Digital Video Camera? What to buy?

CYanchycki

CYanchycki

Club Coordinator
Okay guys/gals what do you think would be a good bang for the dollar video camera? I want it for taping at shoots and taping myself when I practice to see what bad habits I may have when I shoot.

Would like it to be HD as well. I knew there was one that was mentioned a while back that some shooters were using but am having a slight brain fart.

Thanks in advance.

Calvin
 
Here’s another option to think about.
I thought I’d throw it in the mix because its what I use, and I love it!
720P AVCHD video and 12x optical zoom that works while shooting video.
Panasonic DMC-ZS3
The 8gig SD card I use is good for about 1-hour 15-minutes of video and that’s about how long the battery lasts.
 
I highly recommend the Canon S90 for a compact quality camera with big camera features. I just bought one on the recommendation of a retired professional photographer. Review here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons90/ It will do about an hour and a half on video.

I added an accessory grip made by this fellow.... http://www.kleptography.com/rf/

Here are a few of the hand held photos I took set on 'auto'...

picture073-0.jpg


mothonpaper-0.jpg


mtsthelens1-0.jpg


sunsetcroppedandsmall-0.jpg


.
 
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I have a Canon Rebel and its video is OK for some things. Depends on the application. For example, if I was wanting to record a lacrosse game, I'd stick with a dedicated video camera.
 
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Check out the FLIP ----after you take the video it plugs into your PC for easy downloads.
 
Hey Dennis..... if you'd a' picked that camera up over your head when you shot the mountain.............. you'd have got a picture of my house!

nice pix, might get me one of them

al
 
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Looks good Calvin, nice pictures!
You may already be set up for watching the video on your TV, computer to TV or direct connect from the camera. If not, I personally watch everything through a computer connected to my TV, but my parents use a WD TV HD Media Player with a hard drive connected to one USB port and a card reader for the camera connected to the other port. It works great for them and is only about 100 bucks.
For HD video editing and authoring to DVD or Blu-ray on DVD I use & like CyberLink PowerDirector 8.
Hope this help with your new HD experience!
Jim
 
My point and shoot Canon doesn't do too badly, for an old 5MP camera. This is a copy with some additional compression. I find that in many cases camera motion is a more of an issue than the maximum file size.
copy-copy.jpg
 
mike cockcroft said:
I thought only dogs here in Texas chewed tobacco.
I got a T1i a few months ago, still have a lot to learn.
Click to expand...

Well he chews more than Tobacco...... Those details I will not get into. He is my best bud. Take about lots to learn that is an understatement... The biggest thing I learned is a needed Quicktime on my laptop to play the videos. Well that is taken care of. Now on to the next thing to learn.

Calvin
 
Thanks for all your suggestions JJ.

Question for you. The picture files are SO LARGE like 6 Meg on average. What is the best way to resize them? What program/software?

When I want to send attachments along with an e-mail I can only send one at a time because of there size.

Calvin
 
And a very nice free HD video player.
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

I'm pretty sure I saw in the spec's that your camera can record in h.264
<edit>
Just checked again an it uses Quicktime h.264, not M-jpeg so you should be good to go.
no video recording format change needed.
 
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JJ thanks for all your tips and suggestions.

I now have a question for you. What is the best program/software to resize the images to make them more friendly for e-mailing? It never was a concern with my small point and shoot but these files average 5.5-6 meg.

Calvin
 
CYanchycki said:
Thanks for all your suggestions JJ.

Question for you. The picture files are SO LARGE like 6 Meg on average. What is the best way to resize them? What program/software?

When I want to send attachments along with an e-mail I can only send one at a time because of there size.

Calvin
Click to expand...

I use a really old program called PhotoImpact but I just looked and Picasa will do it.
In Picasa, double click on the photo to view it, then clicking on the “export” icon below the picture gives you the option to resize when saving.
 
Calvin, I edited my post suggesting to switch over to h.264 from motion-jpeg because after reading the specs again, it records in h.264 by default. :)
No need to change anything, sorry for the confusion, you're good to go.
Jim
 
A high quality tripod that doesn't shake and wiggle in every breeze is a good investment.
 
Buffalo Bob, I have a Manfrotto 55XB tripod with a 128RC head. I have definately seen HEAVIER built Manfrotto's but this one does what I need. Maybe I can find a used heavier built one online at some point in time.

Calvin
 
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