Looking for Camera!

[Belle-vue]

Hiya

I'm looking forward to buy camcorder or video camera! whatever you call it.. to shoot documentary film .. i want HD camera which allow me to take good shoots.. any recommendation ?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Budget?
What features should it have?
And what kind of documentary are you shooting?
Are you planning buying an external microphone or even additional lights?
And what do you consider good shots?

 

[Belle-vue]

max 1000usd
i'm not looking for something really expensive.. yes i'm planing to buy external mic and additional lights for sure.. a documentary about streets life! I want HD quality..

 

[matteusclement]

tape based

documentary = tapes
get something that takes mini dv.
I love the canon HV series. I have a canon HV30 and it's awesome. a used one can be found for about 600 now. HD. 24p. 30p. 60i.
Mic input. HDMI out.
There's now a canon HV40.

 

[qveda]

Hi, I was waiting to see the responses to the OP since I have a similar question about which camcorder to consider. My needs are similar.

• HD , under $700 if possible, used in exc. cond. is OK.
• good basic features, optics,
• good ease of use, and transfer to editing s/w
• shoot outdoors, or indoors , often in available light.
• edit in FCE(mac) or Sony Vegas MovieStudio Plat.(PC)
• Expect to end up with short finished pieces , 2min - 20min.

Curious why documentary = tape. length of shooting times ?

 

[matteusclement]

tapes dont crash.

digital means hard drives.
All hard drives fail.
Tapes do not crash.
Usually a doc can have 100's of hours of tape.

 

[matteusclement]

Hi, I was waiting to see the responses to the OP since I have a similar question about which camcorder to consider. My needs are similar.

• HD , under $700 if possible, used in exc. cond. is OK.
• good basic features, optics,
• good ease of use, and transfer to editing s/w
• shoot outdoors, or indoors , often in available light.
• edit in FCE(mac) or Sony Vegas MovieStudio Plat.(PC)
• Expect to end up with short finished pieces , 2min - 20min.

Curious why documentary = tape. length of shooting times ?

if you can hold out, a canon t2i w/ 50mm 1.8 lens would be perfect.
if not, the Canon HV30 has amazing low light.

 

[FroColin]

if you can hold out, a canon t2i w/ 50mm 1.8 lens would be perfect.
if not, the Canon HV30 has amazing low light.

I love the t2i BUT it's not really very good for long documentaries. First, you need to know how to work it. Second it's unnecessary, Documentaries don't need the cinematic aspect of the DSLR's that got them popular. Third they will be a nuisance, memory cards aren't expensive but they are way more then HDV tapes, they are hard to hold, more fragile, complicated. Fourth is the point you made about tapes and that they don't fail.
Don't get me wrong I LOVE my t2i, it's really awesome, but it's not right for everything. The audio is crap, even if you use an external mic it's compressed to the point of uselessness. You can't turn it fast of you get rolling shutter. If you get the 50 at 1.8 yes you get good low light performance but it's a prime. You can't shoot a whole documentary with a prime (You could but it would get boring). Then of course you have to convert the h264 that it outputs and convert it to pro res which with documentary lengths will be terabytes of data. And also, focusing. You don't want to need a focus puller for your documentary

 

[qveda]

I agree with FroColin. I actually have a 5D mkII. I am exploring its video capabilities - which are awesome. but I can't afford the many accessories I'd need to make it practical for hand held shooting - which is what I expect to do much of the time.

I have a sony std.def handicam, but would like to upgrade to HD. The HV30 was mentioned. Looks like a good possibility. Others to consider that are either tape or tapeless = ?