I have a client who's pretty bad with techy stuff that I help with importing and editing videos and putting them on youtube and dvd. he's been making videos for 20 years and it isn't till now that he's finally able to put them together into movies. That vast majority of his stuff is on VHS or some other form of analog tape. Anyways, he wants to get a new camera preferably HD but wants to spend about $400. So I was looking for some recommendations, I told him he might want to look into spending more instead of trying to cheap out cause this is an important purchase. So I'll probably be able to talk him into spending a little more but what would you guys recommend. I'd like the camera to be tripod mountable as well.

My dad has an old Canon GL1 that he doesn't use anymore so I may look into selling that but it's not HD. It's a great camcorder though.

 

In general, Canon or Sony and one that records to a media card. No moving parts to worry about.

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/cameras-photography-44/hd-video-cameras-703759/

https://acurazine.com/forums/cameras-photography-44/hd-camcorder-377764/

https://acurazine.com/forums/cameras-photography-44/bad-time-buy-camcorder-380690/

 

Youre not going to find a worthwhile HD camera for under $400 unless you find some bargain on old technology...which you might.

Sony, Canon, and Panasonics new line of consumer HD have all come out/coming out this month and last month.

 

^yeah I've come to that conclusion. This guy doesn't have a lot of $$. He was shocked when I told him it'd be $400 to build his pc. I'm starting to think he should buy my dads canon gl1 it's a nice SD camera. You guys have any better ideas for an SD camcorder? My dad will probably want $700 for the gl1.

 

The reason I mentioned the threads I did (which I should have stated ) is that there was some good info in them about editing. Generally speaking, the AVCHD format used by a majority of the consumer HD cameras requires either a boatload of disk space or a boatload of computer horsepower to edit. If the guy you're trying to help out is into editing his stuff and he has limited computer resources, then a SD camera may be the way to go.

 

I'd be shocked if the GL1 is worth that much. in fact I'll go ahead say it isnt. That camera is almost a decade old.

He can get many SD cameras in the $400 price range.

 

^my dad is an ebay nut and he says he's been watching at least half a dozen GL1s get sold on there. He said they went anywhere from $650 to $900. he's got the wide angle lens, extended life battery, car charger, carrying case, etc, so...

here's one that's currently at $611 with almost 2 days left and it's got 20 bids already.
http://cgi.ebay.com/WOW-CANON-GL-1-W...1%7C240%3A1308

there's definitely a market for it.


I spoke with my client tonight and he says he wants me to go with him to best buy to pick one out. I said he should buy one online and save about 20%, so he's probably gonna end up giving me the money and having me pick one out for him and buy it cause he's doesn't know about this stuff.

Thanks for the links billiam, I'm gonna finish reading them right meow.

 

I was surprised too, but I recently sold my XL1S for $1,300.

There's a market for these 3 chip SD cams.

 

would you guys still say that the panasonics are better than the sonys and canons?

 

depends on the camera.

consumer, I might give the edge to sony.

Actually in light of everything that Sony has done in the last year...I have gone back to preferring their video products over panasonic, but panny is still good.

 

Ok I got some asst. questions. What can you guys tell me about this "wind screen" technology that stops wind noise? It seems like it'd be similar to noise cancellation stuff that are in headphones. Also the zoom microphone it supposedly zooms in the sound when you zoom in with the lens. Does it switch from an omni-directional mic to a directional one? Do both of these things work effectively?

Are HD cameras better at recording SD video than an SD only camera? I see that HD cameras have bigger CMOS sensors, would that give them an advantage when shooting SD over SD cameras which have smaller CMOS sensors? Is size of the CMOS sensor an indicator of picture quality? Are there any cameras that record SD natively in mp4 format? It seems most use mpeg2.

I spoke with my client today and I got him to bump the price range up to $550. So I should be able to find something good now, even an HD camera.

 

wind screen...gimic basically everyone has. more or less a high frequency pass through filter.

zoom asst mic...never heard of it, sounds super gimicky.

Yes...the idea is the higher resolution you go the better the lower res will be...in theory. That said some HD cameras have proven to have same or sometimes less than stellar SD quality.

I guessing this guy really doesnt know his asshole from a hole in the ground when it comes to this. Get him the least expensive HD camera and call it day.

 

Yeah, no he doesn't! That's what I was planning. Thanks for the help!

 

Ok I think I've decided on the Canon Vixia HF100 HD camcorder. I can pick one up for about $500. I'm hearing the Sony DSC-CX12 is really good too but it's just outside of the price range. I'm sure he'll be happy with the Canon.

 

I have the HF100. Overall, it's a godd camera for the money. The one thing I'll mention is that IQ tends to fall apart pretty fast and get noisy in low light situations.

 

stunna, love the avatar

 

Really? The reviews said it handled low light pretty well which was one of the reasons I chose this camera. The guy shoots a lot of low light scenes so that was an important criteria. How is the SD video on it? I think he's gonna do mostly SD for now and then later on switch to HD.

They say the Sony is better at low light but it's about $150 too much.
Thanks!

 

Can't say. I've never shot anything but the highest bit rate HD.