Quantcast

digital video camera ? what one?

pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
I know nothing of digital video cameras.

I have a budget of under 500 bucks and I would like to have a wide angle lens.

what should I look for? i don't even know the terms...megapixels or what?

mini dv
dvd
?

lil help?

:oink:
thanks.
 
Meat Foot

Meat Foot

Monkey
Mar 24, 2004
269
0
On the asthenosphere
Pull up a chair.

I am using a Panasonic mini-DV format corder. I like it so far. Simple to use, travels nicely, and takes good quality DV. I spent like $600 for it last year (the sumpin sumpin....PV-GS120). Anyways, if you have a digi still camera, don't really get hung up on the megapixles cuz it is going to add $$$ (take this as an opinion, for sure). I like the Panasonic's 3 CCD technology, at the time I felt I was getting a really good mini-DV versus an OK DVD variety for the same price. I reasoned at the time I did not need to go straight to a DVD, but rather I would edit and burn at another date. The interface is nice. One thing I wish this one does (the bigger bro, the 200, does this) is go straight to a SD card. This would be nice, but you would need a very large SD card to get large amounts of material on it.

I use it for family stuff. Trying not to get too sentimental here. Anyways, that is all I know, not a whole lot.
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
what do these terms mean?

ccd? i see 1 and 3 of these? what one is better?
mini-DV
DVD (digital video disc? *seriously feel stupid right about now.. how does this apply to a camera?
SD card

thanks...
 
Meat Foot

Meat Foot

Monkey
Mar 24, 2004
269
0
On the asthenosphere
pnj said:
what do these terms mean?

ccd? i see 1 and 3 of these? what one is better?
mini-DV
DVD (digital video disc? *seriously feel stupid right about now.. how does this apply to a camera?
SD card

thanks...
Click to expand...
Sorry, got ahead of myself.
CCD - in lay terms it is what collects the information to make an image, in this case 3 (R - red, G - green, and B - blue). So the more the merrier. A better image.

mini-DV is digital tape. Still have to search through tape to the scene you want to play. Can be recorded over and over with some degredation. Relatively cheap, easy to get. DVD blanks are becoming comon too though.

DVD - Records to DVD is just that, your images are getting burned right to a DVD. Once done, you pop it into a player and watch on TV. With a mini-DV, typically you have to plug in the camera through inputs on your TV or receiver of your A/V system to watch. Similar to VHS player.

SD - Secure Digital card is like what you find in some still digital camers. CF compact flash etc. With a card, you record typically compressed video. So you can record MPEG-4 or older MPEG-1 (I am still in the learning phase of this).

Check out epinions for some options. I am done for the night :dead: ....

Cheers!
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
a bump for the day people...

any specific video cameras you like that are under $400ish?

any reason to get mini DV vs. disc ?
 
Tenchiro

Tenchiro

Attention K Mart Shoppers
Jul 19, 2002
5,407
0
New England
Make sure to get one with an IEEE 1394 output for easy video capture to your PC.

EDIT - USB2.0 would probably work as well, but Firewire is more commmon. My camera has both, and it makes caprtruing the video a breeze.
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
Tenchiro said:
Make sure to get one with an IEEE 1394 output for easy video capture to your PC.
Click to expand...
wouldn't they all come with that? how else are you supposed to get the video onto your computer?
 
justsomeguy

justsomeguy

Monkey
Oct 3, 2005
723
0
pnj said:
any reason to get mini DV vs. disc ?
Click to expand...
MiniDV is a much better capture format than DVD due to the fact that you have more information, less compression, virtually no quality loss during editing, and more editing options (applications).

It requires a few more steps to output your edited MiniDV stream to a DVD but the end result is better video.

If you aren't as concerned with quality and don't want to hassle with editing then a DVD camera would be the way to go.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,161
1,261
NC
If you've got some patience, keep an eye on www.bensbargains.net. Dell has coupon codes all the time for digital video cameras and you may be able to snag something that's normally outside of your price range for a good discount.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom