D5300/3300 Budget Low Light Setup (Newbie needs help!)

z3r0

New member
Greetings! Need to do some -decent- low light video in a couple months, and after researching middle of the road consumer camcorders I've come to the realization that unless I'm spending $2500+ I'm just as well off buying an entry level DSLR. This is fine with me since my old Rebel (yes, I know...Don't hate me!) needs upgraded anyways! Anyways, I'm trying my damnedest to stay under the $1k mark which I understand is going to limit me a lot) Wish I had more cash for this but I simply don't (I'm getting married and holy crap everything costs so much!).

Anyways, I HAVE done a lot of research online, so at least I'm not coming to ya'll cold but I'm confusing myself and I'd really more or less just like a second fresh pair of eyes...

So my plan was either a D5300 or a D3300 with a Nikkor 50mm AF-S F/1.8G lens. My questions:
For the ~ $200 bucks between the 5300/3300 What am I really gaining other than GPS, a flippy screen and anti-aliasing? Is there anything spectacularly different when it comes to the potential video quality? If there ISN'T enough of a difference to justify upgrading the 3300 to a 5300 for the extra $200, is there a lens in the range from the price of the Nikkor 50mm listed above that I could invest that additional money into to get better results for my desired purpose? (Cliffs, should I spend the $200 extra to get the 5300, or spend $200 more on a slightly better lens...?)

Also, if any of you fine ladies and gentlemen have a BETTER suggestion for low light video than what I've mentioned above, keeping my craptastic budget in mind, please, please do share! Thanks a million!
 

z3r0

New member
Thanks for the reply! I did check out that site... I guess my concern is I'm missing something that is going to make or break me in the low light video dept. To my very novice eye they seem very similar if not identical in their video recording capacity, but again my knowledge is growing quickly, but very limited at the moment! My conclusion from that website is that they're more or less identical in the video department and it's just going to boil down to other features unrelated to my initial query.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Video is video... low-light is a function of the lens... research lenses for video... good video is planned and shot with manual lenses... focus on the recent Rokinon series of lenses for cine...they have de-clicked apertures for smooth non-herky-jerky transitions...
 

aroy

Senior Member
Get the D3300 and either a manual lens or the "D" series 85mm/50mm/35mm, which will be MF on this body. If you want good isolation get the F1.4, other wise F1.8 is good enough. By the way the Nikon D750 Film Makers kit comes with these three F1.8 lenses.
New Nikon D750 filmmaker?s kit announced | Nikon Rumors

I have used the 35mm F1.8DX lens in low light with my D3300 and it is usable till ISO 1600. More than that you need to get an FX body (which will also give you AF with "D" lenses and better image isolation due to shallower DOF.
 
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rocketman122

Senior Member
I plan on getting into the video side of weddings and personally I think the tilt screen is a big advantage.

an entry level dslr will look any times better than a $2500 shoulder cam. Plus you have less flexibility and you need to make sure u use a lot of light when ur shooting in low light situation vs a dslr.

a monopod is a minimal must though for stable video with the dslr.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
I plan on getting into the video side of weddings and personally I think the tilt screen is a big advantage.

Just make sure that the body you get can shoot long videos. My D3300 has a limit of 10 minutes at a time. D5500 can do 20 minutes in 1080 mode and 30 min in lower resolution.

Also check the battery life. Again D3300 has less than an hour of video per charge.
 

rocketman122

Senior Member
Just make sure that the body you get can shoot long videos. My D3300 has a limit of 10 minutes at a time. D5500 can do 20 minutes in 1080 mode and 30 min in lower resolution.

Also check the battery life. Again D3300 has less than an hour of video per charge.

weddings videography with DSLR is in intercuts so its not an issue. were not shooting non stop. its different than the old school shoulder cams. only times you need the extra time is for the ceremony where the D5300 will be on a tripod as a backup cam to the cam ill be using on a tripod. the main cam will either be a used D800 or a D750. and im definitely getting it in red :p

dslr shooting is the same mindset of stills photographers just with short clips. the creativity and look and lighting is the same. many tv shows are shot using dslr's today.

btw, 60P is used just for groom/bride studio session we do. just for short creative shots/closeups. and 30 minutes...well there would be no time we used 30 minutes of shooting in one shot. they shoot 5 minutes here, 10 there and then break. shoot from a different angle and loop the same thing.
 
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Bill16

Senior Member
I'm not into vids at all, but the one thing I know I'd want for video would be the flip screen! Making videos make the flip screen a real big plus in my opinion, it allows you to use different points of view without needing to assume uncomfortable positions! Without a screen that I could at least change the angle on I wouldn't buy it for video, if video meant much to you regularly!
 

SkvLTD

Senior Member
And no one's mentioning any kind of additional lighting yet? I'm no expert on continuous, but some mean and big LED panel would help more than hurt, and that's only the start. This also reminded me of 2 years ago,

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dennybeall

Senior Member
I've shot some video with a D5300 and the tilt screen does make a big difference.
Outside in the daylight you just can't see the screen though and you can only shoot video with the screen, the viewfinder is not active while shooting video. I have a viewfinder that goes over the screen. The time constraints have never been a problem since there are always breaks in the action every couple minutes in what I shoot. Even in shooting an indoor speech I would think you can stop and start easily at natural breaks in the action. Some folks use the WiFi in the camera to send the screen to their smartphone.
 
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