HD Camcorders - recommendation please....
Discussion
I'm looking for possibly the holy grail...but hopefully someone won't laugh too loudly....
I'm looking for a HD camcorder that will enable me to take a video of cars on a track or planes at an airshow and then hopefully extract some half reasonable stills for either 6x4 prints or the internet. I'm not expecting perfection just something that doesn't look awful. I know some of these camcorders have issues with severe motion blur or pixelisation with moving objects.
A good test (not how I plan to use it) would be if set up on a race track corner in reasonable wide angle mode in a fixed position filming the track on a fast shutter speed the cars should not be blurred beyond recognition.
This will hopefully give me a good chance of getting a panning shot a car running through the corner with me tracking it and have a decent picture of the car and still have some kind of definition in the background.
Optical zoom would be useful (5x?) stereo sound would be nice (for those panning/passing shots?) HDMI out would be nice so I can view the Video on my HD Projector (although the projector will take the SD card from the camera if all else fails).
I would like to do this on as small a budget as possible but realise that I might have to extend my budget to get a camera capable of what I want, but I don't have £1000+ to spend on this.
I hope that makes some form of sense and someone might have ideas. I'm looking on the internet but any pointers would be appreciated.
Norman
I'm looking for a HD camcorder that will enable me to take a video of cars on a track or planes at an airshow and then hopefully extract some half reasonable stills for either 6x4 prints or the internet. I'm not expecting perfection just something that doesn't look awful. I know some of these camcorders have issues with severe motion blur or pixelisation with moving objects.
A good test (not how I plan to use it) would be if set up on a race track corner in reasonable wide angle mode in a fixed position filming the track on a fast shutter speed the cars should not be blurred beyond recognition.
This will hopefully give me a good chance of getting a panning shot a car running through the corner with me tracking it and have a decent picture of the car and still have some kind of definition in the background.
Optical zoom would be useful (5x?) stereo sound would be nice (for those panning/passing shots?) HDMI out would be nice so I can view the Video on my HD Projector (although the projector will take the SD card from the camera if all else fails).
I would like to do this on as small a budget as possible but realise that I might have to extend my budget to get a camera capable of what I want, but I don't have £1000+ to spend on this.
I hope that makes some form of sense and someone might have ideas. I'm looking on the internet but any pointers would be appreciated.
Norman
This may sound strange but check out the Canon Ixus 100is camera, mine works better than my JVC camcorder (that was over twice the price) and does 720p HD video, as well as being a 12MP camera (that's actually pretty good) when needed.
The only issue may be the zoom as it's only 3x and that wouldn't be any use for close shots at airshows etc.
The only issue may be the zoom as it's only 3x and that wouldn't be any use for close shots at airshows etc.
Thanks for those The Panasonic does come under the "I'll have to save up for it" category.
Its weird there is little in the £250-£400 bracket. I realise I'm going to strugle to get what I want under £200-£250 and can't really afford £400+ at this time, but am prepared to save up or wait for the price to drop if the right product is out there.
I'm trying to hunt for some sample video footage from the Canon Ixus and can only find reviews of the 80 and 90 not the 100.
Any more recommendations are most welcome.
Its weird there is little in the £250-£400 bracket. I realise I'm going to strugle to get what I want under £200-£250 and can't really afford £400+ at this time, but am prepared to save up or wait for the price to drop if the right product is out there.
I'm trying to hunt for some sample video footage from the Canon Ixus and can only find reviews of the 80 and 90 not the 100.
Any more recommendations are most welcome.
There's a few samples on the internet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16WvneQ0MYE
wedgeinald said:
Thanks for those The Panasonic does come under the "I'll have to save up for it" category.
Its weird there is little in the £250-£400 bracket. I realise I'm going to strugle to get what I want under £200-£250 and can't really afford £400+ at this time, but am prepared to save up or wait for the price to drop if the right product is out there.
I'm trying to hunt for some sample video footage from the Canon Ixus and can only find reviews of the 80 and 90 not the 100.
Any more recommendations are most welcome.
The gadget show did a piece on budget HD camcorders on Monday.... http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/blog/episode-10-bud... don't know if these are too cheap for you...Its weird there is little in the £250-£400 bracket. I realise I'm going to strugle to get what I want under £200-£250 and can't really afford £400+ at this time, but am prepared to save up or wait for the price to drop if the right product is out there.
I'm trying to hunt for some sample video footage from the Canon Ixus and can only find reviews of the 80 and 90 not the 100.
Any more recommendations are most welcome.
esselte said:
The gadget show did a piece on budget HD camcorders on Monday.... http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/blog/episode-10-bud... don't know if these are too cheap for you...
No such thing as too cheap...lolI had looked into some of those models already...shame the video on that page didn't cover the reviews of the camcorders only the laptops.
The quest goes on but the Ixus is looking like a front contender at this point.
wedgeinald said:
Thanks for those The Panasonic does come under the "I'll have to save up for it" category.
Sorry - you didn't have the budget in the first post. However, http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PANASONIC-HDC-SD5-FULL-HD-3C... gives you one for £299 and I'm sure you'll find othersnonuts said:
This may sound strange but check out the Canon Ixus 100is camera, mine works better than my JVC camcorder (that was over twice the price) and does 720p HD video, as well as being a 12MP camera (that's actually pretty good) when needed.
The only issue may be the zoom as it's only 3x and that wouldn't be any use for close shots at airshows etc.
Not strange at all - digicams are getting quite useful for video.The only issue may be the zoom as it's only 3x and that wouldn't be any use for close shots at airshows etc.
I've had a Kodak Z1285 12mp compact with 5x optical - it does 720p video, although sound isn't that good.
I picked up a Toshiba H20, with the idea that is did 1080p video, and would be quite handy.
What a bleedin' mistake! Its convenient for sure, but is useless for stills, zoom is too slow, and the worst part - the low light ability is absolutely dire, and considerably better on the kodak. And the Kodak only cost me £100.
The only real drawback on the Kodak is that it sucks batteries dry in no time.
just found a test video from a Kodak Z1285 and the noise from the zoom motor was awful! Not sure if you found that or not....
Also the auto focus seemed on that video at least to be a little on the slow side?
Was useful as another product to consider thanks for the suggestion.
I think i'll keep looking and mull it over for a while before I do what you did and buy the "wrong" (well wrong for me) product.
Norman
Also the auto focus seemed on that video at least to be a little on the slow side?
Was useful as another product to consider thanks for the suggestion.
I think i'll keep looking and mull it over for a while before I do what you did and buy the "wrong" (well wrong for me) product.
Norman
Well I got my Ixus yesterday and can hosenstly say so far I'm more than happy with the results.
Yet to try any "serious" filming with it but initial tests seem to indicate it will do what I need/want it to, and its small enough to take "everywhere" which a cam-corder wouldn't have been.
Cheers for all the advice.
Norman
Yet to try any "serious" filming with it but initial tests seem to indicate it will do what I need/want it to, and its small enough to take "everywhere" which a cam-corder wouldn't have been.
Cheers for all the advice.
Norman
wedgeinald said:
just found a test video from a Kodak Z1285 and the noise from the zoom motor was awful! Not sure if you found that or not....
Also the auto focus seemed on that video at least to be a little on the slow side?
Was useful as another product to consider thanks for the suggestion.
I think i'll keep looking and mull it over for a while before I do what you did and buy the "wrong" (well wrong for me) product.
Norman
Hehe, I did say that the sound isn't too good.Also the auto focus seemed on that video at least to be a little on the slow side?
Was useful as another product to consider thanks for the suggestion.
I think i'll keep looking and mull it over for a while before I do what you did and buy the "wrong" (well wrong for me) product.
Norman
The zoom is a little slow, auto focus is generally fast enough. But then for the price i can't even begin to complain.
Hi, had a chance to some random tesing of the camera (IXUS 100 IS) over the weekend.
I can say whilst its not 100% perfect (what is?) I'm very impressed with the results.
It struggles where you'd expect it to struggle (low light, fast movement etc) but even when its struggling it produces some quite good (and sometimes arty) results. The rest of the time the results are very good indeed.
The digital zoom is like most digital zooms a bit fuzzy, but for a "compromise" camera especially for its size it performs really well.
My friend has a Blu-Ray Camcorder and we did a bit of a "side by side" comparison and the IXUS performed at least as well and in some cases much better. The only place the Blu-Ray Camcorder performed better was trying to take a picture of a spider in its web with a really awful background, I'm sure if I'd had time to switch to manual focus (in full auto the IXUS wanted to focus on the much better contrasted background) my results would have been better.
Overall a real thumbs up for the IXUS.
Cheers for the advice everyone.
I can say whilst its not 100% perfect (what is?) I'm very impressed with the results.
It struggles where you'd expect it to struggle (low light, fast movement etc) but even when its struggling it produces some quite good (and sometimes arty) results. The rest of the time the results are very good indeed.
The digital zoom is like most digital zooms a bit fuzzy, but for a "compromise" camera especially for its size it performs really well.
My friend has a Blu-Ray Camcorder and we did a bit of a "side by side" comparison and the IXUS performed at least as well and in some cases much better. The only place the Blu-Ray Camcorder performed better was trying to take a picture of a spider in its web with a really awful background, I'm sure if I'd had time to switch to manual focus (in full auto the IXUS wanted to focus on the much better contrasted background) my results would have been better.
Overall a real thumbs up for the IXUS.
Cheers for the advice everyone.
Edited by wedgeinald on Monday 12th October 10:29
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