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Equipment Requirements and Recommendations by Department

 

Cinema Studies

No equipment recommendations

 

Dance

No equipment recommendations

 

Drama

No equipment recommendations

 

Dramatic Writing

No equipment recommendations

 

Film & Television

For a full listing of required and recommended purchases, please visit: http://www.tisch.nyu.edu/object/UFTV_purchases.html. 

   

Photography & Imaging

Our digital imaging labs are fully equipped with Mac Pro desktops, color calibrated monitors, high-end scanners and inkjet printers, and are available for use by all Photography & Imaging majors. However, it is always helpful for students to have their own computers to use outside of lab hours and for word processing, messaging and personal work, for which our labs are not equipped. Software and Apple products should be purchased from the NYU Computer Store, which provides a higher discount than online educational discounts.

More advanced equipment should probably be purchased after the student gets a sense of his/her workflow and what his/her needs and interests really are, rather than buying something expensive and useful but personally irrelevant.

Additional memory may be purchased for less at http://www.macsales.com or http://www.crucial.com. External firewire devices and other peripherals may be purchased through http://www.macsales.com or http://www.newegg.com or other dealers.

Computers:

15” laptops are recommended for portability. If buying new, a MacBook Pro is preferable to a MacBook for the added processing power in dealing with large imaging files. Our recommended, discounted laptop package is available at the NYU Computer Store. The computer should include:

  • Airport wireless card
  • At least 300GB internal hard drive
  • OS 10.5+ operating system
  • Superdrive (writes to DVDs)
  • At least 4GB RAM

Helpful but optional additions include:

  • A faster graphics processing card if video editing is of interestd
  • Additional RAM (up to 8GB recommended)

Peripherals

Students should own a portable hard drive for storing and transferring large files. Students with iPods should be warned that iPods are less reliable for transferring data than ordinary hard drives and the department does not provide compatible cables.

Hard drives should:

  • Be at least 250GB
  • Have Firewire 400 and 800 ports
  • Have at least a 1-year warranty
  • Preferably be 7200 rpm

Students interested in working with video should purchase a full-sized external hard drive of at least 500GB at 7200rpm from a reliable manufacturer (G-Technologies, Western Digital, Seagate, OWC, et al.)

Other recommended peripherals include:

  • 3-button mouse
  • slender carrying case

Software

  • Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium (student licensing is available at the NYU Computer Store)
  • Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac  (student licensing available at NYU Computer Store)
  • Symantec virus software (available as a free download from NYU Home)

Please refer to http://photo.tisch.nyu.edu/object/pi_software.html for a list of software available in our digital labs.

Cameras

All students must have a 35mm SLR with manual controls OR a Digital SLR (DSLR) to enter the program, and it is even better to have both.   

If you don’t have either, here are a few recommendations:

Film cameras:

Nikon F100 (about $800, new)

Nikon FM10 (about $320, new)

Canon Elan 7NE (about $250 used)

Canon EOS 3 (about $350 used)

Pentax K1000 (about $220 used)

Digital cameras:

Nikon D90, 12.3 Megapixel,  (about $1,160)

Canon Digital Rebel T2i 18 Megapixel, (about $800)

Canon 50D 15.1 Megapixel, (about $1,430)

Canon 7D (body only) 18 Megapixel + HD video (about $1,700)

For lenses, we recommend fixed focal length models (like a 50mm f/1.8) rather than the wide to telephoto zoom lenses that are typically packaged with cameras.  This is because less expensive zoom lenses are usually slow and of poor quality – even if they’re made by Nikon or Canon. 

Any of the cameras mentioned above are fine, as are many others by these and other manufacturers. The advantage to having a Nikon or Canon camera is that we have a number of lenses that fit these brands, available for students to checkout on a short-term basis. 

Also, for those who already have either a film or digital camera and are looking at getting the other, sticking to the same brand can often save money if the lenses are compatible.

The prices for both the 35mm SLR’s and DSLR’s are from B&H, (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/) a large camera store here in New York City.

 

Recorded Music

For a full listing of required and recommended purchases, please visit: http://clivedavisdept.tisch.nyu.edu/object/remutechrequirements.html