Digi Camcorder
Discussion
Depends on what you want it for.
If you have an existing Hi-8 camera, then one of the Digital-8 camers might be best for you, as it will be able to play your old tapes.
Mini-DV format cameras seem to be the most popular these days as they're small and light but still have reasonable recording time on the tapes. Personally, I can't see the point in Micro-DV cameras, as the tapes are too short, but at least they're tiny!
Get hold of a camcorder guide magazine and have a look at what features are available these days. Decide which of these features are important enough to you to pay for and make a shortlist of cameras that have these features.
Then, pop in to some high street store (e.g. Jessops or similar) and have a play with the cameras to see which physically suit you.
Then, buy one online for much less than the street price from somewhere such as DigitalDirect
If you have an existing Hi-8 camera, then one of the Digital-8 camers might be best for you, as it will be able to play your old tapes.
Mini-DV format cameras seem to be the most popular these days as they're small and light but still have reasonable recording time on the tapes. Personally, I can't see the point in Micro-DV cameras, as the tapes are too short, but at least they're tiny!
Get hold of a camcorder guide magazine and have a look at what features are available these days. Decide which of these features are important enough to you to pay for and make a shortlist of cameras that have these features.
Then, pop in to some high street store (e.g. Jessops or similar) and have a play with the cameras to see which physically suit you.
Then, buy one online for much less than the street price from somewhere such as DigitalDirect
Definately go for a Mini-DV format.... no chance of being out-dated in the near to mid term.
For your budget, I would recommend Canon... they have a habit of making good budget kit.
Get something with a viewfinder as well as flip-screen.... flip screen's can give misleading displays when filming in daylight... and they eat battery power!
You won't get anything new that is DV-in enabled for that price, but see if you can get a model that is "widget-able" That means you can record your edited films back onto DV tape from your PC with no quality loss.
If size (small) isn't the ultimate importance, keep your eyes open for a second hand Canon XM1 (Now superceded by XM2)... they were over £1k when new, but may find good second hand bargains.
XM1 has a 3-CCD chip rather than a single chip (far, far superior picture quality) It can be used as a fully manual camera as well as fully automatic, in the right hands it can produce broadcast-quality pictures, and it has a proper optical lens system, which is far better than digital lenses)
For your budget, I would recommend Canon... they have a habit of making good budget kit.
Get something with a viewfinder as well as flip-screen.... flip screen's can give misleading displays when filming in daylight... and they eat battery power!
You won't get anything new that is DV-in enabled for that price, but see if you can get a model that is "widget-able" That means you can record your edited films back onto DV tape from your PC with no quality loss.
If size (small) isn't the ultimate importance, keep your eyes open for a second hand Canon XM1 (Now superceded by XM2)... they were over £1k when new, but may find good second hand bargains.
XM1 has a 3-CCD chip rather than a single chip (far, far superior picture quality) It can be used as a fully manual camera as well as fully automatic, in the right hands it can produce broadcast-quality pictures, and it has a proper optical lens system, which is far better than digital lenses)
jsr said:
I recently bought JVC GRX25EK (or something like that!) from RGBDirect.co.uk. It's priced at £367, but it's main feature is its size - its tiny.
It must be the smallest DV Camcorder you can buy for the money - ie, the similar sized sony's are about £700.
Size is not the be-all and end-all.
Remember that the tiny DV cameras are also very light.
If you film anything that is hand-held then it is likely to be in wobble-vision.
If you have a slightly larger camera that has a little more weight to it, hand held shots will be much better.
No matter how "steady" you think you can hold a camera.... you can't! You should film stuff with your camera tripod mounted.
There are loads of cheap and cheerful tripods around that will do the job admirably.
meeja is spot on about using a tripod. the steady cam software works to a certain degree but you lose clarity everytime, as the camera has to keep back a reserve of pixels to aid with the steadiness..it depends on what you want to do with the video afterwards but you will certainly notice a difference between a hand-held and tripod version of footage when editing on your PC
danielson said:
you will certainly notice a difference between a hand-held and tripod version of footage when editing on your PC
Remember also that if you are going to encode the video in Windows Media format, then if you have a shaky shot (ie minute movements in the background) then this has to be encoded as movement.
If you have a rock solid background, the resulting encoded video will look far, far better.
Sermon over!
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