Thursday, March 4, 2010

Armed & Dangerous - -


For the past month or so I have been on the hunt for a GOOD HD Camcorder that was reasonably priced [as in under 400 dollars], and delivered great results. I have really put off making anymore video's until I got a better quality camcorder [I was using my macbook] as the quality was grainy, and just all around bad.

After trying and returning numerous camcorder's, I finally found a winner! My new CANON Powershot Camera w/HD Camcorder is everything I could ever ask for. It gives me the capability to play around with light settings, which is perfect for filming in low-light environments like my apt, and the kicker is that the video's will be filmed in true HD. Granted I now have two camera's, [the Nikon D60, & the Canon] but I will be using one solely for photography, and one for HD vids.



Here are the cliff notes from my recent camera debacle:
My experience with all of the SD Samsung's, Canon's & JVC Camcorder's [SD meaning Standard Definition] -
  • When filming in optimal lighting, the quality is so-so. 
  • The quality of the picture goes down drastically in low-light shooting, which is really important if you shoot in the house with regular lights/lamps.
  •  If you plan on uploading your movies to a website like YouTube, or Vimeo, you can expect to lose some quality. [That is with any camcorder, which is why it is important to start off with the best quality your money can afford]. 
  • Even if you do use daylight/florescent bulbs to try to improve the lighting conditions, more than likely the subject will be overexposed. [I experienced this]
         My experience with FLIP Camcorder's [Pocket-Sized HD Camcorders]
  • These are only good for close up shots only - Some are equipped with zoom, but the quality suffers greatly the further away you are from your subject.  
  • The lens is significantly smaller than most camcorders, meaning that you are only going to be able to fit so much in the frame.  
  • You can't really manipulate the lighting settings [for example, daylight shooting, tungsten, night etc] 
          My Experience with the Sony Cyber-Shot 9.1 Megapixel Camera
  • I absolutely loved this! It offers a High Definition camcorder with lighting options.  
  • The quality on the camera is wonderful, if you plan on using that as well. I wasn't really concerned about the camera quality so much as I was the video. 
  • The only drawback for me was the price $479.99 - And my new found friend at Best Buy in Burbank, [Hi Levon!] told me that Canon's video quality was a lot better than the Sony due to the quality of the Canon lens. At that point it was a no-brainer, as the Canon was $100 cheaper, and offered better quality video.

A few words of advice; shop around and don't be afraid to utilize the no-hassle return policy. Get advice from stores like Best Buy who don't work on commission, as this allows them to be honest when giving their opinion on what to buy.

Did you know they also make tripods/minopods that can stick on to a mirror, as in a bathroom mirror?? YES!

10 comments:

  1. Awesome! You might want to make sure you download a video file converter if you don't have one already though. My camera has HD capabilities and even 5 min vids would take damn near 2 hours to upload! I now convert my files to .wmv or .avi and they upload soooo much faster, like 20 minutes or less. And in my experiences converting didn't affect the quality adversely either.

    You can download Prism Video Converter(I think the site was cnet? but just google it and it should show where you can download it for free) for free and it can convert the files to diff formats like .wmv, .avi, etc so that they'll upload faster.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks for this review. i need to check that camera out. i've been shopping around for cannon (my fav camera brand) to start making tutorials. one of my peeves is low camera quality and my computer is good chat but not so much for video recording!

    the one i really want costs a couple g's...but i'mma take baby steps! baby steps! lol!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the review. What do you think of the Canon Rebel T1i?

    ~Shica

    ReplyDelete
  4. I might have to check this out :^)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this blog... i have been looking for a camera with good quality for months now.. I was escorting a captain for some photography on base and she highly suggested that i buy a lumnix camera...she recorded an f-18 (a really fast Jet) plane land talk about horrible! I didn't even see the plane in what she recorded and we were right there...

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Milan THANK YOU SOOO MUCH for the recommendation! You really know your stuff! I like!

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Kurly Bella I sooo feel you, give this one a shot...you will be surprised!

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Anonymous I don't know if it has video, but as far as camera quality; it is a very, very good cam!

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Enticin Thank you very much! And lucky you, I would love to get an opportunity like that. Sucks about the cam though :-/

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is extremely helpful!! I'm in the market for purchasing an HD camcorder as well as another lens for my Nikon. Just read your post on that as well ;-)

    The issue I had with my Nikon is the zoom. I'm still learning as I go along so I'm trying to get better, but I've managed to get some pretty good shots so far.

    Do edit your photos at all? If so, what software do you use. I plan on purchasing Corel, heard it was pretty good and affordable. Amazon has it fo' cheap! lol

    Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails