Re: Do I really need a capture card for editing hdv? Help!

You are not cutting yourself short with the LHe. It has outperformed what I have needed so far and that is for shooting HD travel documentaries.

I found a NVIDA FX4500 for a good price and that suits me well, but I think you will do as well with what you have.

The main thing to consider is don't spend all of your funds on the equipment and then limit your ability to travel and shoot. That will eat up money as well. Consider what microphones you will use and are you planning to just record audio on the camera for the time being? Get yourself some good Pelican cases for transporting your equipment since the cheaper stuff just doesn't hold up to abuse. You will need plenty of cards to record video on and they don't come cheap. You will need a good notebook computer with a big hard drive to transfer video to in the field - maybe two if you want to go with better data security. Remember that you won't have tape as backup so all it would take is to lose a notebook computer in transit or have a hard drive failure to have wasted a very expensive trip and priceless video footage.

Get yourself a good tripod with fluid head and don't rely on some no-name brand included in a camera "package". With the shooting you are considering get a quality rain cover that gives you access to your camera controls and . Maybe also look into a waterproof housing for river shots. What lights are you going to use for night shoots? Batteries?? Get yourself a good supply of Anton Bauer's and a decent charger. Oh, and back to microphones, for wildlife shoots you may want to consider a good quality UHF wireless mic system that you can place near a food source or watering hole while you place yourself at a distance with your camera.

Steve