[QUIKAZHELL]

QUIKAZHELL on September 8, 2004 at 8:12 am #9773

Im looing to purchase a digital video camera within the next few weeks/months.

I want something small, optical zoom 10x at least, imagage stabilization and in the 300-500$ price range. Is there anything else i should be specifically looking for?

Id like to know personally what digital video cameras you guys have, a little bit about them, and what you guys think of sonys mini digital cameras and especially this one below.

https://www.amphotoworld.com/product.asp?id=sndcrhc30&l=DigitalSaver

I seem to like that camera alot and for some reason it is only 360$ on that link whereas everywhere i have seen it (walmart, citcuit city, best buy) it has been 450-500$. Anyone know why the heck it is so cheap and if that site is ok?

Thanx guys.

[delldell]

delldell on September 8, 2004 at 9:13 am #32917

I’d be careful with those types of companies. Do some research on them, because alot of the ones at the back of photography mags are shady. Also check epinions and amazon for product reviews.

[QUIKAZHELL]

QUIKAZHELL on September 8, 2004 at 10:45 am #32918

True. Also need to make sure its not refurbished.

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on September 8, 2004 at 9:13 pm #32919

Try this one out QUIK.

https://www.amphotoworld.com/product.asp?id=cnzr85

This is what I have. I think it would be perfect for you and your needs.

[Todd Lane]

Todd Lane on September 8, 2004 at 9:51 pm #32920

My suggestion is to ask yourself what you are going to primarily going to be using the camera for…

there are a lot of cool gadgets and such on electronics, but you can save a heck of a lot of money when you peel it all back and get down to what your basic needs are…..

if it is for recording track performance and watching later, you can probably get something practical for less…shutter speed being an important consideration in my opinion.

The only problem I have with Sony at times, is they have a way of creating technology that is not always compatible with other companies technology.

Two important features for me when I bought camera several years ago, larger LCD and a remote, so that I could frame by frame the playback for analysis with the athlete right there and have access to frame references.

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on September 8, 2004 at 10:12 pm #32921

[i]Originally posted by todd[/i]
My suggestion is to ask yourself what you are going to primarily going to be using the camera for…

there are a lot of cool gadgets and such on electronics, but you can save a heck of a lot of money when you peel it all back and get down to what your basic needs are…..

if it is for recording track performance and watching later, you can probably get something practical for less…shutter speed being an important consideration in my opinion.

The only problem I have with Sony at times, is they have a way of creating technology that is not always compatible with other companies technology.

Two important features for me when I bought camera several years ago, larger LCD and a remote, so that I could frame by frame the playback for analysis with the athlete right there and have access to frame references.

I agree with you 100% todd, that’s why I suggested the one I have to QUIK.

[QUIKAZHELL]

QUIKAZHELL on September 9, 2004 at 1:51 am #32922

Gov,
The Cannon zr85 you have looks ok. At walmart id be able to get it for around 350$.

-20x zoom
-small 3.74×5.47×2.09 4.21 lbs.
-still at 1024×768 which i really dont care about
-image stabilization

what i have read from reviews however is that..

-it is not good indoors
-records it own recording motor noise
-does not work good with the computer?

btw..i have windows ME am i going ot have a problem putting video on my comp no matter what i get?

[QUIKAZHELL]

QUIKAZHELL on September 9, 2004 at 1:53 am #32923

After reading reviews and owning a panasonic vhs camcorder and playing around with the gs series…. i think panasonic is out of the question unless someone else can convince me other wise…Also JVC i think sucks.

Right now it is between Cannon, Sony, and Samsung.

[Todd Lane]

Todd Lane on September 9, 2004 at 3:40 am #32924

I’ve got a Panasonic PV-DV101, bought it 3 years ago, it works great. DV firewire output.
It’s been nothing but great.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on September 13, 2004 at 6:35 am #32925

I’d stick with Sony, Cannon, or one of the new Panasonics. In your price range and for what you want to do, I’d recommend going with no less than a capture rate of 60 Hz, 12x optical zoom, and the highest resolution you can find.

ELITETRACK Founder

[QUIKAZHELL]

QUIKAZHELL on September 13, 2004 at 8:10 am #32926

After doing a whole lot of research i think i am going to go with the sony dcr hc30. Check out the link below.

Only thing i do not like is that the zoom is only 10x but i have been told that should be fine.

???

https://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/sony-dcr-hc30-camcorder-review.htm

[Dave Hegland]

Dave Hegland on December 4, 2006 at 5:56 am #32927

I'm bringing this back to the top after 2 years because I'm now in the market for a digital camera. 

I'd use it for filming sprinters/hurdlers at practices and meets.  I'd like something that I can play back and advance frame by frame on the camera screen, as todd said (way back when!).  I'd also like something I can hook up to the laptop after meets when we're on the road and do analysis that way.  I've hear 60 frames/sec is the way to go for smoothness of motion (?).  I'd prefer it to be fairly small, but that's not a primary consideration.  Picture clarity is the primary concern.

Is there anything, given these desires, that I should specifically look for?  I'm very camera illiterate, so don't hesitate to talk to me like a child  :wink1: 

[QUIKAZHELL]

QUIKAZHELL on December 4, 2006 at 6:15 am #32928

I'm sticking with the one above which I bought 2 years ago. Its prob. pretty cheap by now. 30 fps is all you need. I do video analysis using dartfish with it. The camera can pretty much fit into my pocket as well. I paid 450$ for it at the time. I'd like to see what it goes for now.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on December 4, 2006 at 7:43 am #32929

My recommendations stand. I purchase 2-4 cameras a year and really the only updates are smaller sizes and better battery life. While there are new technologies out there now (DVD and hard drive recording) neither are better options for recording sporting movements.

You should be able to get a good camera for under $400 now.

ELITETRACK Founder

[Dave Hegland]

Dave Hegland on December 4, 2006 at 9:08 am #32930

Quik,

Thanks for the feedback.  I will check out the HC-30.  Inexpensive is good but I'm spending other peoples' money so it's not the biggest factor  :wink2:

Mike,

You obviously purchase a lot of cameras, do you have any that are particularly good or any to avoid?

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on December 19, 2006 at 10:48 am #32931

I'd avoid panasonics and go with Canon.

If you were going to purchase a hard drive based camera get a JVC Everio. They are by far the best in that category and can be had for less than $600.

ELITETRACK Founder

[Dave Hegland]

Dave Hegland on January 17, 2007 at 10:24 pm #32932

Thoughts on this Canon Optura 30?

https://www.shopping.com/xPF-Canon-Optura-30-MiniDV-Camcorder-2-2-Megapixel-CCD-12X-Optical-Zoom~r-1~CLT-INTR~RFR-www.google.com

[Dave Hegland]

Dave Hegland on January 17, 2007 at 10:55 pm #32933

This one has 20x optical zoom compard to the 12x on the Optura 30.  Any ideas why it's so much less expensive?  Any glaring differences between the 2?

https://www.amazon.com/Canon-Elura-100-MiniDV-Camcorder/dp/B000DZH4D8/sr=1-1/qid=1166814113/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-8529310-8632909?ie=UTF8&s=photo

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on February 12, 2007 at 1:57 am #32934

This one has 20x optical zoom compard to the 12x on the Optura 30.  Any ideas why it's so much less expensive?  Any glaring differences between the 2?

https://www.amazon.com/Canon-Elura-100-MiniDV-Camcorder/dp/B000DZH4D8/sr=1-1/qid=1166814113/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-8529310-8632909?ie=UTF8&s=photo

Don't know but in my camera shopping experience these huge pricing discrepancies are par for the course. Some of it is due to being last years model (with no appreciable difference), other times it's because they're refurbished, but most of the time I can't figure out why.

ELITETRACK Founder

[mortac8]

mortac8 on January 29, 2011 at 2:28 pm #105072

Any updates here? What is the latest/greatest reasonably prices video camera out? I’m looking to buy soon. Need to upgrade to HD. Thanks!

[Eager]

Eager on January 29, 2011 at 6:45 pm #105079

I ditched a regular video camera for a Casio Exilim EX FH-100. Over 10 megapixels, awesome features for getting around shutter lag for still pics, 1080 HD video, and very applicable 120 or 240 frames-per-second modes that are AWESOME for analysis in programs like Kinovea.

Running under $250 right now on Amazon, but you need to get a high volume, high quality memory card to go with it. The whole setup will cost you less than $300 and fit in your pocket. I probably am done with traditional video cameras after seeing the usable quality I got from this.

[Eager]

Eager on January 29, 2011 at 6:55 pm #105080

Link:

You can get models with bigger lenses for more $, but they are less pocket-sized. Their performance is undoubtedly better in low light conditions, but I’ve found that mine functions fine on cloudy days and indoor meets. More than 240 FPS is really too slow anyway for every application that I use, but mine goes up to 400 FPS and finally 1000 FPS. You lose tons of resolution and still need super bright conditions at 1000 FPS, and realistically it’s only good for the ubiquitous drops of milk or needle-popping-a-water-balloon type stuff, not necessary for high quality video analysis.

Check out youtube vids of Casio Exilim to get an idea of what you can do. I’m personally sold on it.

[COV-GOD]

COV-GOD on January 29, 2011 at 9:07 pm #105081

This is something I too am considering, at the present and actually for some time I been using my old psp lol yep my Sony psp with camera attachment has been great. Frame by frame, super slow mo. Speed up or half speed, great big screen and instant playback lol

But as I now get more serious and want to use specific software such as dartfish I too now looking for a good digital camera. But the psp does a great cheap job

[mortac8]

mortac8 on January 30, 2011 at 1:05 am #105084

I ditched a regular video camera for a Casio Exilim EX FH-100. Over 10 megapixels, awesome features for getting around shutter lag for still pics, 1080 HD video, and very applicable 120 or 240 frames-per-second modes that are AWESOME for analysis in programs like Kinovea.

Running under $250 right now on Amazon, but you need to get a high volume, high quality memory card to go with it. The whole setup will cost you less than $300 and fit in your pocket. I probably am done with traditional video cameras after seeing the usable quality I got from this.

What memory card do you recommend? What capacity would I want? Not looking for anything extravagant. Maybe enough to hold ~60minutes of video.

[Eager]

Eager on January 30, 2011 at 5:05 am #105088

This is what I got:

You have to make sure you get the really high performance cards according to what I read, because with the high speed functions, you are really trying to write a ton of data to it at once compared to a non-high speed camera. I am using this in practice and downloading it to a computer to use in Kinovea on the spot, so size isn’t a problem for me, but if I was trying to shoot tons of slow-mo, I would spring for a 16gb card.

I don’t shoot a ton of “plain” 1080 HD video, but the camera has a convenient function on it that tells you how much time you have left shooting in each. I’m certain that my 8gb card can hold an hour of regular 1080 HD.