Decent video camera

[ATW Alex 101]

Hi

I am looking for a camera to film my trips and video diary's when I go spotting to put them on Youtube. As in time with the season, I am looking for one to be given to myself as a Christmas present.

My question to you is, can I have any advice and model numbers on a decent model that a)Has good graphics and sound quality, b)Can fit onto a tripod and c) is under £80

of course i will be doing some research myself but I feel part of that research is asking here for advice

Many thanks

 

[swj99]

It's a few years since I bought any. When I did, they were JVC GR-DX67 Mini DV camcorders. I've still got a couple of them. Did have 3 but one died about 6 months ago. They take Mini DV tapes, and apart from one dud tape, they were pretty trouble free. I've not tried the more up to date hard drive camcorders, or the DVD ones. Mini DV camcorders record AVI which is uncompressed, and one hour of video takes up about 16GB of space on a computer hard drive.

Here's some footage filmed on one.

[youtube]3r70bdY-ePU[/youtube]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JVC-GR-DX...ctronics_Video_Camcorders&hash=item1c2e5fceec

They fit on a tripod no problem, and the sound is reasonable. I say reasonable because in a very quiet environment you can hear the whine of the motor and / or tape mechanism unless you use an external microphone. (not just on JVCs). Another thing you often get with the built in mic is wind noise. An external mic can be covered in material (eg fake fur or foam) to avoid this.

Oh and with Mini DV camcorders, you need a firewire cable to connect from the camcorder to the computer for capturing the video footage. A USB cable isn't up to the job, because you're capturing in real time, and the data transfer rate for USB isn't quite quick enough to keep up.

I use Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 (quite antiquated by today's standards) and it works well. I got mine cheap off ebay for £8, back in the day. I don't know what version they're up to now, or how much more resource hungry it is compared to version 1.5.

Once I'd decided I wanted a camcorder, I went to Currys and had a look at what they had on offer. I chose one which at the time was priced at about £350. Then I went home and found the same thing on ebay and got it for £116 off a bloke who'd bought it a week previously and then realized it didn't have some silly feature he wanted. (it didn't have DV - in, which doesn't matter unless you want to export video from your computer back onto tape).

 

[Teaboy1]

I have just had a brief look on eVILbayand there are several bargains of the Hi8 mm tape variety. Now tape is certainly old hat by today's standards ... BUT it can still do the business especially when your budget is £80. And for £80 you will get quite a bit of extra kit thrown in free (filters, bags, batteries, etc ). Choose the JVC, Samsung and SANYO variety IMHO but avoid SONY (its just my personal opinion mind you), I find SONY prone to faults after a while but if its still working after 10 years then its probably good for another 10 years. Only down side is they will be bulky and big old lumps compared to modern stuff. DO NOT use cheap tapes either, this is your only chance to bag a one-off shot, good film is same as good tape etc etc.
Choose a tripod with a hook underneath platform so you can weigh it down. I use a pair of plastic supermarket carrier bags and just fill it with stones, ballast or rocks, it pays dividends when wind is blowing and helps to prevent camera shake. Just be sure to stop it swinging as it moves frame especially on a zoom shot. ALL cameras will have a tripod screw mount on underside.

However as soon as you go HD your budget will sky rocket as well so I would stick with Hi 8mm until the funds are in place to progress.
Do inform how you get along and welcome to the video club ... with all the problems associated with audio. Believe me you will find that unwanted sounds can ruin countless shots whereas the still's brigade dont have this problem. Good luck.

 

[igloo]

If you have a smartphone, then I wonder how well its camera stacks up compared to an 80 quid video camera? A quick Amazon search for "phone tripod mount" suggests that for 10-20 quid you'd be able to get something to attach a phone to a tripod.

 

[starrymarkb]

I have a Sanyo GH-3 - it's a pretty decent camera but the battery life is appalling (about 45 mins) - cost me £120 two years ago (was a bit rushed as my previous camera had a broken mic).

Long term I'd like to upgrade, but its perfectly sized for take-off/landing vids. Just need a bigger lens for videos at the airport

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I'm happy to pay up to £140 now just to let you know of my new budget. I also require one that takes sd/memory cards rather than cd's or tape. Thanks for the info though and please take note of my new budget. Tar

 

[Teaboy1]

Good call, solid state or flash memory is the way to go IMHO budget permitting.
Do look carefully though through evilBay and beware of fraudsters. My general rule is if its a private seller, then only bid to the amount of their feedback score! Generally anyone selling games CD's, kiddies clothes New with labels, mobile phone accessories, etc etc for a few quid and then suddenly try selling a £150 camera are to be avoided at all costs. If in doubt, always collect in person or use a POWER SELLER / business.
Seen a SONY (from ARGOS) on the bay for 130 but you need to budget for SD card on top. Go for SD HC or XC these have a better read/write speed and can handle big lumps of data but on board memory is usually good enough for beginners.
Good luck

 

[starrymarkb]

SD cards are fairly cheap now

This one for example, would hold about 4 hours of 1080p 60fps video as recorded by my camera.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Thank you for the reply's. I'm alright for memory cards as I have about 8 of them differing from 1GB to 32GB.
Also, I don't do Ebay and neither do my parents, so I'm restricted to shops and/or Amazon.

It would be great if I could have some model numbers as well

Cheers

 

[Teaboy1]

Yes ..... and No!! How so my friend especially for the upper end stuff.....?

SANDISK 128GB SDXC HD VIDEO SD 45MB/S HIGH CLASS 10 EXTREME UHS-I MEMORY CARD £108 evilBAY.

Now I dont see how your site can sell a class 10 64GB for £24.49 while next to it is a KINGSTON class 10 64GB for £188. Dont make sense unless they are Chinese fakes.
Not all of us need 25MB write / 45 MB read speed but once you start video with HD then you easily ... easily begin to reach 2MB / sec.
Aint no substitute for quality IMHO but yes, for starters, your site would be best for cheap memory. But in our line, we never have a second re-run. I have treated me to a Canon HF G10 ... but dont yet know what sort of file sizes it generates. My old one HFS100 would easily write at 1.2 MB/ sec and would hold some 5 hours video (not that I ever stored up that much)


PS. In normal mode of 1080 P the new machine is put down 910KB / sec but I have yet to crank it up ......... so its not much different from the HFS100 machine. Quality however looks far superior.
PPS 3 weeks to overcome 13 hours jet-lag !!