I purchased my A1 about a month ago and am really impressed with this camera. I'm using it to film a few narrative shorts this fall but I still need some more equipment and was hoping for some advice/input.

1. Monitor: I want a monitor (preferably 7 inch) that I can mount onto the top of my A1. I looked at some of the Marshall monitors but not sure which is the best one for practical use. Trying to keep my purchase price under $1000.

2. Lighting Kit: I've used mostly 16mm film before switching to the A1 (and digital). I've heard good things about the Lowel DV Creator 44 Tungsten Kit. Any opinions/suggestions??

3. Mic: I'm looking to purchase both a shotgun mic and some lavalier mics. For the shotgun I'm thinking about the Sanken CS-3 and I'm curious about how it works with direct input to the XLR port in the A1. I have no idea what I'm going to purchase for lavalier mics and open to suggestions.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Will

Lucid Trance Films

Hi Will,

All of these topics have been extensively covered, both in this forum and in our dedicated boards for Lighting, Sound and Monitors. I'll keep this thread open for links to those existing discussions... meanwhile you can locate most of them on your own using our Search function (all of the ones I'm talking about are Canon XH specific). Hope this helps,

Reviews of the mic (and others) at:
http://www.dvfreelancer.com/articles/shotgun_shootout.html#SankenCS-1