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Help Reacquaint Me With the World of Camcorders (1 Viewer)

cineMANIAC

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Firstly, I had a heck of a time finding the proper place to post this thread. The search function is a valuable tool but typing in "HD Camcorders" got me pretty much nowhere - I was starting to wonder if it was such a dead subject that the site had actually dropped it from the forums. Never thought to look in the photography section LOL. By the way, when I think of photography I automatically think photo cameras, not video. Anyway, on to my query.

The last time I purchased a "video camera", as I like to call them, was in the late 90's - a full-sized VHS. I've always liked the big ones because of their stability and because, well, they looked cool. I felt like Steven Spielberg walking around with my "movie camera" shooting video of anything that moved. I sort of lost interest as the years went by and never bothered to upgrade to smaller formats. Then, all of a sudden, videotape-based cameras were gone and replaced by DVD cams and, currently, flash drive and SD-card-only models the size of the palm of my hand. Well, I'm now in the market for a new camcorder and have absolutely no idea what to invest in. As I pleasantly found out, camcorder prices have come down in price quite a bit these days and the cameras themselves, while somewhat sadly for me as I still prefer larger ones, are smaller than ever - which could, I guess, be a good thing. So, what are the benefits of a camera that shoots video onto a tiny SD card and, more importantly for me, can I easily transfer that footage onto a physical BD-R disc? What about editing the footage, keeping in mind that I'm no Spielberg? I'm currently considering the older Canon G20 as my next camcorder.

Also, are cameras that record onto a physical format, be it DV or DVD, completely obsolete?

Thanks in advance for your advice :)
 

Thomas Newton

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If you are just shooting Standard Definition video, an old Hi8, Digital8, or MiniDV camcorder might be adequate. You can still get blank media, and these types of camcorders had a good combination of portability and quality "back in the day". If you are looking to buy a new camcorder, just about all of the consumer models on the market are HD (and sometimes 4K) camcorders that have built-in flash and/or slots for SDxC cards.

One advantage of shooting directly onto a SDxC card is that the cards are largely immune to shock (e.g., jostle a DVD camcorder and it might skip a beat) or to tape head misalignment. Another is that you can easily transfer the contents to a computer. (MiniDV and Digital8 provided easier transfers to a computer than their analog counterparts, but the transfers were still in real time.)

There are packages you can get to author BD-R discs. As for archiving the raw footage and the edited project, I would think that hard disks are best for that. Keep at least one backup hard drive (those bus-powered USB notebook hard drives are good for this) to protect against losing video in the event of something bad (like a head crash).
 
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ManW_TheUncool

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The Canon G20 looks nice in that range. I probably would've considered it over the Panny V770 (that I bought early this month) if it was priced closer to that ballpark (and maybe have a longer tele end)... or if I plan on shooting video more regularly -- I mostly only shoot videos of my kids' recitals/concerts and had been using my Nikon D800 (w/ external mic) for that... though I'm thinking to add the dedicated videocam for 2nd set of footages to do some cut editting to avoid/minimize zooming (and for occasions when I just cannot use a DSLR)... while the smartphone works alright enough for impromptu stuff.

Since it sounds like you haven't done any video stuff in a long time and also may not have done much, if any, non-linear editing (NLE) in the past, you may need to consider whether your computer is powerful/suitable enough for whatever editing you'll do (at the kind of performance level you find acceptable), which could mean upping the overall cost by a good deal (as much as 100% or so). IF you were planning to upgrade your computer very soon anyway, I'd recommend going for something w/ a Core i7 (preferably quad-core and up). And if you're buying a new computer, you can probably get something like Adobe Premiere Elements (maybe as part of their Elements bundle) included at discount for the editing software -- that should be plenty enough for basic NLE although it may take some getting used to (w/ some of the settings, etc.), especially if you've never done any video editing before. Some PCs might also come w/ other competing basic NLE software included, if you need to cut that cost -- my Core i7 Dell XPS 8700 came w/ some lite(?) version of Cyberlink Media Suite (w/ a lite version of Power Director?) for this when I bought it ~2.5 years ago, but I decided to add the Adobe Elements bundle anyway.

BTW, nowadays, you can probably easily play the raw video footage straight from SD card on most recent model TVs that have the card slot, if you want. And many BD players and set-top boxes could probably also do so whether w/ dedicated card slot or via USB card reader -- I've done that (w/ a card reader) on occasion via my Oppo 103. And you could probably also stream your videos from a directly connected USB drive or over your home network, if you want, instead of using BD-Rs. IF you want to share videos, you might find the cloud to be a better way than DVD/BD-R in many instances.

And yeah, as Thomas mentioned above, keep backups.

_Man_
 

DaveF

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How about...your smartphone? They shoot HD or better. Video is easily edited on board or later on a computer. Storage is good for shorts and video "snapshot". And probably already own it.

Maybe not the right choice if your aspirations are more "professional", but for an enthusiast testing the waters after a long hiatus, it seems a great option.
 

cineMANIAC

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Thanks for the replies, guys.

I don't own a smartphone (or even a cell phone lol) so that's not an option. Besides, I cringe at the notion of phones taking over for professional or even consumer photo/video equipment.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Smartphones are perfectly fine for carry-everywhere, impromptu short-ish clips me thinks -- stuff where you weren't expecting much, if anything, and probably wouldn't be lugging dedicated gear.

For anything more substantial than that, although some smartphones may have good enough basic hardware and maybe a decent 3rd party camera app, you'd end up having to buy, lug and use additional gear anyway to come close to the results of using a good camcorder... and that's assuming you can zoom w/ your feet as none of them offers optical zoom -- maybe there's some odd, recent smartphone that offers a small amount of optical (and/or good enough digital) zoom, but nothing remotely close to a good camcorder though... and image stabilization also becomes more important as you zoom into tele range.

That link DaveF provided illustrates that reality. They didn't just use an iPhone6 and nothing else during the shoots -- and they probably didn't need in-camera zooming. They even used what seems to be a rather cumbersome Glidecam stabilization gear that (cost as much as the Panny V770 I bought and) most of us would never use w/ a camcorder or even a DSLR -- granted, it probably works better than standard in-camera IS (at least for wide-to-medium shooting). Hard to imagine myself using that for my kids' recitals/concerts though... as if I don't already look like a serious gear-head, helicopter/stage-dad w/ my D800+70-200/300mm telezoom+Tascam DR2D (or Rode Videomic)+tripod rig... haha... :P I haven't even seen your avg paid, semi-pro/pro videographer use something like the Glidecam before... that's not to say I would never consider getting/using one though (if I ever get more serious about video)... ;) :D

BTW, a New Yorker who still doesn't even have a basic cell phone? Wow! :eek: :D Meanwhile, almost everyone I know have been looking to cut the cord, if they haven't already, and relying completely on their smartphones nowadays :P -- I haven't done that myself although I did finally switch the landline from Verizon to TWC (and saving a few bucks) after finally ditching V's DSL service w/ no FiOS in sight in my nabe... :rolleyes:

Anyhoo...

_Man_
 
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DaveF

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Thanks for the replies, guys.

I don't own a smartphone (or even a cell phone lol) so that's not an option. Besides, I cringe at the notion of phones taking over for professional or even consumer photo/video equipment.

Ermm....It's not a notion. "Phones" -- pocket computers with high resolution cameras and sophisticate image processing -- have taken over consumer photo/video equipment. :)

@Sam Posten what does your group use for your mini-movie productions?
 

Sam Posten

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DSLRs. But we had an issue with a couple clips and used an iPhone to fake it. Nobody will know the difference except that the phone tries to correct for changing light (badly) in one and a DSLR wouldn't.
 

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