Thanks for replying

LoL...Yeah thats what Hoogle told me. Are Nikon lenses cheap?

This camera, as far as I know, Has macro mode xD

Last edited by DWStorm (May 8, 2011 (10:30am))

I too, want to save up for this camera. It seems ideal for GCSE animation, and the fact that it shoots video is a real bonus.

Would this be any good? It isn't TOO expensive, it has manual focus, and has some pretty good reviews. I'll probably get that if I save up enough, you may want to try it too, I'm just not entirely sure how good it'll be for stop-mo.

Also, perhaps look around a bit for one. The EOS 550d is nearly £700 in some shops. But my teacher has a Canon EOS 1D. They cost £1000's of pounds! He brought it to climbing club, and I asked him where he got it. He said a friend of his is a photographer for 'The Daily Mail' or something like that. He said they do a deal with canon so they get those cameras for free. So my teacher got it off him cheap (although I still don't know quite how much he paid, he says it was 'more than 50p'). He may have only paid a couple of hundred pounds for it. I may ask him later if his friend has any more they want to get rid of, because when ever canon release a new camera they get it. I mean it can be used for school can't it? So in a nut shell have a look around locally. Someone may have a used one for cheap (although it's kinda unlikely).
Hope I helped.

Marooned Youtube Luminescence

I'm currently working with an (old) Sony Alpha 100. It couldn't take real close-ups which you need with Brickfilming.
But since 2 years I have the same Sigma Macro lens as mentioned by Filmfire96 (only for a Sony...)
It works great, has a pretty good quality and it can take amazing close ups. It is definetely a great lens for such a low price. I really recommend that one.
The only problem I have is that the autofocus (which you obviously don't need with Stop Motion) is a little slow in focussing. But with brickfilming that won't be a problem.
I hope this helped

Indeed it would! Rather a lot of money in my case...

I am now having lightflicker problems. However I don't think it is the lense. Because whenever I stay still without doing ANY animation it has no lightflicker but it is as soon as I start I have this problem. So I'm going to go back to the basics, black shirt, standing in the same spot while animating etc...Seeing if that works

I have a tiny bit of natural light, but everything else is powered by lamps. But like I said before, when I do not touch the set, nothing happens, its when I start animating, the lightflicker flicks up.

make sure you're on manual

you'll have to adjust the shutter speed, aperture, and iso manually.  keep the iso as low as possible, keep the aperture as "high" as possible (even though it'll show a smaller number -- something like f/3.5 should do fine) and play with the shutter speed until it looks right.

Here's a tip to avoiding light flicker caused by you moving: Never stand (or sit) parallel to your set wall. Move yourself over to the left or right of your set.