video cameras

[weeds]

just interested in want everybody uses

i'm thinking about one of these

SONY DCRSR42 HANDYCAM

i know nothing about video cameras, never owned one, but have been playing with one of these at work, seems easy to use

[sclarke]

Should this go to the MUDPIT????

What are you going to use it for???

[weeds]

What are you going to use it for???

don't know

well i took some footage of my kids playing soccer on the weekend and when i work out how to convert the file and burn it so that a vdv player will play it i will send if off to the grandsparents

just general footage while on holidays, camping, the kids doing there sports etc......and spose the bedroom:eek:

[weeds]

the bit of research i have done i figured one with a hard drive is the way to go these days, this one has a 12V charger as well

[Outlaw]

yeah go a hard drive one if the budget allows... much easier for converting and putting on web, editing etc.

some guys have the dvd ones but they seem to finish it as a dvd which is a pain in the ass to then do anything with later but i guess handy if you don't plan on editing

[cartm58]

thank god for grandparents who else can get excited about watching 90 mins of little johnny kicking a round ball about

but do you think your mummie wants to watch you do the wife when your making grandchild No X for the from inception to the soccer field documentary

[weeds]

thank god for grandparents who else can get excited about watching 90 mins of little johnny kicking a round ball about

but do you think your mummie wants to watch you do the wife when your making grandchild No X for the from inception to the soccer field documentary

...:o

[weeds]

maybe what i should have asked is what camera do member have, the pro and cons and if they had the $$$ what would they buy now??

[Michael2]

the bit of research i have done i figured one with a hard drive is the way to go these days, this one has a 12V charger as well

The Hard Drive (HDD) units store the video in a compressed format, whereas the tape stores raw data. Hence 2 min of tape is about 2GB (not sure, but something close to that).

Because the HDD image is compressed, there's less quality to edit with. So if you want to do a lot of editting for your DVD, then everytime you alter or splice the image you will lose a lot of quality.

When I was looking at getting a camera a few months ago, I was initially tempted by the HDD, but after talking to the camera techs in the stores, I opted for a tape.

I just capture the video on the laptop and edit it there. Some tape cameras have a USB link, but many have a Firewire link. I thought they all had USB:(, I ended up having to buy a PCMCIA Firewire adaptor, but that was only $14 on ebay and gave me Big & Small Firewire connectors and an additional 2 USB ports.:D

I'd recommend the tape, you can easily carry extra tapes in case you run out of space before you get a chance to download (like on a trip) and you have greater editting flexibility.

[weeds]

thanks for the advice Michael

[jik22]

thank god for grandparents who else can get excited about watching 90 mins of little johnny kicking a round ball about

but do you think your mummie wants to watch you do the wife when your making grandchild No X for the from inception to the soccer field documentary

There's been more than one mistake made with mixing up the tapes and sending the x-rated version to the grandparents since video cameras were invented, I'll bet...and not by me, I hasten to add. :D

[Phil633]

I agree with Michael2, I also went looking for a HDD model, but after looking into it I now own one that uses tapes.

[Quiggers]

You wont go too far wrong with Sony gear, weeds.

Much of the broadcast industry is based on Sony equipment, which has its roots in the Betacam format and has been continually updated since about 1983, when the first Betacam camera, the BVP3 appeared, which revolutionsed the news gathering world.

betacam is a broadcast version of the old beta domestic system, the tape speed thru the head is 8x faster, hence its use for broadcast.

Sony cameras for domestic use, have all the plug ins you'll need for adaption to a computer; I seem to recall that Sony was the creator of 'firewire' (IEEE1394) which is the correct way of getting data from the camera to the computer at a high speed...without loss or loss of synch...

...have used Sony gear for the past 20+ years, with almost no drama, Sony Broadcast Australia is far more problematic than the equipment they sell.

However, since 1994, I've only edited with Macs using Avid, Media100 and more recently FinalCutPro(Apple), so I dont know the 'Windows' side of the story...

One other thing: I wouldn't go spending lotsa $$$ on any version of HD gear as the jury is still out, on this minefield of conflictive, incompatible and soon to be obsolete technology. It's also expensive overkill for domestic purposes.

Cheers, GQ

[WhiteD3]

just interested in want everybody uses

Got a Sony DV something or other 6 years ago. 1.5MB CCD, takes a DV tape and works a treat.

Editing is a bit of a pain but that's true with all of them I think. You need a decent PC with a firewire port and some editing SW.

One good thing this one has (and you should look out for feature) is the ability to input from a VCR and output to the PC (ie the camera does the analogue to digital pass through conversion), which allows you to convert your VHS home movies to DVD.

Cheers.

[incisor]

midrange panasonic dv tape based unit, love it, simply to use and even simplier to get the data into the computer..

[dungarover]

Got as Panasonic GS250 3CCD DV unit. Great pic quality and simple to use (for a simple bloke like me :angel:). Also takes 3.1 MP stills whichj I use for selling parts on e-bay and the pics of my Rangie in the GCLRO members rides section.

I was looking at a Canon XM2 which was not far off $4K because I prefer the size (a mans Vidcam :D:D:twisted::twisted::twisted:) and all those tiny buttons give me the ****s, but the unit I have is one of the better ones as far as that goes and it was a great price for a 3CCD unit at the time.

Trav

[dmdigital]

I got a Panasonic GS400 in January last year. Friend bought the newer GS500 late last year. Both are excellent video cameras. That said, I'd be seriously looking at a HDD one if I was to buy a replacment, at the time I bought mine the HDD's were only the JVC units and they just weren't much.

The only catch with the HDD units is eventually you need to download them so if you're travelling with it, DV Tapes may still be easier or you're going to need a laptop.

I wouldn't recommend a DVD video camera unit if you are going anywhere dusty or humid, they have no environmental seals on the drive doors.

Oh and try to get 3CCD as the picture quality is way better.

[rangieman]

All my videos are taken with a fuji digital SLR camera with sound , The camera has a 2 GB memory card
It does the job for me :D

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I have a panasonic DV (tape) camera. I like the quality and I'd get the same again. :)

Luckily I have an apple :) so it's easy to manage the footage later.

[Michael2]

I agree with Quiggers about Sony industrial grade video ($7K+ cameras), but I've seen too many Sony Cameras die just after warranty and Sony don't care.

I'd be going Panasonic or Canon.

[Quiggers]

I agree with Quiggers about Sony industrial grade video ($7K+ cameras), but I've seen too many Sony Cameras die just after warranty and Sony don't care.

I'd be going Panasonic or Canon.



yeah M2, Sony has a few issues, so do Panasonic and Canon and a few other resellers...Fuji backup is hopeless as is Samsung, Canon and Sharp aren't much better...

Right now, I'm looking at new domestic devices.

Nothing really fits.

Soon there will be a series of cameras using a 34gb card, no tape, no hard drive.

If I had to get a camera this week I'd go for a cheapy hard drive device...

As we still broadcast in PAL 625/50 (4:3) at 768x576 that would do...

Wide screen HD still has too many variables to commit to any of the supposed 'new' configs...and the wide HD sucks huge amounts space i.e. gigabytes

Broadcast standard Ratio: PAL D 625/50 = 768 x 576 (4:3)
25 frames per second = 1.27 mb per frame = 31.75 mb per sec = 1905 mb per minute (uncompressed).

Hey weeds, shot a bit of footage on the sunday run, on my stills camera, looked good and the cam is the size of a ciggy packet, Josh had a cute video camera about half that size... which cost not much and does the job...

Back to question 1: Whatever it is, no more than $500, incl computer plug in being USB2 or IEEE1394.

When you get to editing, weeds, I'll take you thru that, if you wish.
A bit to do with systems, more to do with technique (and when you shoot, keep the camera steady!!!)

GQ

[Reads90]

I Have a JVC envio i bought 2 years ago in Singapore
Its great has a 30 gig hard drive , so no tapes and can record 10 hours in ultra fine.
Light and easy to use.

[100I]

Have a Canon MVX35i, was given the same explanation by the salesman of why tape is still superior and that professionals haven't switched to DVD or HD yet. Could have just been sales talk for all I knew but I accepted it. I also accepted that I was buying this particular one on sale at 1/3 price, helped by the russian fellow beside me that was desperately trying to get the salesmans attention away from me and talking sideways to his wife:).

Have only put a few tapes thru it but in fair to good light it takes a fantastic picture, but this does deteriorate with low light of around late evening or artificial lighting.

Not as convenient to transfer but hey I can spare the time to review footage.

[Rosco]

When you get to editing, weeds, I'll take you thru that, if you wish.
A bit to do with systems, more to do with technique (and when you shoot, keep the camera steady!!!)

GQ


Don't wait for Weeds ... ;)
How about some tips for me :)
I'm an absolute numb nut in this regard. I have a Panasonic DVD jobbie and want to edit out all the crap and splice all the discs together into some semblance of order on a single DVD for playback.
Should you connect the camera to the PC via the USB port and transfer that way ?
I tried just copying the disc but get an error message about "cyclic redundancy error" or some such esoteric gobbly gook and it only copies part of the disc.
What's considered the best ... read easiest and reasonably priced software to accomplish the task.

Cheers

[markyc]

Got as Panasonic GS250 3CCD DV unit.

Trav

Is that the one with a manual focus ring?

[Quiggers]

I use Macs, Rosco, as Final Cut Pro is excellent.

However, I'm told (by a few other 'experts') that editing on a Windows based PC can be achieved by using Adobe Premiere - which apparently includes
all necessary software for digitizing/capturing.

You'll need much RAM and hard drive space.

As edit systems are peculiar things, it is also good housekeeping to have a hard drive dedicated to storing video and audio from your camera. This drive does nothing else, just stores your camera output.

Cheers, GQ

[Rosco]

.....

You'll need much RAM and hard drive space.



Cheers, GQ

It's a new box ..
2.4GHz Core 2 Quad CPU
2 GB Ram
120 GB free HD space

So hopefully that should suffice. I just noticed MS Movie Maker came bundled with XP Pro SP2, so maybe it'll be all I need ... :question:

Now just need to figure how to transfer it all across .. :wallbash:

Thanks for the tips

Cheers

[Quiggers]

Microsoft/Windows is not my area of expertise, but the machine sounds like it has enough guts to run the apps.

However, if it was me, I'd drop in a second hard drive, around the 300gb (or more) size, just to store your movie making abilities.

There are reasons for this which I wont overly bore you with, but simply, video/audio consumes much disk space and needs, in order to run easily and freely, its own home.

Good luck with your 'filming'....(keep the camera steady and dont muck around with the zoom - I was working on a 'pro' job recently where the 'pro' camera dude, couldn't keep his fingers off the zoom, which basically stuffed up an otherwise good job).

GQ

[dungarover]

Is that the one with a manual focus ring?

Yes it's got one and it's a 3CCD unit which is what I was after when I looking. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I was looking at a Canon XM2 (not the detachable lens model, that's big $$$$$) but I saved over a grand on buying the Panasonic and I don't use it enough to warrant spending the extra.

Trav

[markyc]

You got in just in time! I'm looking for a decent camera and have been told (at Ted's camera house thingy) that no one now markets a manual focus ring below pro level:(: NV GS250 discontinued.. XM2 discontinued.. My girl would love an XL1S or even XL2 but they're huge and mega bucks. Guess I'll have to watch flea bay & the like.

[dungarover]

I think the sucessor to the Pana GS250 is the GS300 which is pretty much the same and from what I can recall it's mostly cosmetic, but this may have been discontinued as well (these bloody cameras they turn them over quickly model wise)

Canon may have released the sucessor to the XM2 (haven't seen it yet) dunno haven't looked into it. Sony have the HD DV format vidcams but at nearly $5K it's not cheap :eek: :eek: :eek:

Trav

[timaus13]

I purchased a 30 gig hdd jvc model from coogans in hobart and love it.
I can place it into caddy and dowload straight to my laptop then burn movie dvd all within 10 to 20 mins depending on the file sizes.
The exact model is JVC Everio GZ-MG135.
It was around $799.00
Really pleased with it.:D:D:D
Hope this helps.

[dullbird]

i'm looking at the jvc gz-hd7
which has 60g hdd and manual focus ring still small enough not to be a pain

i have red mixed revews on it though i was hoping i might be able to rent it from somewhere to get a good idea before i buy as it over 2000 dollars in the shops can get it for 1500 on ebay

apparently this model has the same lense as what they use on professional tv cameras i just like the look and feel sony's dont really do it for me and haven't done for a while the dv camera i'm using at the moment is jvc and although it has no optical zoom it has done me proud and still going strong