Camera?

[UniDudeDX]

Ive been looking around for camcorders, and i want a really good resolution one around $400.

if you've seen any of my videos you know they are really bad quality, even before they get on youtube. so if you guys could give me some advice. thanks.

[The UniSLAB]

I'm actually buying a new camera tommorow! Old one is broken and I've got about $300. I'm just gonna get a camera with decent zoom and good quality. The biggest part for me however would be the night vision. I think only sony has a good night shot so I'm probably just gonna go with a cheap sony.

Just go to Best Buy tommorow. I'm going b/c apparently they "Really" cut their prices for black friday. Only draw back, is the line...

[oneisenough]

Canon ZR series. i have the older ZR85 but i think the new ones are good too. i love mine. it was like $600 when i bought it, but the series is about the $250-$500 range now, i think, i havent really researched it much b/c i dont need a new camera and if i did get a new one it would be a professional grade camera like a Canon GL 2 or something of the sort.

[The UniSLAB]

What do you guys think about this camera?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1165610666190&skuId=8205658&type=product

[UniDudeDX]

Canon ZR series. i have the older ZR85 but i think the new ones are good too. i love mine. it was like $600 when i bought it, but the series is about the $250-$500 range now, i think, i havent really researched it much b/c i dont need a new camera and if i did get a new one it would be a professional grade camera like a Canon GL 2 or something of the sort.
where can i find them and do they have a built in hard drive or is it a mini dvd one... i dont like them.

[Jerrick]

Search.

I have posted in the other camera threads about CCD chips and what size to look for.

All your questions have been answered before.

[UniDudeDX]

kk.

[Spoonthumb]

go on ebay...optura 10 or 20 [canon]....or panisonic gs 180...then get a kneko fisheye lense...make sure you get a camera that records to mini DV...nothing else (pain to work with anything else)

[UniDudeDX]

mini dvd? i really dont like them. i like the 30 gig harddrives.

[Spoonthumb]

w/e mini dv gives you the most editin posibilitys and agruably the best quality...hard drive camcorders are easier to use/get onto you computer tho

[UniDudeDX]

okay. nice to know!

[jamessd]

i like the 30 gig harddrives.
But do you need that much... would you want to sort through that much footage?!

[UniDudeDX]

the only reasn i say that is because the only size ive been seeing is 30.

[UniDudeDX]

is this a good camera set?http://www.amazon.com/Everio-GZ-MG255-Camcorder-Telephoto-Accessory/dp/B000YFMIIS/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1195785306&sr=1-38

[Spoonthumb]

jvc's are notoriously cheap...however that looks like a nice one...it also comes with a wide angle and telephotic[zoom] lenses....so thats a plus

[UniDudeDX]

is the wide angle a fisheye?

[Spoonthumb]

no a fish eye is a fish eye and a wide angle is a wide angle, wide angle is good if you wanna show all of something or alot, fisheye is kinda a wide angle semi distorted look, spencer hochberg uses a fisheye lens i belive, you can kind of tell because things look curved, like looking into a peephole

[UniDudeDX]

i want a fisheye...haha they look cool.

[Spoonthumb]

a fisheye lense is only like 30 bucks, but in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuTSJsCsdf4, '22-28' [seconds] is a fisheye lens, the stuff before that is wide angle i believe

[Spoonthumb]

here is a fisheye lense..if you want one i would suggest a baby death or a kenko

http://www.southalley.com/valdostad/06eb03.JPG

[Jerrick]

mini dvd? i really dont like them. i like the 30 gig harddrives.


He didnt say DVD.

He said Mini DV. Its a form of tape used for recording, and its what the high quality $5000 camera use. They are good because there is no compression. With a camera recording onto a flash drive, dvd/cd, or hardrive, it gets compressed when recorded.

That makes it hard because most camera compress to a fussy mpeg codec that doesnt work well with really any editing program, so you have to convert and compress it again to something else, then usually a few other compresses/converting when your finally done with the movie.

Mini DV will give you a large, raw movie AVI that is very clean to work and edit with.

I would definitely suggest a Mini DV camera. You need a fire wire card and cable to take video form tape to computer, and the tapes only hold 1hr or can hold 1.5 hours of film, but the tapes are small, cheap, and can be reused if you want to. Not as "mac friendly" as a hardrive, but more corporate like a PC. Haha =p

Now, when looking for a camera, you want good quality. Most zoom features on cameras are never going to be used. Ive had cameras with 400x zoom, and its just pointless for any use. 10x-20x zoom is enough for recording.

A main thing to look for is CCD size. Most cameras will have 1 CCD chip in the camera. This chip is responsible for taking in light and color.

A regular camera has a 1/6" - 1/5" CCD chip, which will not give great quality, but gets the job done. So a camera with a 1/3" CCD chip will have higher quality than a camera with 1/5" CCD size.

The best quality of camera to get, will have 3CCD. One chip for each primary color, so one chip for red, one chip for blue, one chip for green. These cameras can be thousands of dollars, but I think it is JVC or Sony that has a 3CCD camera for a cheap price of a couple hundred dollars. This is the camera Spencer Hochberg (SP?) uses, and I think some other riders on here who result in a high quality video.

Well, thats my two cents.

[Spoonthumb]

He didnt say DVD.

He said Mini DV. Its a form of tape used for recording, and its what the high quality $5000 camera use. They are good because there is no compression. With a camera recording onto a flash drive, dvd/cd, or hardrive, it gets compressed when recorded.

That makes it hard because most camera compress to a fussy mpeg codec that doesnt work well with really any editing program, so you have to convert and compress it again to something else, then usually a few other compresses/converting when your finally done with the movie.

Mini DV will give you a large, raw movie AVI that is very clean to work and edit with.

I would definitely suggest a Mini DV camera. You need a fire wire card and cable to take video form tape to computer, and the tapes only hold 1hr or can hold 1.5 hours of film, but the tapes are small, cheap, and can be reused if you want to. Not as "mac friendly" as a hardrive, but more corporate like a PC. Haha =p

Now, when looking for a camera, you want good quality. Most zoom features on cameras are never going to be used. Ive had cameras with 400x zoom, and its just pointless for any use. 10x-20x zoom is enough for recording.

A main thing to look for is CCD size. Most cameras will have 1 CCD chip in the camera. This chip is responsible for taking in light and color.

A regular camera has a 1/6" - 1/5" CCD chip, which will not give great quality, but gets the job done. So a camera with a 1/3" CCD chip will have higher quality than a camera with 1/5" CCD size.

The best quality of camera to get, will have 3CCD. One chip for each primary color, so one chip for red, one chip for blue, one chip for green. These cameras can be thousands of dollars, but I think it is JVC or Sony that has a 3CCD camera for a cheap price of a couple hundred dollars. This is the camera Spencer Hochberg (SP?) uses, and I think some other riders on here who result in a high quality video.

Well, thats my two cents.

i liked that last bit on the ccd chips...i diden't know to much about them...