Friday, March 7, 2014

Which camera/camcorder is best for shooting a short film?




Joey


What about T3i and 5D mask 2?


Answer
It depends on your requirements and experience.

Set a budget.

Pocket cams, point and shoot cameras and entry-level consumer camcorders start at around $100 and their small lenses and imaging chips prevent them from providing good video in low light. They are "good" because they are inexpensive. There usually is no mic jack and no manual audio gain control. Kodak Z series. (GoPro and Contour up to about $300.)

At around $600, the mid range of consumer camcorders does a little better in low light because the lens diameter is larger as is the imaging chip, but the better bet is to add light. A mic jack appears and there may be some manual audio gain control. dSLRs start here - the lenses bump you into the high bracket and audio control is limited - as well, they overheat and have file size and duration limitations. Canon HF R series; HF M series.

At around $1,100, the high end of consumer camcorders have a mic jack, manual audio control and a few other useful features buried in the menu and difficult to get to and use. Canon HF S series.

The "prosumers" start at around $1,500. the lenses and imaging chips are larger, the audio gain control, might move to the outside of the camcorder along with a shared manual focus/or/zoom ring. Sony HDR-FX7.

The high end of the prosumers gets us to about the $2,600 range - like the Sony HDR-FX1000. Large lens filter diameter and large 3-element (in this case 3CMOS) imaging chip. Basically a pro camcorder, but lacking XLR audio inputs relying on 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo audio input meaning you get to augment that with a XLR adapter from juicedLink or BeachTek. Low compression high quality video. Lots of manual controls on the outside of the camcorder.

Then the pro grade gear goes up to about $80,000. Sony HVR-Z5, Z7; Panasonic AG-HVX200; Canon XF100 and XF300; Red, Silicon Graphics and others...

So... set a budget and define "good".

Canon, Panasonic and Sony are "good" consumer, prosumer and professional camcorder manufacturers. So is JVC. GoPro and Contour make "good" action cameras.

Tripods and other steadying devices, mics, and maybe lights and a bunch of other equipment will be needed, too.

dSLRs (like the T3i and 5D Mark 2) are designed to capture still images. They can do well with that. Download and read the manuals from Canon... problems capturing video include overheating (and shutting down - cool down is a long time), motor noise from the zoom and focus motors will be recorded by the internal mic, internal mic is mono, use of good XLR mics requires a XLR adapter (juicedLink or BeachTek), file size limitations, video duration limitations, and more... These can be worked around, but the experience tells you how to workaround... This does not mean they cannot capture good video - they can - but it is a challenging and sometimes difficult environment to deal with. You might save money in the immediate term, until you learn that the video capture device is not the only investment needed...

If video is important, then use a camcorder. If stills are important, then use a dSLR.

Good camcorder for short films?




Amy Everde


I'm looking for a good camcorder as I want to make some short films for YouTube. I'm willing to pay around 1000 euro. It would also be good if it had night vision. Thanks in advance :)


Answer
HD camcorders interpolate the video, which means of every 25 frames of video, 4 or 5 frames are taken by the lens assembly; the other frames in between these are filled in by the camcorder inner circuitry, thus giving you not true video. It looks like this -one frame from the lens assembly, 7or 8 from the electronic circuitry, one frame from the lens assembly, 7or 8 from the electronic circuitry, one frame from the lens assembly, 7or 8 from the electronic circuitry, one frame from the lens assembly, 7or 8 from the electronic circuitry, from front to back of the video. Near impossible to edit, even when you have the Multi processor computer with the big Graphics and sound cards that is required to edit, view, watch and work with the files a HD camcorder produces.

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.

MiniDV is currently the most popular format for consumer digital camcorders. MiniDV camcorders are typically more affordable than their HDD and DVD counterparts. Each MiniDV tape will typically hold an hour of footage at normal recording speed and quality. MiniDV tapes are available for purchase at not only electronic and camera stores, but also at drugs stores and grocery stores, making them easy to find while your on vacation. There are literally hundreds of MiniDV camcorders available; both in standard and high-definition. And add the fact that to get a HD camcorder that could produce better video quality footage, one would have to spend in excess of $3500 for that camcorder that could produce higher quality video.

http://simplevideoediting.com/learn/part1_camcorder_choices.htm

http://simplevideoediting.com/learn/part2_connect_camcorder.htm

http://www.canon.ca/inetCA/products?m=gp&pid=1017#_030




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