Digital or Video Camera Recommendations

[Whiteout01]

Anyone have any Digital or Video Camera Recommendations.  I want to start filming our sets every few weeks to see if we're progressing.  I would like something small, either a Digital Camera with a high frame per second rate or a Video camera or a combination of the two.   In the $400-800 range, lower range would be nice, +10MP camera & HD video would be great.  I was looking at the Olympus PEM EPL1 or Sears’s guy recommended Cannon XSi (I have a 4 year old Rebel 35mm film SLR and a pile of lenses if they would work). I open to any ideas or recommendations.  Thanks,

 

[RichardDoane]

my weapon of choice is the Sanyo Xacti.  I had the original version, model VPC-C6EX and it worked really well.  Have since updated to the HD 1010.  It's pretty cool.

[D Wolters]

RD, I have the exact same camera. The price was sweeeeeet!

[Whiteout01]

Thanks guys I'll check it out.

[RichardDoane]

that little Xacti was what I used to film David Miller running -39 at Imperial in 2006.  That was the first day I'd ever used that videocamera, and it was so easy to use I couldn't believe how well the clip came out.

http://www.youtube.com/doanere#p/u/34/dm2MiafBD6I

 

[Boody]

I have the Sony Vixia HF10 from Costco, which is high def.  It uses the ACDHV format.

I would NOT recommend this.  Great for recording from the shore, the color is amazing.  But from the boat, the camera is too shaky even with stabilization.  It cannot be mounted to a trakker, too shaky.

 

 

[roda]

For the Canon DSLR I think he meant the Rebel T1i which shoots HD video.

 

A useful site for tech comparisons is : http://www.dpreview.com/ or http://www.steves-digicams.com/

 

Since you have lenses its very hard to beat the features and quality of the DSLR shooting through good large glass (or plastic as most are now) for stills. Would also give you a lot of options for composing video. I have not shot video yet w/ a Canon DSLR so I can't comment on image stabilization which would be a must for our application.

 

Go to the shops and try them all, test the image stabilization and if buying a small camera to do video check the ability to zoom while shooting video, many can't do it optically, they do it digitaly which isn't the best quality. The dpreivew site did a review of waterproof cameras last year. Don't recall if any had image stabilization but they could shoot 720p video at 30fps.

 

Happy hunting.

[HO 410]

I think the Rebel T2i was used to shoot the last couple of episodes of House. The image quality is pretty impressive, but if it does not have video stabilization, it might not be watchable even with a very soft hand. With a small arsenal of lenses, you may want to upgrade even if it's not ideal for your video application. If you plan to use a Tracker mount you may be better off going the other direction and getting a Flip, or similar, mini camera. The Image is good enough, they are cheap, and quick resilient. Just on a side note, if you're looking for frame rates faster than the TV: 30fps or Film: 24fps, you are going to be looking at very, very expensive cameras.

[roda]

Faster frame rates are starting to show up... see this new Samsung for $350. Up to 1000fps but at low resolution. 60fps at 1280x720 looks promising.

 

http://www.dcresource.com/news/newsitem.php?id=4094

[HO 410]

Clearly, I have not looked closely enough at video capabilities recently enough. 60 fps at 1280x720 is not an unreasonable feature to look for. That Samsung looks pretty nice. Worth noting, the T1i is fairly limited in terms of video: at most it can do 30fps at 720p (I think that's 1280x720). The T2i will do 60fps at 1280x720, and if you care at all the T2i supports SDXC memory.

[roda]

Looks like a new waterproof HD Xacti is coming:

 

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/06/01/sanyo-xacti-dmx-ca100-worlds-first-waterproof-full-hd-camcorder-in-action-video/

 

You can see a setting for HD resolution at 60fps on the sample video.

 

From Sanyo site:

 

http://sanyo.com/news/2010/05/28-1.html

[swerveit]

only little bit of advice i can give is dont get one with a built in HDD, reason being if it gets knocked while in the boat recording it doesnt right to disk and you loose your video. with the vibration of the boat this is quite common.

worse case get a hybrid that allows you to put in a flash/memory card make sure when you record it uses the flash card.

[Donski]

Looking to pick up a new Video camera so I can start filming my sets. I read somewhere that some of the video cameras with the anti vibration features do not work well from the boat.

Any suggestion out there on which video cameras might work well.

[RichardDoane]

my sanyo Xacti has "image stalilizing" for the video mode, and it works well.

[londonskier]

I use a nikon D90. fantastic stills, but the HD video is less than average. you have to focus manually, which may be the case with other DSLR's. for video from the boat, I've just bought a flip. $100 ish and soo easy. A bit shaky, but just the job. I also have a larger JVC - better quality but I hate carrying the heavy thing. Flip fits in your bag or pocket and I really reccomend it.

[Donski]

I have a Nikon D 70 DSLR for stills, great camera. I am looking for a video camera for training purposes. Shoot a set and go back and see the ugly truth in between sets. I also have an older trakker somewhere it would be nice if it would work with it also.

I have not done any research at all on the new Video cameras.  I have heard some of the new high Tec formats or anti vibration systems don’t work very well in a boat.