I was filming for my surf movie yesterday, and my camera has a really good zoom. My dad was filming with that camera from the shore. I came in and he said that all of the videos were blurry. Does anybody know of a goodcamcorder (as opposed to a camera that can take video.) that is cheap but still good?
They were blurry probably due to the zoom being fully used. Yesterday, there was sun and clouds. That could of also grained up some of your vidz. What kind of cam are you using?
Expecting your powershot point-and-shoot-try-to-do-everything camera to deliver the goods is tantamount to expecting a Fiat 500 to drive like a Ferrari. It's just not doable. Start saving your coins to upgrade. If you require one camera to do all, look into a Nikon D7000 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=nikon+d7000&N=0&InitialSearch=yes)which will provide inter-changable lenses for both stills and video, but at a considerably higher price. If you have a REALLY limited budget, your best first investment would be in a solid tripod. That single purchase will do the absolute most to improve what you capture with your point-and-shoot camera. In the meantime, ask yourself what you really need in a camera, if it's only video, consider getting a dedicated video camera, but don't be fooled into thinking that any camera will do. 1) Opt for Optical zoom, NOT digital zoom! Digital is always considerably grainier. 3) Invest in quality optics (lens) because clarity and sharpness really depends heavily upon good glass in a quality arrangement and good mount.
MD Surfer, I'm looking to sell my GL2, its in perfect condition, kept in a hard shell case since day 1. I've only used the same brand/model tapes in it ( maybe about 25 tapes all together ) , and never used for capture. I also have the wide angle lens, and a small minidv sony cam for capture. What do you think I can get for it? I'd take $750 for all?
Sometimes B&H buys old gear, or you can poke around E-bay a bit. The difficulty you'll have getting top dollar is that the medium has abandoned tape in favor of flash media cards which allow for faster import of footage instead of in real time. I'm sort of stuck with my GL-2, but it still does what I want it to do, so I guess I qualify as a dinosaur, just like my camera. Kdiddy8, quality imaging depends directly upon quality gear, and that's rarely as cheap as you're thinking you can get. If I were you, I'd make a counter offer to spleeft and see if he's willing to deal, but I'd say he's made a reasonable offer if he's provided an accurate description. $189 will get you a Powershot like you've got, and you already know that it's not up to the task you want to do. I paid $2800 for my GL-2 five years ago.
No problema, just sharing my experience in the field. Wouldn't it be nice if politicians could be as willing to help without anything in return being necessary? Good luck with getting your camera sold. E-bay has one currently @ $406, but not with the extra import camcorder with it. I've found that logging footage with a Canon ZR-800 is a LOT less problematic than it was with the GL-2. Did you find likewise?
If your willing to spend, get the Canon 5D Mark II. Best camera out there for videoing in my opinion.
Unfortunately Good AND Cheap rarely fall into the same category. From what I read and from what I see higher end DSLR cameras have stunning video quality and being able to use your lenses allows you to get great depth of field in your video without having to spend very big bucks on a pro level video camera. Th 5D takes fantastic video and I believe there was a major television show that shot an entire episode using a Cannon DSLR. I forget the name but it was on par with an ER or Law and Order level show I believe. If you are hoping to get quality video qith a point and shoot you will be disappointed. And the comment about digital zoom is 100% correct. Digital zoom in my opinion is pointless. You could always go with a midlevel DSLR that has video like a D5000. That takes HD video however when you thrown on a couple decent lenses you are still in the $1000 ballpark.
I went to best buy and bought a cheap sony mini dv , I have to look when I get home to get the exact model, and it works perfect. I found that I couldnt capture with a Cannon because of the firewire using the same bus as my external drive? ...or something like that. and I didnt want to capture on the system drive. A friend also said there is still a market for the GL2 with the open access channels, and with all of the extras i have, case, batteries, capture cam, etc...I should get what I'm asking. I'm leaving for PR tomorrow with my contour, and hope to get lots of great footage ! Thanks again ,MD !
I've been using a Panasonic GS500 that records on mini dv tapes and it's still going strong since 2006. But mini dv tapes are getting harder to come by (used to sell them at the local Costco for a decent price), and I recently spent like $25 for 6 tapes. I know you can re-use them, but I don't re-record on them. Hard to justify getting a new camcorder when the one you got is working fine, but the money I'm buying for tapes could be used for a high def camcorder. Been researching the Panasonic HDC-TM900K that can shoot 1080 60 progressive and shoot decent stills as well as capture images while recording. Read some complaints about audio noise when perfectly quiet, but for the beach I don't think it's an issue, especially if your editing the footage later with music. But then I got to hold a Canon t3i last week that an uncle just got, and saw that it can capture at a setting of 720p 60 frames per second (yes, not 1080 at 60fps, but still good), which is the setting i use with my go pro on the 9'0". I've generally been happy with the way my Panasonic has held up if your on a budget under a grand, but if you got the cash, it sounds like the higher end Canons are the way to go. Good luck. Ryan
totaly agree with a dslr for video. and for less than the t3i you can get the older one, the t2i, 720p video@60fps . just got one a while ago and its awesome aand i got the camera a 18-55mm lens a 55-250mm lens a 8gb disk and a bag all for $799 from costco. highly recomended. its also an 18mega pixel camera and can shoot 3.7fps(not alot but good to start with) awesome camera
some of you really seem to know what you're talking about, so correct me if I'm wrong here... wouldn't a compact interchangable lens camera (i.e. sony nex3 or panasonic gf3) be a better option than a low-end DSLR if the OP wants to do video? I would figure that for tracking someone surfing, the auto-focusing on one of those would work better. To the OP... you might also want to dive into your camera settings and make sure you're using what you have in the best way. In particular, how you tell the camera to focus can make a huge difference.
