Help me choose a camera for recording video with

LaCabra

So as some of you have heard I raised three thousand bucks and now Gabe Newell and Erik Johnson from Valve are flying over here to hang out. I promised the internet I'd film it, but I don't have a camera that records video. I also know very little about cameras which record video. Do you call them video cameras? Or am I out of date? Whatever! Erik says:

Erik Johnson wrote:

I would bring some kind of camera. We can cover the costs of that if you're ok with taping.

So presumably I should buy or look into renting a camera. But without spending too much money. Except, I have no idea how much is too much.

The criteria is basically

• it has to record passable video
• it has to record it for a few hours
• it has to not be huge and cumbersome
• I have to be able to get the video onto my computer for editing without massive hassles

Any ideas, O Internet?

Funguy McAids

I just bought a Nikon D90 digital SLR. It's the first SLR that does video I think so the quality is great though you have to manually focus. Just stick a big memory stick in there and you can record for a long time, also depending on the video quality you set it to.

When finished just pop the memory stick into your computer and you have the video ready to play or conversion.

This camera cost around $1000 Us i think, though I bet you can get better video-devoted cameras for more.

It is not a big camera at all. Here's some pictures:

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-SLR/25446/D90.html

LaCabra

I'm probably hoping for something less awesome (and expensive) than that.

Blake T

The flip is somewhere between two and three hundred dollars, it's not fancy but it is good enough.

LaCabra

What is the flip?

Blake T

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=flip

Monolithic_Dome

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/645014-REG/Kodak_1795897_Zi8_Pocket_Video_Camera.html

That is Kodak's competitor to the flip video. It gets some good reviews, but the main extra feature it has is an external microphone jack.

You want that + Tripod + Lav Mic, and then you'll be rollin'

EDIT: Let me explain a bit more. Most people's two biggest errors when filming something is that the human hand sucks at keeping something steady and that most cameras come with shitty omnidirectional mics. Tripod fixes problem A, Lav mic (or a shotgun mic would work too) fixes problem B, so you can actually hear your subject and not the AC vent behind the camera.