I recently made a short film with my friends just using a digital camera that had a video capablities. Now i realized how much fun filming is and I want to do more. Now i just don't know what kind of video camera to get. I have a budget of up to 500 dollars and i want something that has really good quality(I know I might be asking for too much), has a large storage, and can be used with a tripod. I want to be able to edit my videos, but they won't be professional just for personal self-satisfaction. Really appreciate it.
Answer
Consumer level HD camcorders have 4 problems. 1) Blurry, fuzzy, out of focus areas closely around people in videos taken by consumer level HD camcorders. 2) Any movement, even a wave or lifting an arm, while in front of a recording consumer level HD camcorder, results in screen ghosts and artifacts being left on the video track, following the movement. Makes for bad video, sports videos are unwatchable. 3) These Consumer level HD camcorders all have a habit of the transferred to computer files are something you need to convert, thus losing your HD quality, to work with your editing software. 4) Mandatory maximum record times - 1 hour, 30 minutes, 8 minutes, 3 minutes â four different times advertised as maximum record time for some consumer level HD camcorders. No event I have ever been to is that short. Either take multiple camcorders or pack up with out getting the end of the event on video. Not to mention, but the computer you upload your HD files to has to have at least a 1 GB video card and a separate Audio card that can support Direct X® 9 technology. Your normal every day computer has massive troubles with HD video. Consumer level HD camcorders interpolate the video. This means they take one frame, make up the next 4 or 5 frames, take a frame and repeat this, over and over, for the remainder of the video, every video it takes is like this. With a MiniDV tape camcorder, record 60 or 90 minutes ( camcorder settings), 90 seconds or less to change a tape and record for 60 or 90 more and repeat till you run out of tapes.
You can get a Canon ZR960 for $250. It is a MiniDV tape camcorder, has a MIC jack. You will need a Firewire (IEEE1394) card ($25 to 30) for the computer and a Firewire cable (less than 10) to be able to transfer video to your computer. To say this is not HD, think about this. It would cost in excess of $3500 to get a HD camcorder that could equal the video Quality of a $250 Canon MiniDV tape camcorder.
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/camcorders/consumer_camcorders/vixia_hv40#Overview
Consumer level HD camcorders have 4 problems. 1) Blurry, fuzzy, out of focus areas closely around people in videos taken by consumer level HD camcorders. 2) Any movement, even a wave or lifting an arm, while in front of a recording consumer level HD camcorder, results in screen ghosts and artifacts being left on the video track, following the movement. Makes for bad video, sports videos are unwatchable. 3) These Consumer level HD camcorders all have a habit of the transferred to computer files are something you need to convert, thus losing your HD quality, to work with your editing software. 4) Mandatory maximum record times - 1 hour, 30 minutes, 8 minutes, 3 minutes â four different times advertised as maximum record time for some consumer level HD camcorders. No event I have ever been to is that short. Either take multiple camcorders or pack up with out getting the end of the event on video. Not to mention, but the computer you upload your HD files to has to have at least a 1 GB video card and a separate Audio card that can support Direct X® 9 technology. Your normal every day computer has massive troubles with HD video. Consumer level HD camcorders interpolate the video. This means they take one frame, make up the next 4 or 5 frames, take a frame and repeat this, over and over, for the remainder of the video, every video it takes is like this. With a MiniDV tape camcorder, record 60 or 90 minutes ( camcorder settings), 90 seconds or less to change a tape and record for 60 or 90 more and repeat till you run out of tapes.
You can get a Canon ZR960 for $250. It is a MiniDV tape camcorder, has a MIC jack. You will need a Firewire (IEEE1394) card ($25 to 30) for the computer and a Firewire cable (less than 10) to be able to transfer video to your computer. To say this is not HD, think about this. It would cost in excess of $3500 to get a HD camcorder that could equal the video Quality of a $250 Canon MiniDV tape camcorder.
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/camcorders/consumer_camcorders/vixia_hv40#Overview
Best camcorder under $500?
quiznosman
I'm a student filmmaker on a limited budget and I want to buy a mini dv camcorder. I need something with a microphone input so that I can add a beachtek xlr adapter to it. I already know about the canon zr930 but is there anything better than that in the price range? And hows the video quality of the zr930? Pros and Cons?
http://www.youtube.com/user/jeandfilms
Answer
The ZR900 and 930 both have a mic jack - but no manual audio control. Both are entry level consumer camcorders with small lenses and imaging chips. There is nothing better in this price range... Adding the XLR adapter is good - but I don't know if that actually bypasses the auto mic gain. And there is no headphone jack on the ZR series, so you need some method to know what the audio levels are that are being captured. BeachTeck and juicedLink bot make XLR adapters with LED audio level "meters", but they are more expensive than the basic XLR adapter models.
The least expensive miniDV camcorders - of which I am aware - that have both a mic jack and manual audio control are the Canon HV30 and Sony HDR-HC9. Their lenses and imaging chips are a little large than the ZR series, too. (Larger lenses and imaging chips - whether CMOS or CCD - means improved low-light video capture behavior).
The other option is to not worry about the camcorder's mic jack (or the XLR adapter) and get an external audio "field recorder" like those from Zoom (the H4 has decent built-in condenser mics AND XLR/1/4" combo mic jacks and manual audio control). When you edit, just replace the audio captured by the camcorder with that captured by the field recorder.
The ZR900 and 930 both have a mic jack - but no manual audio control. Both are entry level consumer camcorders with small lenses and imaging chips. There is nothing better in this price range... Adding the XLR adapter is good - but I don't know if that actually bypasses the auto mic gain. And there is no headphone jack on the ZR series, so you need some method to know what the audio levels are that are being captured. BeachTeck and juicedLink bot make XLR adapters with LED audio level "meters", but they are more expensive than the basic XLR adapter models.
The least expensive miniDV camcorders - of which I am aware - that have both a mic jack and manual audio control are the Canon HV30 and Sony HDR-HC9. Their lenses and imaging chips are a little large than the ZR series, too. (Larger lenses and imaging chips - whether CMOS or CCD - means improved low-light video capture behavior).
The other option is to not worry about the camcorder's mic jack (or the XLR adapter) and get an external audio "field recorder" like those from Zoom (the H4 has decent built-in condenser mics AND XLR/1/4" combo mic jacks and manual audio control). When you edit, just replace the audio captured by the camcorder with that captured by the field recorder.
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