need to purchase a Video Camera

[HunnyB Profile Private message]

My daughter wants me to research and tell her the best video camera
to buy. I thought I could save some time and see what all of you think.
It will be used primarily for kids sports.
Should she get the one that saves to a mini-cd or stick.
I am not familiar enough to even know what to look for.
Any suggestions????

HunnyB

[nannybear Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi Hunny, I don't own one but here where I go when I have questions.....

http://camcorders.about.com/od/camcorde ... foryou.htm

Cheers Jan

[HunnyB Profile Private message]

THANKS JAN!!!
I should have known to look there.
I will forward it to my daughter.

HunnyB

[Rik 101]

HI,
Hmmmmm
I have a little knowledge (which can be dangerous ) but I offer a hobby service here of editing and burning peoples footage to dvd

The issues ive struck over the years are that in choosing mini dvd, memory sticks, that many times only the camera it is recored on can play the footage to another device due to the codec's (compression- decompression) used. Each brand has it's own codec which can stop it from playing in another machine.
So they are fine if she is going to transfer from the camera to a computer or direct to a dvd recoring unit.

If you choose a camera that records to mini dv tape then this will play in anycamer that uses a mini dv tape and can be transfreed easily. It also offers a higher quality due to the fact the hard drive cameras and minidvd compress the footage. This is ok for a first copy watch but if loaded into a editing program it will loose quality the next time it is converted to Mpeg format suitable for burning to dvd. (think multiple saving of a Jpeg)

I could tell you lots more. PM me if you want more info My pick would be camera that records to Mini dv tape , has a 10- 20x zoom ( forget digital zoom ~ its crap) and possibly some image stabilising features.

Regards Rick

[HunnyB Profile Private message]

Thanks Rick. I am going today to help my daughter decide.
Your info is greatly appreciated.

HunnyB

[Rik 101]

You're welcome,

Forgot to add, many now have function to take stills as well, its a great little feature worth getting. On mine its as simple as pushing a button and the image goes to Memory card while the video goes to Mini dv tape

They are normally around the 2 megapixel and save it to a card but that is sufficient for 6x4 prints and slideshows.
I use mine lots, A captured frame in a video editing program is very hard to get to look good, even with expensive cameras.

Hope you have a fun day shopping,
I will be curious to know what you end up getting.

Rick

[HunnyB Profile Private message]

Well, she came home empty handed.
She found a JVC that she liked (I think that was the brand) There were so many!!!
Anyway, it was more than she planned to spend, so now she has to get it approved by the hubby.
It had a huge hard drive, and saving capabilities to a memory card.
The op. zoom was great, and that's all I know. I was so tired.
She will probally get that one.
THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!!!!!!

HunnyB

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

I'm not sure just what format the newer hard drive versions use, but I
would second the DV (or mini-dv) based format if you are planning on
doing any video editing (it would be great if the hard drive saved in the
DV format). The problem with many of these is they save in mpeg2
which while fine for a show, because of the level of compression,
any editing tends to significantly degrade the images. The DV
format compresses each frame, but keeps the losses fairly small.
Mpeg2 and other formats like that are a combination of multiple
frames (sort of) and it gets tougher to edit it well if you want to add
captions, effects etc since it is so compressed. I have not been
looking for a camera recently, (I have an older Sony Digital-8 format
(which is a different tape, but the same encoding as the DV)) that
has worked well.

mikey

[HunnyB Profile Private message]

Thanks Mikey. I will certainly print all these comments
out for my daughter to read. It sure gets confusing!!!
Y'all are the bestest ever

HunnyB

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

For what it's worth, December's Videomaker magazine has their
"07 video camera guide" in it - they list a lot of stuff and you might
want to take a look at that to get some additional information (I just
got it in the mail today). It also has an article on "Family History Videos"
as well as an article on "Composition tips for 16:9"

mikey