i'm a college student and recently bought a macbook and love it. i wish to take advantage by making some movies and such.
i want to purchase a video camera that has great video quality, like high def. also, need good sound. need to be able to hear clear and peoples voices, with no disrupting typical wind noises, etc.
what would you recommend? i know high def cams/mini dv are like $1,200.
i can easily purchase a regular mini dv at circuit city now that they cost about $300 but feel the quality will suck on both the video and sound.
tips? advice?
anywhere i could get a great cam would be great.
i checked ebay and the prices are still about $1000. any other sites? anything!!!!
2006-12-27 22:50:51 · 4 answers · asked by Legionnaire 1 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Camcorders
HD is overkill. If you just got a macbook, and your whole purpose is to make videos of you and your friends and stuff like that, then just get an SD cam. Think about it. Do you or any of your friends have a 50 inch plasma screen in their dorms? Probably not. And SD doesnt suck, its just that the salesmen try to make it unnoticed. Also, a cheap HD cam, when viewed in HD provides less quality than an expensive SD cam, when viewed in SD. Dont forget, HDV is compressed in Mpeg-2, while SD is less compressed. Also, just because macbooks are awesome doesnt mean that they will run HD editing perfectly. Its still a resource-intensive task. And lastly, its not the format, its whats in it, although this probably wont matter much cause your making videos for memories, and not for making films.
With that said, get an SD minidv cam for about $700. Any will do, and if you are really concerned about the sound, go on ebay, get a gs400 (or gl2 :-) and dish out $150 for a rode video mic or canon dm-50 stereo mic. Or find a cam that has a hot shoe and a mic input and buy one of the above mics. As for picture quality, a 3ccd cam offers the best picture quality. In the consumer range, the upper end of panasonic's pv-gs series offers 3ccd cams. And of course look for the optical stabilizer, optical zoom, manual features (if needed), etc. Hope this helps!
2006-12-28 02:42:11 · answer #1 · answered by evilgenius4930 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The sound problems you are talking about like wind noises would be completely fixed if you just get a boom mic with a foam cover.
MiniDV is still a great high quality format and is super cheap compared to HD. Unless you are using this camera for some really high end productions and everyone in your intended audience has a HD ready television, you will be wasting your money.
Check out sony's VX series of high end camcorders, Canon GL series is also a comparable high end brand, and both start at around $1000 and are the best deals, in my opinion, as I have owned a sony VX1000 and a VX2100 and a canon GL-1.
Panasonic is currently one of the only people on the market with an HD Camcorder, and prices for them are $5000 and up on ebay.
2006-12-27 23:03:38 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pannasonic pv-gs400 this digital camera is usually carried around as a back up for autonomous action picture makers. this is interior your funds and it has each and every of the instruments you may desire to make video clips with a superb image.
2016-12-11 17:30:29 · answer #3 · answered by sherburne 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try cheapest prices search engine. Also check out over one million consumer written reviews.
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2006-12-28 14:52:46 · answer #4 · answered by Mike D 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋