Digital Video Camera experts here!

Colin Colenso

Colin Colenso

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I want to get a Digital Video Camera with reasonably good still photo capabilities. Need for website video streaming and pics.

I don't need pro-level, at least not for a year or so.

I thought I remembered a thread here on this topic a few months back, but couldn't find it in a search.

Can anyone recommend a suitable model?
 
Colin Colenso said:
I want to get a Digital Video Camera with reasonably good still photo capabilities. Need for website video streaming and pics.

I don't need pro-level, at least not for a year or so.

I thought I remembered a thread here on this topic a few months back, but couldn't find it in a search.

Can anyone recommend a suitable model?
Click to expand...

You might want to try Speed guide . Another would be CNET forums.

Rod
 
It's been about a year and a half since I shopped for a camera. I did a lot of research then and found that digital cameras were good for stills OR for video- but not really both.

Even though the regular digital camera might "do" video, the main thing is that you can't zoom in and out while shooting video (this is realy irritating)and the picture isn't crystal. OR if you get a video camera, it isn't all that great for stills.

I hope it's changed since then... I was following advice from a lot of customer reviews on Amazon and other places and trying things out at BestBuy, CostCo, Fry's, etc. (i really like to shop for gadgets.)
 
My father-in-law is kinda an electronics consumer expert. He purchases almost every model, tries it, then returns it. He did this last year with home DVD recorders and settled on a LG and just recently bought a panasonic digital camcorder. Send me a PM to remind me and I'll PM you back the model number that he purchased.
 
Colin Blah Blah is right first you have to identify which is yor priority, video or pics, eg which one you want best quality?

If all it is is for web then really you wont be wanting top qualirty video as users just wouldnt be able to download it. Whatever video you use you will be dramatically reducing its quality for the web anyway. I have a lot of Sony stuff which I really like. The last camera I bought was the V3 because it does 30 fps video which is great TV quality but is primary a top end pic camera. I find I don't use my video camera hardly anymore as this does both. Memory is expensive though and I bought a 2gb mem stick for about $400 which is prob cheaper now. But can get over an hour video on it at 15fps.

Hope this helps
 
I did alot of research on Camcorders when buying one over X-mas for family. Panasonic were the best reviewed by far.
 
Thanks for all the replies!

I found an alternative, a quality still camera with good video capability that allows zooming during use. It's the Casio EX-P505 Digital Camera. Thought some of you might like to see that and make comments.

About $410 on ebay includes 1gb card that allows up to 2 hours of video.
Previews here:
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/03/09/casio_p505.html
and here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1-GB-SD-CASIO-E...538119047QQcategoryZ30019QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

You can see a demo movie here.
http://www.oreillynet.com/examples/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/03/exp505_video.mov
Certainly looks good enough for shooting some samples on a pool table and will take great quality pics.
 
Well, this thread is right on time for me. I am just finishing up a transcript of a presentation for a Federal Government entity relating to digital cameras and imaging.

For the first time in 4 years, I have FINALLY learned how to turn off my flash! I have NEVER been able to figure it out. I have the manual, read it, and there is so much mumbo jumbo, but NOTHING that revealed how to turn the flash off. Well, after typing this transcript, I am enlightened and can see the light [pun intended] :p

First and foremost, it is important to buy a digital camera with a glass lens and not a plastic one, and second, look for a digital camera that has an opitical zoom and not a digital zoom. The digital zoom can produce blurry pictures when not used correctly, and the quality of digital zooming is generally poor. Whereas, the optical zoom creates pictures with clarity for close-up shots. Third, the expert did stress the importance of READING the manual (LOL).

Megapixels go up as high as 10, but depending on your use, a camera with less megapixels can be quite sufficient for personal photography. My old digital happens to be a 2-megapixel, but there are some very nice digital cameras with 5-plus megapixel for 300 bucks. Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Canon, and Fuji are some brand names which were recommended.

Then there are terms like "aperture," "F-stop," and "macro mode" which, if you understand what they do and how to adjust them on your digital camera, you will be producing high-quality photos, just like the pros.

Another little tip, right before you snap the picture, hold your breath to avoid any movement. The slightest little jerk or shake will produce a blurry picture.

Hope this helps because it sure did help me this morning to learn about my digital camera. :)

Now, as far as the digital VIDEO cameras, the advice given was to immediately go out and buy a memory stick and rechargeable batteries. The video digital cameras in particular use up batteries quite quickly. The nickel metal hydrate batteries can be recharged within 30 minutes.

JAM
 
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try the sony dcr-hc1000. great for stills and streaming video. you'll get higher resolution with the PAL version vs. NTSC. megapixel stills with memory stick @1152x864. also 60 seconds of direct MPEG stream conversion in camera without external host processing. another plus is usb live streaming for webcast. hope this helps. bhphoto.com is agreat site for purchasing research.
 
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