Camcorder....yes but which one

[Testiflette]

Hi guys,

Christmas is coming (starting to be chilly out there). This year I have a long list to send to Santa (he he sacre Papa Noel), but besides the two circus I sooooo want (You're right Tahia those two jazz are far too small) I was thinking of offering myself (I am not sure about Santa anymore) a camcorder and start making some videos. What do you reckon about it. Do I need to eat pastas for the next year or so and splash out all my hard earned cash in something very fancifull or do more affordable stuff do well.  Any suggestion is welcome. Sorry if this subject has been treated alraedy (I haven't found anything in the equipment thread).

PS: I intend to do poi and staff video too so if anyone does know about something "diabolists only" don't please feel free to share your expertise.

Thanks

[JGherkin]

If your plans for your vids are just to chuck em online then you may as well just go for a budget cam like me, the only difference I find the expensive ones will make in this area is you'll be able to include some fancy optical zooming.

Of course if you're wanting high quality picture you can copy to DVD and create a vast array of top quality movies with it then feel free to flash your cash to a top notch camera store.

My thoughts.

[tomangleberger]

Yes, I say go cheap, too.
I just paid $80 for this little gizmo that makes AVI movies. It's a DXG 202V purchased at Target. Then I got a $30 memory card.
 It's awesome. And makes perfectly good little movies.

[Testiflette]

Cheers guys.

Much appreciated

[Roysta]

How are camcorders for frame rate?  I've tried taking videos with pocket digicams that record 15 frames / second, and they're so jerky that you can barely tell what's going on.

I just got a camera that does 30 frames / second, which is much better.  A friend has one that will do 60 frames / second (but only 30 seconds at a time) which is awesome for slow-mo.

Sometimes it's useful to record yourself trying a trick and then review it to see what went wrong.

What framerate to camcorders typically support?

[Matt_]

depends on where you live, and whether you get one that does interlaced or progressive capture.

you (we) live in the US, so that's 29.97 FPS...basically, 60 interlaced FPS. once you deinterlace them so you can watch it smoothly, it's 30 fps. unless you're going to spend a bunch of money, your videocamera is going to be interlaced.

[Eric Moffett]

I know this topic is old but I don't want to clutter...

I was thinking about just shooting the sun and getting a Canon HV20... but I'm not sure I need that much power.

[Chiok]

Filming the sun is generally a bad idea as it will mess up your white-balancing sensor and break the camera unless you use a whole set of filters or film the sun indirectly.  In which case any camera will be fine, prices are falling so you can get yourself a real bargain from Amazon or somewhere.

Chiok

[martijn]

While we're on it... I recently purchased a Sony HDR-SR7, and boy what a sweet puppy!

[Eric Moffett]

whoops, my bad, I meant shooting for the sun, as in the best I could buy really I feel noob anyways would an entry level camera do fine or should I invest in a better one

[Eric Moffett]

Well, I just purchased a Canon HV20 HD Mini-DV Camcorder! It should be here Tuesday, or Wednesday... the two features I thought were the best was the 24p and Cinema modes, imagine a HD Diabolo Video that looks like it was shot for the big screen (obviously consumer camcorders can only go so far)!

[Beni]

SOrry for resurrecting this thread, but...

Is HD worth getting? Most of the recorders I've been considering are 640x480 — is this resolution good for a quality full screen video?

Beni

[nev]

SOrry for resurrecting this thread, but...

Is HD worth getting? Most of the recorders I've been considering are 640x480 — is this resolution good for a quality full screen video?

Beni

640x480 is only VGA resolution - this is what most half decent still digital cameras will put out on video.  Virtually all digital (mini DV or DVD) camcorders will be capable of recording 720X480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL (standard DVD resolution). HD camcorders are a higher resolution. 

For an internet video, you'll probably be compressing down the file size anyway so 640x480 would be more than fine as long as its 25-30fps in its original form.

[Marijn]

I need some advice so I hope you guys can provide me some!

Last holiday I worked quite a lot so I can spend some/a lot of money I saw that Media Markt is selling this camera for €279. I'm an absolute camcorder-novice but the me it seems like an o.k. HDD-camera for a good price. (I am not looking for a top-notch camcorder, just a cheap easy to use one).

Help me out! Is this a decent camera (price-quality wise)?

 

[Toby]

That looks like a more than ample camera for they job. I dont understand all the stats cos its in dutch but i would say it would be perfectly addiquate for what you want it for.

[martijn]

Last year, I bought the Sony HDR-SR7 (which was then about 1200 euros, now it dropped to a little above 900) and I love it. A year later, their HDR-SR line has changed a bit. Now you can choose from SR10, SR11 or SR12, where the old models are SR5, SR7, SR8 and the SR1. I'm not sure what your budget is. If you don't have a lot to spend, I'd say get the cheapest one.The differences between models are not always worth their money. Have a look around for the price ranges and on www.sony.nl

Anyway, the HDR-SR7 records on an internal hard disk, which is awesome, because you don't need to mess around with tapes (I have had too many problems with broken tapes and unusable footage - it drives you insane). This also brings a new problem though - raw footage is huge. So the camera stores the footage compressed. That might be a disadvantage, because you don't get full quality, but it's done so well, that you probably won't see the difference. I quite like it, because it saves a lot of space on my computer and you can record for a few hours straight (depending on the size of the harddisk and the video quality you set it to).

You can record in both SD (Standard Definition) and HD. It stores SD in a highly compressed mpeg-2 format, which makes the filesize really tiny, yet with great quality. Most editing software are designed to work with raw avi files, so depending on the software you use, editing might be a bit less smooth. If you're using Sony Vegas or Final Cut Pro it shouldn't be a problem I reckon. I still work in Sony Vegas and I'm not experiencing any big problems. Sometimes it drops frames in the preview window while editing, but you're not going to see when you export your project.

It stores HD video in AVCHD. Keep in mind that your computer needs a lot of power to edit HD video in realtime.

Another feature is that it uses the new CMOS chip instead of the traditional 3 CCD chips. Have a google on it, I'm not sure if either is 'better' - it should be pretty similar. EDIT - just saw that the JVC camera you spoke about only has one CCD chip. Definitely go for a camera that uses either 3CCD chips or a CMOS sensor.

In short, this camera is not your average semi-pro camera, because it uses quite some new technology, but if it meets your demands and you don't mind switching software (if necessary), I'd say get one. I also prefer Sony over JVC, mainly because of the beautiful, bright colors Sony cameras captures.

I hope that made sense If it didn't, blame my hangover. Good luck with your choice. It's a great investment, so maybe go for the extra mile and have a few extra years of fun with your new camera!

[nev]

Can't really go wrong with a Sony

[Eric Moffett]

I would go for Canon since they're releasing 2nd generation of their cameras from this year in october so the prices of their 1st generations will go down even more. So I can get an HD solid state camera for probably $600 by the end of the year

[Marijn]

Thanks a lot for the (huge pile of) info!

I will have a look for a ''cheap'' HDD-cam and pay attention to the CCD/CMOS-chip/sensor stuff. I won't go for High Definition etc. (yet) since it will be my first camcorder. It's only for fooling around a little (holidays, trips, a little diabolo perhaps, the usual stuff) so I don't need a super slick HD cam. Now I know I'll have to pay attention to sensor/chip-stuff so that's great since I hadn't really found that info using google (couldn't really find a good ''3rd-party'' site at all, with some pointers on buying a camcorder).

Will also keep Sony and Canon in mind, good to know that those are thrust-worthy brands.

O, and thanks for the file-size/type info. I'd already seen that mpeg-2 was used with most HDD-cams but I didn't really know what filetypes etc. are most commonly used/easy-to-use. I also haven't used ''real'' editing software before so that isn't something I have any experience with either But I guess is better to choose a cam and then see what software might be good than the other way around.

Thanks again!

EDIT- Are people really using Final Cut Pro/Vegas Pro? Or is this a matter of buying it versus ''buying'' it? (If you know what I mean...)

EDIT2- How important is this CMOS(/3CCD) stuff? Is is significant(ly?) better than 1 CCD? Had a look on google and CMOS(/3CCD)-cams seem to start at ~€650. I was actually thinking about €400 max

[mike.]

the files i upload from my HD camcorder are so crisp, but thats not worth it. a lot of the websites i would like to put my files on are really not compatable with the file types...its all very confusing so i would say to stick to a regular old camcorder