Digicam recommendations

[kingoffighters]

I am looking to buy a decent digital camcorder, anyone has any recommendation? Looking to spend less than $1000 or so.

[ElCapichan]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Camcorder.html

I have this camcorder, and it works great. The picture quality in HD looks amazing. It has manual focus wheel that can be switched to adjust other settings manually, stereo mic input, HDMI/component/composite/ S-video and Fire Wire output and it has a really nice lens.

If you want HD and a pretty good camcorder for under a $1000, that would do it, but otherwise you have to go a good bit higher/pro stuff to get more.

[Mykozo]

My only recommendation would be to get something that shoots 24p (24 fps, progressive scan, essentially what production film is). Shooting anything with lots of movement looks like total shit in interlaced, especially now with LCD TV's being the norm. Interlaced doesn't look too terrible on crappy CRT TV's, but on an LCD or Plasma or DLP, especially a big one, looks like a steaming pile of dog shit.

[kingoffighters]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Camcorder.html

I have this camcorder, and it works great. The picture quality in HD looks amazing. It has manual focus wheel that can be switched to adjust other settings manually, stereo mic input, HDMI/component/composite/ S-video and Fire Wire output and it has a really nice lens.

If you want HD and a pretty good camcorder for under a $1000, that would do it, but otherwise you have to go a good bit higher/pro stuff to get more.

This looks nice. So video is stored in Memory Sticks? Is it easy to edit the home videos? I have no clue about these things. I just want something I can record video of my soon to come baby.

[Mykozo]

This looks nice. So video is stored in Memory Sticks? Is it easy to edit the home videos? I have no clue about these things. I just want something I can record video of my soon to come baby.

You can store video in memory sticks, but Mini-DV tapes are much cheaper, at about six bucks per 90 minutes. Then you can hold on to the tapes if anything happens to the data, rather than keeping everything stored on drives and sticks. Oh, and yes, this cam's main format is mini-DV.

[kingoffighters]

You can store video in memory sticks, but Mini-DV tapes are much cheaper, at about six bucks per 90 minutes. Then you can hold on to the tapes if anything happens to the data, rather than keeping everything stored on drives and sticks. Oh, and yes, this cam's main format is mini-DV.

I am really sick of tapes. I don't mind backing up files on DVDs.

How's this one?

http://www.mobilewhack.com/sony-hdr-...-hd-camcorder/

[ElCapichan]

This looks nice. So video is stored in Memory Sticks? Is it easy to edit the home videos? I have no clue about these things. I just want something I can record video of my soon to come baby.

No, the memory stick is only for pics in the HDR HC7. MiniDV is really the best way to go right now. If you want, you will always have that hard copy.

As far as editing goes, your camera and footage are only as good as your editing software. The picture quality will be good still, but you really want a decent editing software to get the most out of your footage. At home I use premiere pro which I really like, and I am planning on getting Final Cut Studio 2 when ever I get my mac book pro. At school I use Avid Express Pro, which is ok, but the UI is ass ugly and things just seem more difficult they should be. I like premiere pro much more, but in the end, these 3 programs will get about the same job done. There is also Sony Vegas, but I have never used it. I've heard it is pretty good and not as expensive, but doesnt have all the bells and whistles the others do.

As for interlaced, yeah it can be a problem sometimes. When I capture the footage and play it on my 1920x1200 monitor, there can be some combing issues at time, but when I play it on my 1080p DLP TV there never seems to be the same effect, or if there is, it is very miniaml. To get around this problem, just encode it in whatever res you want and deinterlace it. Shit looks great. I still can't believe how good the picture looks

I'll admit, the camera isn't perfect. It does have a 24p mode, but I haven't really messed with it. The one time I did turn it on, it seemed like I couldn't adjust settings like exposure and whatnot, but maybe thats part of 24p, I'm not sure. But if you want a good camcorder for under a $1000, this one does offer a great picture and I haven't had any major complaints with mine. Should last me long enough till I find it necessary to get a decent pro level camcorder.

I am really sick of tapes. I don't mind backing up files on DVDs.

How's this one?

http://www.mobilewhack.com/sony-hdr-...-hd-camcorder/

the only thing you need to watch out there is that HD can take up a lot of space. I had about 45min of HD take up 9GB, and somehow managed to get 50 min of DV to be 10GB, still have no idea how that happened. Quick question, does better sound quallity from a really good shotgun mic take up more space, cause I still don't see how DV footage, even if it is 10min more, take up more space that HD.

[Mykozo]

MiniDV is really the best way to go right now. If you want, you will always have that hard copy.

Truth.

As far as editing goes, your camera and footage are only as good as your editing software. The picture quality will be good still, but you really want a decent editing software to get the most out of your footage. At home I use premiere pro which I really like, and I am planning on getting Final Cut Studio 2 when ever I get my mac book pro. At school I use Avid Express Pro, which is ok, but the UI is ass ugly and things just seem more difficult they should be. I like premiere pro much more, but in the end, these 3 programs will get about the same job done. There is also Sony Vegas, but I have never used it. I've heard it is pretty good and not as expensive, but doesnt have all the bells and whistles the others do.

I have yet to use Premiere, but from what I hear it's pretty damn good. Coming from Avid rigs (Express Pro, Symphony, Media Composer), I was very frustrated with FCP at first. I was so used to the clunky Avid UI that the simplicity of FCP didn't make any sense to me at first, lol. Alas, if you are not on a Mac, then FCP isn't a possibility. I've worked with Vegas before, and it did the job just fine for me. For the home-editor type person, I'd say go with Premiere Elements to start off with. It's about a hundred bucks, and will make it easy for you to get used to the concepts of video editing. Then if you want more functionality, you can step up from there.

the only thing you need to watch out there is that HD can take up a lot of space. I had about 45min of HD take up 9GB, and somehow managed to get 50 min of DV to be 10GB, still have no idea how that happened.

HDV is a fairly heavily compressed HD format, vs the broadcast standard of HDCAM. This is especially true with the audio, with HDV compressing to 384 kbit/s. DV audio uses uncompressed 16-bit PCM at 1536 kbit/s. In essence, you are doing HD resolutions at DV bit-rates (albeit using HDV compression tech, and, subsequently, having more headroom for video data information due to the lower audio bit-rate). This would explain the storage difference corresponding with the length of the clip, rather than the format in which it was shot.

Quick question, does better sound quallity from a really good shotgun mic take up more space, cause I still don't see how DV footage, even if it is 10min more, take up more space that HD.

The microphone you are using has absolutely no bearing on audio bit-rates/file sizes. The extended frequency response of the mic will just make it sound better. The camera-mic doesn't have that response, but the camera is still writing audio data to the tape at a fixed bit-rate, regardless of whether the mic is capable of capturing it.

[kingoffighters]

I am still contemplating between the Sony's memory stick and the miniDV format. If I buy the miniDV, I am torn between the Sony's model and Canon's HV20 since that one gets alot of great review.

[ElCapichan]

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camc...?tag=pdtl-list

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camc...?tag=pdtl-list

Here are cnet.com's reviews on those 2 camcorders. Both seem about on par, it just really comes down to price and what you are willing to pay for what each offers.