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By: mr-c
http://www.youthideas.co.uk/
154
Posts
Email: youthwork@hiede.co.uk
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| Buying a digital video camera |
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03/01/2007 10:10:07 |
Happy new year!
Have anybody recently bought a digital video camera for their youth group? If so, what did you buy? |
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By: johnny_bravo
I am a human being not a human doing
18
Posts
Email: richard@oxygen-online.org
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| Re: Buying a digital video camera |
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03/01/2007 10:40:23 |
You can have a choice between regular Camcorder types (£150-)and HD camera types (£1000 -). If it is just for some simple videos and movies then any simple camcorder will do. YOu need to check what your pc will take though in terms of input - do you have a firewire port, or just USB? I would also recomend getting a cheap tripod as movies shot on tripod are better. Also a camcorder with a microphone jack input is useful for the interviews
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mr-c wrote:
"Happy new year!
Have anybody recently bought a digital video camera for their youth group? If so, what did you buy?"
_______________________________________________________
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By: mr-c
http://www.youthideas.co.uk/
154
Posts
Email: youthwork@hiede.co.uk
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| Re: Re: Buying a digital video camera |
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03/01/2007 10:50:56 |
I´ve got USB 2 and a I394 port on my laptop. I think this is firewire.
If I need to edit the videos will Windows Movie Maker suffice? Is that what the "capture video" option is for? |
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By: robinjsmith
47
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| Re: Buying a digital video camera |
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03/01/2007 13:48:14 |
it´s worth finding one that gives you a ´clean´ output to TV or projector - i.e. if you are using it for live feed of baptism, or game or whatever it doesn´t show up little logos for battery life, zoom, tape left etc., but give only the picture you see.
Don´t know how you find that out without going into a shop and asking to try it.
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By: tp
2
Posts
Email: tim@timperrett.co.uk
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| My advice |
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03/01/2007 14:43:05 |
Greetings Mr C
Coming from a pro-background, I don´t know too much about consumer cameras, but I have some experience and principles you may find helpful.
Obviously the camera you buy is dependent on budget. A simple ´home-movie´ camcorder could cost you around £300, a ´pro-sumer´ (such as an Canon XL2) could cost you around £3000, a ´pro´ camera (such as Sony PD170) around £4000, and a proper pro around £15,000!
I am taking it you are likely to be looking at the £300 range. The key things to consider are:
1. Recording Format - for video recording at consumer level, MiniDV is probable still the standard at the moment. You can now buy cameras which will record straight to a small DVD or even a built in harddrive. If you have an edit facility already, it may be worth going down the miniDV route as a tape is much more stable than a DVD disc and easier than harddrive as you can swap tapes out and storage capacity is not a problem. You also have the question of HD (High Definition). At this stage, I would say it is not worth going HD for consumer cameras, you will probably not experience too much quality difference - the money may be best spent elsewhere (see below). The Digital8 format is also available, although I would steer clear and head down the miniDV route, even if the Digital8 is cheaper, the quality difference is fairly large.
2. External microphone - Capturing the pictures is the easy bit, capturing sound is the hard bit. Getting good sound quality without too much background noise/ambient sound is difficult on the inbuilt mic on a camera. I would highly recommend that you purchase a camera with an external mic (usually a mini-jack input) socket. As well as this, try and budget to buy a microphone to go with it. This will improve the quality of you recordings no-end. If filming outdoors, a wind muff on the additional mic is also a good idea. It would be even better if it the camera has a headphones socket and you buy a pair of headphones as well. This way you can monitor the sound being recorded at the time. A good pair of headphones which go right over the ears will help to elminate the non-recorded sound.
3. Tripod - try and budget for one of these as well. Shots will look much cleaner when tripod mounted. These can cost £7.50 from Argos to a fluid head Vinton at £2500! Have a good shop around, Jessops is maybe a good place to start.
4. Media - buying your recordable media is often cheapest in bulk. www.tapecity.co.uk is a good place to start looking to see how much you can save compared to high street stores.
5. Battery life - worth noting if you are going to be out and about. Most last quite a long time now, but would a spare one be handy? Maybe something you may want to consider later on if you need it.
6. Analogue input - some cameras allow you to use the camera as a ´capture device´ taking the output from something like a DVD player into the camera and then outputing from the camera on ´Firewire´ to a computer for editing. A handy feature if you have an edit facitility.
7. Edit facilities - if you have one, the likely hood is that it will take the movie from the camera into the computer through a ´Firewire´ connection - usually Firewire 400 which is a connector smaller than a USB-B with a slight dip in the top of it. If you are wanting to edit via a PC or Mac - make sure the camera has one of these connections - most do, but worth checking.
I hope that helps. I have a 4 year old Sony Handyca, DCR-PC120 which has headphones output and mic input and records to MiniDV and it has not let me down. The Carl Zeiss lens is very good and I get great picture quality for what it is. That cost me about £1000 4 years ago and they are much cheaper now. I use it for random visual creation and event archieve recordings.
Other links: check out the Message Trust´s video school - it is very good place for training and starting in the whole video thing. www.message.org.uk
I hope this is helpful (sorry it is so long) email me or post again any more questions. Cheers. Tim |
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By: zerofour
17
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| Buying a digital camera |
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05/01/2007 14:09:49 |
Great post from Tim, thanks man.. I have a section on buying a camcorder (from a semi-pro) angle - http://www.myfishbites.com/technical-camcorders.php.
Personally, in the format wars, I would recommend mini-DV. It´s flexible, has a higher quality compression than DVD cams and unlike DVD cams, you can edit the footage easily. Just check your PC has a firewire port. They are standard on all Macs.
A good place to start is http://www.camcorderinfo.com as they will give you a good all-round knowledge and have their 2006 choices posted up on the site.
At the moment, a Panasonic GS300 may fit your bill for around £400-£450. I shoot in HDV, a consumer format of HD. If you go this route, the lower-end cams like the Canon HV10 or the Sony HC3 are outstanding, but lack the ability to add external mics etc. They sit in the £700 price range. If you do go for an external mic, get the Rode Videomic. Remember there are different mics for different things! HDV is much clearer than mini DV, but you pay a premium for this technology. What do you want your cam for? Is low light a consideration? Do you want to be able to shoot manually or on auto etc? Ask all these kinds of questions before purchasing.
To help with the other posts. 1394 is the firewire port, also called i-Link by Sony. A tripod is an essential. You must budget for a good one, not a cheap one. A good choice in the low end is the Velbon CX686 which is around £60 but with a fairly good fluid head. Pay more if you are able, Manfrotto is a route to go. If you are going to have a live output to a projector, check whether you have composite (AV) out, or S-Video out. S-Video will provide a slightly higher quality. Sony outputs are often proprietary.
Any other thoughts, please post back and people like Tim and myself will be happy to help, I´m sure!! |
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By: philipgregory
21
Posts
Email: philip.gregory@kt.org
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| Buying a digital video camera |
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05/01/2007 16:01:22 |
All sounds good so far. We started using video last year to film our announcements and stuff. We started using Windows Movie Maker - it is easy to use and produces interesting results but we quickly found plenty of limitations. We bit the bullet and bought a Mac so we could run Final Cut Express. Awesome editing software that comes bundled with Title & Soundtrack software too. We use a Sony HVR Z1 camera which is MiniDV, HD ready with ext mic.
All I can add is that it is great fun and using video can really engage people and capture their attention. Whatever you decide just have a go
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By: mr-c
http://www.youthideas.co.uk/
154
Posts
Email: youthwork@hiede.co.uk
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| Re: Buying a digital video camera |
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05/01/2007 23:30:54 |
What sort of mac did you get? |
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By: randomfrog
matthew 6:25-34
2
Posts
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| Re: Re: Buying a digital video camera |
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05/01/2007 23:58:00 |
we also started off using windows movie maker but came up against its limitations so we invested in serif´s movieplus 5 - currently costs around £60 i think. it does pretty much everything we need it to and a whole lot more. |
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By: philipgregory
21
Posts
Email: philip.gregory@kt.org
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| Re: Re: Buying a digital video camera |
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06/01/2007 19:28:10 |
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mr-c wrote:
"What sort of mac did you get? "
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We got a Mac Pro so we can upgrade components in the future easier than if we bought a laptop. Works a treat!
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