Recommend me a camera

R

rakunus

New member
Hello.

I intend to be a "filmmaker" and for that I guess that a nice camera is needed. So now I am asking you to recommend me one.

I am not sure if it should be HD, because I don't know if my PC is strong enough for HD editing. It's and AMD Sempron 2800+, 1 GB of RAM. Another obstacle to HD may be money. Also, I don't have an HD TV or blue-ray/HD DVD burner. In fact, I don't even have a DVD burner(I will buy one soon)!

I read somewhere that miniDV format offers the best quality. Is that true?

I would prefer a bigger, on-shoulder model.

(Electronic) viewfinder is very important. Also touchscreen LCD. I guess every camera has them now.

It must cost around 1500$, no more than 2000$, I suppose. If there is a super-duper camera that costs slightly more than that, than please mention it.

So please, help me out, I want to make movies.

Thank you very much
 
The Panasonic DVC30 is a good standard def cam in that range. I have a Canon HV20 and it's a real dream for the price paid. It's an HDV camera. 1 Gig of RAm should be enough to edit HD or HDV. What kind of projects do you intend to shoot?
 
I intend to shoot art movies, zombie flicks and such.
hmmm dvc30 is 3 years old. Isn't this technology changing very rapidly?
 
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Yes, technology is changing. It's all moving to HD and HDV. The DVC30 is old, but its the best SD cam I could think of in that price range. I really don't think Panny will develope anymore prosumer SD cams. I would suggest taking the step towards an HD cam, like the Canon HV20 or even the Canon XH-A1 if you can afford it.
 
hmm this hv20 looks interesting, especialy because it's one of the few models available in Slovenia, the country where I live. but I think it has only LP mode (that's the one with lower quality, compared to SP, is it not?). So the question is: will I need SP if I have 25P (HDV PF25 mode) and 25P Cinema Mode (CINE effect mode)? Because I would really really prefer the best quality. I got that cinema mode from this page:
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Camcorders/High_Definition_HDV/HV20/index.asp?specs=1
 
a GS500 is really like a consumer version of a DVC30. it has the same ccds (i think it does), but it has less manual controls. probably only shutter speed, iris, and white balance whereas the DVC30 has many other things in the scene file.
however if you're looking for a shoulder mount camera, a DVC60 might be the way to go. its essentially a shoulder mount version of a DVC30, with XLR inputs as well (no phantom power though).
Also, you should consider the XL1. this XL1 looks very fresh to me
http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-XL1-XL-1-...6QQihZ018QQcategoryZ20330QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
rakunus said:
hmm this hv20 looks interesting, especialy because it's one of the few models available in Slovenia, the country where I live. but I think it has only LP mode (that's the one with lower quality, compared to SP, is it not?). So the question is: will I need SP if I have 25P (HDV PF25 mode) and 25P Cinema Mode (CINE effect mode)? Because I would really really prefer the best quality. I got that cinema mode from this page:
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Camcorders/High_Definition_HDV/HV20/index.asp?specs=1
Click to expand...

Where did you get that HV20 has only LP mode? It either records in HDV (which has no LP mode at all) or in mini-DV either SP or LP. And it's a common misconception that LP is inferior in quality to SP. The quality is the same, but recording in LP means that there's a much bigger chance of encountering dropouts when you capture.
 
jade8472 said:
Where did you get that HV20 has only LP mode? It either records in HDV (which has no LP mode at all) or in mini-DV either SP or LP. And it's a common misconception that LP is inferior in quality to SP. The quality is the same, but recording in LP means that there's a much bigger chance of encountering dropouts when you capture.
Click to expand...
if you get nice tapes you shouldn't even run into that problem either. I record in LP on my panasonic PQ tapes all the time and have never had a problem with it.
 
Moseph said:
if you get nice tapes you shouldn't even run into that problem either. I record in LP on my panasonic PQ tapes all the time and have never had a problem with it.
Click to expand...

Even expensive tapes aren't a guarantee. I use LP mode regularly because I film live events that often extend beyond an hour using Sony HDV tape, which is one of the more expensive/robust brand out there. Capturing the footage back I frequently noticed "fairy dust" frame drops. Recapturing that segment makes it go away but recording in LP makes your tape even more vulnerable to repeated run-through the camera. Makes me nervous every single time.
 
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