Clueless about HD Cameras.

Sweeney Jet

Sweeney Jet

Clueless about HD Cameras. PLEASE TELL WHICH IS A GOOD ONE!

Hi, I was the guy who was making a VERY low budget indie film. Thanks again for all the advices!

But my miniDV cam crapped out and it is dead.

I am in the market for a new, better, and uh... not-so cheap, but no-so expensive HD camera. Prosumer kind? But I don't know WHICH one and why... help? Prefer ones that record onto a miniDV tape. And that's relatively not so expensive. Like 100 (hah!) to 1 G's or just a little above it...?

Please hit me back...
 
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There are three things that are VERY important when getting a camera:

Three CCD’s
Manual controls for the iris, shutter, focus and white balance.
A microphone input.

In the $1,000 - $1,500 range:

The JVC GZ-MG505 is in the $800 range. It has a mic input and
records to a 30GB HHD. The downside is the MPEG-2 compression.
This high compression is lower quality than MiniDV and most
editing software don’t work well this this compressed video.

I like the new JVC GZ-HD7. I’ve seen these on line for as little as $1,200.
A really nice Fujinon lens makes a huge difference and full manual
controls is important. Three 1/5’ 16:9 progressive scan CCD’s are pretty
impressive for a camera in this price range. It records directly to a built in
60GB hard drive. It has manual controls, a mic input and an excellent
focus ring which is surprisingly rare on small cameras.

Both the JVC HD5 and HD6 have a mic input and both record to HDD - the
HD6 can record 1080/60p through HDMI - pretty impressive.

Close is the Canon HV20. It records in HDV (1080i) and 24p (60i), has a mic
input and manual controls of white balance and focus but it uses one 1/2.7”
CMOS sensor rather than 3 CCD’s. For me the jury is still out on the CMOS.
And it’s so small the handling is difficult.

The HV30 adds a 30f (Canon’s “frame mode”) in addition to 24p.

The Sony HDR-SR12 has a mic input and a good sized 120GB HDD. It uses a
1/3” CMOS chip and like the Canon is really small. Because of the input placement,
the mic cable kept getting in my way. The HR9 (which records to tape) is also
a nice, very small, camera with the essentials. Again the mic input is just below
the lens which is rather poor placement, in my opinion.
 
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Thanks, guys. Checked out the cams listed here and I am still contemplating.

Also, I'm trying to buy it from eBay. Is that okay?

And what's better? Recording into a HD miniDV tape or an HDD or a memory card? Whats the difference?

And my Laptop only accepts firewire? I dunnow much about that either...
 
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You probably want a shotgun mic, and a boom! I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a boom mic. My suggestion is to make a homemade boom, per Knightly's DIY instructions ( Yafi Underground Media - click on equipment ), then, after you've saved all that money, collect aluminum cans and sell them until you've got $300 to get a decent shotgun microphone and an adapter to plug it into an unbalanced input until you can afford an XLR/balanced pre-amp.

I know you're thinking, "that's $500 worth of equipment when I said I can only spend $200". Well here's the low down. Audio is really, really important, and you're going to have that microphone for 10 or 20 years, by which time you'll have purchased 5 cameras. Buy a good mic, treat it well, and it will serve you indefinitely. It will probably also hold it's resale value.

Let me say again; "Audio is very important". It may be more important than image quality in many cases. Who cares that you've got a great picture if nobody can hear the dialog?

Doug
 
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Sweeney Jet said:
And what's better? Recording into a HD miniDV tape or an HDD or a memory card? Whats the difference?
And my Laptop only accepts firewire? I dunnow much about that either...
Click to expand...

miniDV tape is probably the highest quality in the consumer range. You must capture the video in sequential fashion (you have to play the video and capture it at the same speed it was recorded). I've been doing it that way for years. It doesn't bother me much, but sometimes I wish I didn't have to do it. One huge advantage of tape, in my opinion, is archival storage. I never overwrite tapes, so I can always go back and fetch video clips that I've erased or lost.

HDD and memory card are similar in the way they work except that a memory card takes less power (longer battery life) and an HDD probably has more capacity (more recording time for the same quality). Both of them allow non-sequential or random access, so you can copy clips from them simply by dragging and dropping the clips onto your hard drive in any order you want. You just have to wait for the transfer, which is generally faster capturing from tape.

In the consumer world, all video formats are squeezed using specific formulas that have names, like MPEG-2, AVCHD (Wiki definition). Your computer software must be able to understand the specific method of squeezing in order to return your movie to an editable state. I believe most editing suites now support the more common compression. If you stick with Rik's list (that was an excellent list, Rik ... I don't know how you keep up with all of these consumer cams), you'll be in the mainstream formats, so you need not worry too much. If you purchase some off-the-wall consumer camera that uses some secret squeezing formula, it's possible you'll be stuck using their software to convert everything ... if you can even get it off the camera.

Stick with Canon, Sony, JVC or Pansonic and you should be just fine. I can't speak for E-bay; it works when it works, but you must be careful. There is a used department at many of the large camera resellers and they will stand behind what they sell.

Doug
 
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One more note about memory cards; they are often just for storage of still images and configuration data, not for video. The video cameras that use standard memory cards, probably record with very limited/poor quality.
 
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the Sanyo Xacti line is pretty impressive
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with that one, Will. I admit, my knowledge of consumer cams is limited.

There is a used department at many of the large camera resellers...
Click to expand...
I know B&H Photo has a used department (they sell used equipment that they have tested and inspected), and I believe Adorama probably does also. I can vouch for B&H, and their excellent level of service. It's a pretty safe bet, buying from B&H. They're not going to steal your money, you can use your credit card, and they will let you return the equipment if there is a problem.

There are probably other, reputable camera shops that will do the same thing. I am not saying E-Bay is bad, but you don't really know what you're dealing with, unless you've had previous dealings with the same vendor.

Doug
 
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