Buying a camcorder?

[rabbidrabbit]

I'm thinking of buying a camcorder.  Sure the camera has video mode but I'm feeling bad about not having much video of my son.  Basically, I want something decent with a snapshot ability.  It needs to be be pretty small or it won't go many places.  What should I be looking for?  Drive storage?  HD? What features are worth it?  Any good tips?  I'm basically looking for the best bang for the buck.

[Reschke]

Here is one that I am looking at buying and have found it or its slightly smaller HDD cousin a little cheaper in local shops. This is a link for a refurb but I am most likely going to be getting a new one this year at Christmas as a gift to myself.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4033111&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=TBBTkwCjCVyBpAgf%20mwzygtCjCVRqCjCVRq

[Rich46yo]

Its been a long time since I bought one. Even then I bought two of these http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=165&modelid=10350 which I doubt your in the market for.

First thing you have to decide on is whether you want HD or not. Second thing is what kind of media you want to record on. Tape, DVD, hard drive, or internal flash drive "memory card". Remember that the future of video is High Def. Also remember that if your going to want to edit High Def, or even burn it, your going to need a computer capable of doing both, "more $$". If your going to want good snapshot performance then your going to need a HD camcorder.

The cheapest route to go is a good SD video that record directly onto small DVDs. You can pop them into a DVD player and have them on hard copy should you ever want to get into editing your videos in the future. The DVDs are small, and dont hold a lot of DVD quality video/audio. But the ease of use is worth it. The cheapest route is mini-DV tapes, the standard that started the revolution. These hold up to 80 mins of top SD video quality however you have to dump it onto a computer hard drive to output to DVD.

I could talk features until I'm blue in the face. Thing is most people will use automatic settings 100% of the time. What makes or breaks a camcorder is the glass on it, yes the lens is everything. For that reason I recommend people stay with Sony or Canon because they make the best lenses. Spend in the $500 range and you should do alright.

Oh and make sure you buy from a quality mail order place like B&H. A lot of camera mail orders are scam joints. Here http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

Tell me more. What you want to spend? How deep you want to get into it? And I can help you more.

[Reschke]

Thanks for the info Rich. This is going to help me as well but I am dead set on getting one with a hard drive in it simply to get away from having all the little SD cards and extra DVD's around as well. I will ultimately move everything over to a DVD for long term storage but I figure a HDD can do just as well for the short term.

I was just browsing that site and found this one. I am going to look around around here and see what I can find at my camera store and see what they think of this one as well.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/516695-REG/Canon_2183B001_VIXIA_HG10_HD_AVCHD.html#features

[Rich46yo]

Thanks for the info Rich. This is going to help me as well but I am dead set on getting one with a hard drive in it simply to get away from having all the little SD cards and extra DVD's around as well. I will ultimately move everything over to a DVD for long term storage but I figure a HDD can do just as well for the short term.

I was just browsing that site and found this one. I am going to look around around here and see what I can find at my camera store and see what they think of this one as well.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/516695-REG/Canon_2183B001_VIXIA_HG10_HD_AVCHD.html#features

Ok but remember five hours of HD video, if in fact the hard drive does write that much, aint nothing when it comes to DV. Thats like one X-mas party or two kids ballgames. You are going to find yourself running out of hard drive space at the worst times. Then you have to decide if your going to erase the video or dump it onto hard drive. I mean I have terabytes of hard drive space on my editing computer and still find myself running out. And I only shoot SD video, which along with CD quality audio is about 4 & 1/2 minutes a gig.

The great thing about Canon is their optical stabilization is the best. Which really helps with a small camera. Its good you have manual controls for focus, exposure, and white balance. You really need them and you'll learn how to use them best as you get more experience. The 10X optical zoom is a minimum. Forget digital zoom, its a worthless selling point. Good thing to have an external Mic input. Do yourself a solid and buy a good external Mic cause the ones in the cam suck. You'll need headphones to monitor your audio and a good monopod or tripod cause you dont want to shoot freehand unless you have to. Other then all that its a nice little camcorder.

Mistakes noobs make? They use to much zoom, not enough manual controls, follow subjects around with the cam to much, dont frame correctly, use to much razzle dazzle in post. Remember the best video is the simplest video. Even with all this software, computer power, and knowledge I'm looking at right now, my videos are very simple with very little spl efx. I shoot them correctly, light them correctly, use sound correctly, and tell the story very simply. Every video your going to shoot and edit is a "story". Get that "storytelling" frame of mind and it will help you greatly. Videomakers are "storytellers" on videotape.

Welcome to the community of videomakers. I think your looking at a nice camcorder and will have a lot of fun with it. B&H is a solid company and stands behind their products.

[Reschke]

Well this one will serve a few functions. #1 for the family and #2 will help me with making high light videos for the youth football end of the year parties. Thanks for the information there I do appreciate it.

[Fulmar]

I can give a vote to Sony and Canon myself.  I took some video classes in college and we used some Sony Handicams and I pretty impressed with the features etc.  Of course this was 3-4 years ago and the cameras were a couple two three years old when I was using them.  My part time job in college was working at Batteries Plus and I dealt with a lot of customers looking for camcorder batteries etc.  Sony and Canon were pretty good at keeping their battery styles the same across many models.  Unlike JVC, RCA, and your cheap walmart brands where they probably have several different manufacturers making the camera for them and thus their parts and batteries were not the same across model A to model A1.  Plus if you're in need of a charger/battery ASAP, its easier to stick with the main brands since their supplies are going to be more readily available in major stores (i.e. don't have to order it off the internet).  You may think of this as a moot point, but I'd say a good 1/3 of our camcorder or camera customers were looking for lost or forgotten batteries for their wedding, graduation, or whatever.

I also saw that the OEM batteries from Sony and Canon were pretty good quality and would meet their service life w/o premature deaths.  I laughed pretty much any time someone came in with a Vivatar camera.  We either had to special order their batteries or we couldn't get them.  I saw a fair amount of their cameras just crap out and wouldn't turn on even with a good battery and a charger plugged in.

[Rich46yo]

Well this one will serve a few functions. #1 for the family and #2 will help me with making high light videos for the youth football end of the year parties. Thanks for the information there I do appreciate it.

You should see the baseball games of my kid Ive made. I chain one XL-2 to a tree way out in center field, put it on auto, put an old XL-1 in left field, "or behind the plate", take an XL-2 down the right field line, "which I operate myself", and run an XLR audio cable 150' to a pro Sennhaiser Mic I attach to the cage behind home plate. Now I have three cams working for me, getting three angles, "all on tripods", and a Pro-audio setup right at home plate.

When I edit at home I sync the video up to the audio and then switch in editing from one camera to the next. The center field cam gets the home plate pitcher to catcher angle, and gets 2nd base steals, the left field cam gets 3rd base steals and action on that side of the field, and the XL-2 I'm operating manually I use to always follow the baseball with. I'm basically cutting from cam to cam like they do at a Pro baseball game and getting the same angles and shots. Folks always loved hearing their kid is playing on the same team as my boy cause they knew I'd be shooting ballgames, "which I always made available to the other parents".

They all came out really good. I edited them very simply but the thing to remember is the content is the king. As long as you have good content your videos will be great. I must have 100 ballgames laying around here, "which I also custom printed the DVDs, and cases".

[kamilyun]

I got a JVC Everio disk drive camcorder 2 years ago when my daughter was born.  It's small, light, easy to use and can be had for less than $250 now.  30GB HD (you run the batteries out before you use it up).

However, it gets used about once every two months.   Sounds stupid or lazy, but the last thing I think about is taking the video camera after packing up diaper bag, spare clothes, snacks, juice boxes, phone, wallet, keys, etc.

Guess I'm saying...I wouldn't spend too much on one unless you're sure you'll use it.

Also, I'd look into what the video editing software is.  The JVC program sucks.

[Reschke]

When we do these game films we will have one shot from the end zone and one from the press box side. They are for the high lights and for helping to see what the kids are doing right or wrong in the game. Not a bad setup there with the three cameras working on all those different angles but for football or lacrosse we don't want the audio.

[Rich46yo]

When we do these game films we will have one shot from the end zone and one from the press box side. They are for the high lights and for helping to see what the kids are doing right or wrong in the game. Not a bad setup there with the three cameras working on all those different angles but for football or lacrosse we don't want the audio.

Its funny but sound travels so slowly I actually have to sync up all three cams to the audio wavefile. What I do is pick one frame from each 1/2 inning, a frame where a bat clearly hits the ball and all 3 cams get it. Then I line up the audio wave file, and each cam output in the timeline to that one frame. I do that for each 1/2 inning and get perfect sync. If I just lined up the cams any other way that sound traveling just 150' to 200' would cause the video/audio to get out of sync and it would get worse as time goes on. I do the same thing with wedding shoots but I use a camera flash to line up the three video sources in the editing timeline.

[Reschke]

Might have found what I want.

Sony 30GB Hard Drive HandycamŽ Camcorder with 40x Optical/2000x Digital Zoom
Model No: DCRSR45

Best Buy has it for $349