The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Digital Camcorders, Filming, and other assorted fun stuff
Lucascraft
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm looking into getting a camcorder for the purpose of amateur video production. Myself and some friends want to make a Youtube series.
I'll be taking a trip out to Best Buy** in a few days to look at stuff on the market, because I honestly know nothing at all about video recording equipment.
**NOTE: I'm not intending to buy from Best Buy, as I realize I can get a much better deal online. A trip to the electronics store is purely for educational purposes. A trip to get some hands-on time with some display models.
Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions on brands and models to look at.
As I stated, this is for amateur Youtube shenanigans, but I still want it to look good. Good resolution is my highest priority. But other bells and whistles, such as filming effects and other things will be taken into consideration.
Being someone with no knowledge of this side of technology, I'm looking for any and all pointers on how to get started on this endeavor.
I personally will be doing most of the filming and writing for our projects, so this is equipment that I will be using myself.
Equipment I already have:
MacBook Air
iPad 3rd generation
I'm also looking for a decent video editing software suite that won't cost me my soul and my first born child to purchase. I've got a Windows 7 desktop and a Mac laptop, so I have access to both major OS's.
If there are apps or anything for iOS and iPad Retnia, I'm interested in those as well.
I'll be taking a trip out to Best Buy** in a few days to look at stuff on the market, because I honestly know nothing at all about video recording equipment.
**NOTE: I'm not intending to buy from Best Buy, as I realize I can get a much better deal online. A trip to the electronics store is purely for educational purposes. A trip to get some hands-on time with some display models.
Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions on brands and models to look at.
As I stated, this is for amateur Youtube shenanigans, but I still want it to look good. Good resolution is my highest priority. But other bells and whistles, such as filming effects and other things will be taken into consideration.
Being someone with no knowledge of this side of technology, I'm looking for any and all pointers on how to get started on this endeavor.
I personally will be doing most of the filming and writing for our projects, so this is equipment that I will be using myself.
Equipment I already have:
MacBook Air
iPad 3rd generation
I'm also looking for a decent video editing software suite that won't cost me my soul and my first born child to purchase. I've got a Windows 7 desktop and a Mac laptop, so I have access to both major OS's.
If there are apps or anything for iOS and iPad Retnia, I'm interested in those as well.
0
Posts
-External microphone support (and a microphone to go with it, obviously). Bad sound is a lot more unforgivable than mediocre video (unless you're doing a silent movie), so being able to have a microphone you can place near the performers and away from the noise of the camera operating/being jostled around by the cameraman is a huge plus to putting together something that feels polished. Having dialogue drowned out by the sound of the camera zooming in and out, or the voices changing volume with every shot as the camera changes position will completely undermine the quality of the movie, regardless of what you accomplish visually.
(Of course, if you can't find a camcorder in your price range, you can also go old school and use a completely separate audio recorder with a mic and sync the audio up to the video in editing by using a clapperboard).
-Get a 3ccd camcorder if you can. You'll get much better color reproduction than a 1ccd model.
-Look for camcorders that offer as much manual control over focus and exposure settings as possible. Consumer cameras tend to make it harder for the user to take control of these things, in the hopes of making them idiotproof (the average person doesn't want to risk having their video of their child walking for the first time accidentally come out as a black screen because they didn't bother to check what f-stop they were shooting at, for example), but this can make for some accidental distracting effects in practice. A common example would be shooting a character indoors, and it looks great as you start the shot- but then your character moves in front of a bright window, and the camera automatically shifts the exposure to capture what's happening outside rather than keeping the character exposed correctly- so it all of a sudden plunges your character into darkness. That may be fine for home movies, but it's pretty terrible in a produced video. If you can set your exposure manually, you can make sure that the character stays lit properly through the whole shot.
-Ignore whatever the camera says about "Digital zoom". Using digital zoom is terrible, because it's just basically making the pixels of the image bigger, rather than giving you more actual information when you zoom in. Pay attention to the optical zoom rating, which is the zoom that's done with the actual lens. Turn the digital zoom off.
-If you're using a tape-based system (like I said, college was a long time ago so I kind of assume that tech is dead by now, but in case it isn't...), be sure to "blank" your tapes before recording. That means just setting your camera up with the lens cap on, and letting it record straight through to the end of the tape-then re-recording over that for your actual footage. The reason for this is to give your tape a consistent timecode, which is important if your footage gets destroyed on your computer for some reason and have to go back to your original tape; your editing files will be able to pick out the right sections of footage with the timecode data, and reassemble your project correctly. If it tries to do this from a non-blanked tape it won't be able to find the right footage, because your camcorder will start a new set of timecode data every time you make a new shot. (I don't know how hard drive based systems work, but I have to assume they are less of a pain in the ass than this.)
-If you don't have an external/backup hard drive, you'll probably want to get one. Video footage takes up a lot of space, and having to reshoot if footage gets destroyed/corrupted is generally an awful experience for everyone involved.
-You might want to check out if there are any dSLR cameras with video capability in your price range as well, as long as you're in the store checking things out. These may give you a better picture quality at a similar price to a dedicated camcorder (being able to swap out different lenses is a huge plus), but there might be some usability tradeoffs as well (no autofocus or stability controls, hard to use handheld, may not have external mic support, may not have enough storage for all-day shooting, etc.) Depending on how you're planning on shooting, it may or may not be a viable option.
-Most camcorders (well, cameras in general, really) suck at low light shooting (at least those that aren't crazy expensive), and if you haven't played around with many before you may be surprised how bright things can be, and still be considered "low light shooting". Although camcorders usually have something called "gain" to compensate (which is just the camera digitally trying boost the signal to make it seem like there's more light than there is), this degrades the visual quality dramatically, and it's best to avoid using it if you can.
This isn't really a tip for picking out a camcorder, so much as it is making sure you don't blame your camcorder for this and assume you threw your money away, get frustrated with it and throw it at a wall. If you can't afford additional lighting in your shoots, try to design what you're doing to take place at daytime rather than at night or evening. If that's impossible, you may need to try to find some cheap way of getting some additional light into your shots (using shoplights or such, or filming in locations that have a lot of artificial light anyway, such as classrooms/offices with fluorescents), or shooting day for night (ie: shooting in the daytime and using your editing software's color controls to make it look like night).
Twitter
Would there be a better retail location to do some browsing? Is there a store or chain that typically employs more knowledgeable sales-people. I fully realize that if I go into Best Buy, I will most likely have a teenage kid who knows very little about the tech, and only reads what's on the product spec card.
As I'm browsing online listings for camcorders, I'm not seeing any that specifically state that they have external mic compatibility. How do external mics even hook up? is it via bluetooth? Or USB? Or how do they sync up with the camcorder.
Do you happen to live near NYC?
B&H lets you search for cameras with mic inputs:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Features_Mic+Input&ci=1871&N=4294548093+4165122414
Microphones generally hook in with a standard microphone cable jack (looks the same as a headphone jack). If you're using some really advanced mic that uses XLR cables or is wireless or something, you might have to get an adapter that then plugs into the standard mic jack, but I doubt many cameras would have those as built-in features.
Twitter
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-HDRXR260V-High-Definition-Handycam-Camcorder/dp/B006K55018/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1357256483&sr=1-1&keywords=sony+hdr-xr260v