, Vegas and many others I have forgotten (including old tape to tape ones like Ace... shudder...)

Computer

• Dell T7400 workstation with 11TB RAID 5 Media Storage and 24GB RAM
• nVidia Quadro FX 4800
• Highpoint RocketRaid 2314
• AJA LHi Capture and HD/SD Conversion card with breakout box.
• Avid keyboard - Premiere CS5.5 allows you to map your Avid keyboard so I still use many of the same keys as I did on the Avid... at least it keeps me current with both platforms

I used to just go and get cheap PC's that would do the trick. I have found that the more horsepower I have the faster I could get certain tasks done.  So I bought a Dell T7400 workstation. It has two Xeon processors and I have upgraded the RAM to 24GB. Plus I added a nVidia card (Quadro FX 4800) to take advantage of Adobe's Mercury Playback Engine. Does that ever rock! It has changed my editing world forever... or at least until something new shakes it down. And the price is right. Especially compared to the price of Avid's hardware (Avid has finally seen the light and allowed third party hardware like AJA or Black Magic Design cards).

Hard Drives

• ProAvio 8 MS - 500 GB SATA 7200 Drives inside x 8
• ProAvio 10 MS - 1 TB SATA 7200 Drives inside x 10

Again, I used to get away with standard internal drives (7200 rpm SATA IDE) but with HD it's almost impossible. So I upgraded and spent the money on faster RAID drives. Definitely worth every penny.

Video Compositing

• After Effects CS5.5, excellent integration within the Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 suite and it is my main compositor
• Boris Continuum - Came with Avid several years ago and I use it from time to time.

3rd Party Video Effects and Plugins

• Magic Bullet Looks 2 - LOVE it.
• Magic Bullet Colorista 2
• Magic Bullet Instant HD 1.2
• Magic Bullet Denoiser
• Magic Bullet Frames
• Magic Bullet Mojo
• Magic Bullet PhotoLoooks
• Genarts Sapphire (currently on a trial of their suite)
• Avid FX - hardly ever use as I hardly even open my Avid
• Boris CC

As a side note, some of these plugins are for Adobe only, some include Avid.

DVD Authoring / Blu-Ray Authoring

• Adobe Encore - I used this prior to ever using their CS product, it's that good and my main tool for disc authoring.
• Avid DVD - came with a bundle I bought once - it worked... never use it.

I've tried some others but they all fell waaaay short.

Music

I used to buy CD's but now with the advent of a cool new product called the Internet getting high quality production music (or even original music) has been transformed.

• Sonicfire Pro and their Smartsound music library - in a word: Amazing
• Big Fish Audio - in a word: Amazing
• Cubase 6 - as a musician I record some of my own compositions for some of my productions. Not only is it fun it also ads a further originality to these productions. Of course I need a lot more time if I'm doing this.

Cameras - Video and DSLR

• Red Scarlet-X. On order.
• Panasonic HPX170 - LOVE the P2. (Any form of digital storage makes life much eaiser in the editsuite)
• Nikon D7000 - DSLR video is so interesting but still young.
• Nikon D60
• Panasonic HDC-SD10 - A little pricey for a home movie camera but it looks and works really well
• I *used to* shoot on a Betacam 400a. This camera, when new, had a price tag around $60k.. without lens... sold it last year for $1k... sad really...

I've shot on so many cameras that it would take me days to write them all down...

DSLR Camera Lenses Nikon

• AI 24mm f/2.8 FX Nikkor Lens (~1981)
• AI-S 50mm f/1.8 FX Nikkor Lens (~1981)
• AF-S 35mm f/1.8G DX Nikkor Lens  
• AF-S 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens
• AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens
• AF-S 55-200mm f/4-5.6 G IF-ED VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens
• AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G IF-ED VR FX Nikkor Zoom Lens

Camera Accessories

• Vinten Vision Blue - great tripod for the money
• Miller 30 Series II Tripod (ya it's old but does the trick - I really like Sachtler as well)
• Ikan VX9 8.9" HD-SDI LCD Monitor with HDMI - I bought this as it also has HDMI input
• Battery Belt - can power lighting or camera
• Cavision Matte Box with 4x4 filters (ND .3, .6, .9, polarizer and 1/8 black mist)
• Zacuto Z-Finder Pro
• Zacuto DSLR Baseplate

Audio Kit

• Azden FMX 42 - A good 4 channel field mixer
• Sennheiser ME66 - K6 shotgun mic - I mic as much as possible with this mic - it's a great sounding shotgun
• Samson UM1 wireless lav (I have two of these)
• Sony ECM 44 hardwire lav
• Sony MDR-V100 headphones - nice looooong cable, decent sounding cans
• Electro-Voice RE50 B - the standard in reporter style interview mics
• Mic stands - both a desktop and full length with a boom, perfect for most situations
• really, really, looooong mic cables - at least 2, you never know when you'll need them but need them you will!

Lighting

• Lowel Omni with barndoors - 500 watts - I have four (4) of these 
• Lowel Rifa 44 softbox - these are great lights for interviews
• Lowel Pro-light, I have three (4) of these for mounting on light stands and one (1) setup for a sungun...
• Lowel V-Light
• Lowel Go-83 cases (2)
• Lowel ViP-86 case
• LED Light 500w equivalent with barn doors - includes a dimmer and 4 on off switches
• Lots of stands, clamps, clothes pins & gels - CTO, ND and CTB are indespensible!
• Matthews C-Stands - indispensable
• FlexFill Multi - white, gold, silver, 1/2 silver, 1/2 gold
• Lastolite Chromakey Background (Green) Collapsable
• Lastolite 5'x6' Plain Collapsible Reversible Background Black/White
• Several chunks of foam core -  great for both bouncing light and flagging off light

Ok, I see what you are thinking... Yes there are other brands and they all work well and I've used them... for some reason I just like the Lowel brand (but the last two cases I received were broken or missing legs so their quality control seems to have dropped off)

Editing Suite

My suite has several things that are probably a requirement for most suites.

• Soundcraft EPM8 Mixer
• Rokit 5 Powered Near Field (spares: Roland Studio Micro Monitors MA-8)
• Samsung SyncMaster BX2440 24" 1920x1080 LED LCD monitors x 2
• Sony DVD player
• Sony Blu-Ray player
• JVC VHS Player (ya never know)
• Sony Betacam SP UVW 1800 Recorder/Player
• Samsung 23" 720p TV
• D-Link DNS-323 NAS x 13 - each with 2x2TB mirrored drives - for long-term storage and backup
• DVD Duplication towers x 2
• Microboards PF-Pro DVD/CD Printer