Camcorder under 100$

W

Whiteout

New member
I am just starting as an independent filmmaker, and I have almost no money. What's a good camera that is $100 or under? I need 1080p at 24 fps (if it's close, like 25 fps, I'm okay with that) but I don't need mic input (but if it had it that would be a bonus). Any help?
 
To be fair, I don't think that there is a sub $100 camcorder that shoots 24p or 25p. Someone is free to correct me though. You could look around for a used HV20. I've seen them on eBay for under $300. I cut my teeth on one, as many here no doubt have. A bit long-in-the-tooth, but it still shoots pretty good looking 24p HD footage.

The Canon HF R300 might not be too bad. The specs list 24p and it's currently under $300 on B&H. I have no first-hand experience with it though.
 
Whiteout said:
No usable reply in more than three days. I will never post at this forum again.
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Wow. Not usable? Based on your strict criteria I posted the only possible answer (OK, I did omit the option of someone giving you the camera). Outside of that what you specified does not exist as far as I can tell. My answer was usable in at least two ways. You could have then looked for a stolen camera (not recomended) or adjust your specifications, especially on price. Please post again. There are tons of great information here, great people here, and sometimes I don't piss people off.
:thumbsup:
 
Find a new hobby! And attitude while your at it. What is it with people and their sense of entitlement lately.
 
Making a film is a collaborative exercise. Therefore, if you plan to direct, find a friend who has a camera or money. You can then enlist them as DP or producer respectively.
 
You can get a Sanyo Xacti camera in HD that shoots to SD cards, not sure it does 24p, but probably. You can also get a PAL version camera that shoots 50i, convert it to progressive frame then drop it on a 24p timeline and it will work perfectly. Your clips will be 4% longer in speed, but not noticeable to viewers. Any dialogue recorded separately would have to be stretched by 4% which is easy to do these days.

Long before you could get 24p in-camera, I was shooting PAL interlaced cameras for a long time using this exact method and technique to simulate the look/speed of film. Got into a lot of film festivals too :D
 
> I am just starting as an independent filmmaker,

No offense, but judging from your statement, the lack of 24p and/or 1080p will be the least of the things that will cause your film to look unprofessional. Again, it's not you per se, but where you are at. It takes a while to develop into a filmmaker who makes films worthy of watching. Bigger things like story, directing, producing, audio and editing will need to be developed and perfected before *anyone* will notice whether you shot your film in 720 or 1080. It usually takes three tries before you make a film worth watching. It's an almost universal given that your first two films will suck. There are soooo many things that can and will go wrong and no matter how prepared you think you are, you will learn that you should have done it different. It's not the 1080 24p that will make your film professional.

Therefore my advice to is to not worry about the quality of your camera for your first or even second films. A better strategy would be to focus on story and directing. By the time you get to your third film anyways we will all be holding 4k as the "minimum production standard".

If you feel you *must* have 1080 24p in order to make a film then take SWOPIV's advice and find a DP to work with, for three reasons: They will already have better equipment then you could hope to buy/rent, they will be focusing on their own craft (pun intended), enabling you to focus on yours - directing, and they will have already been down the production road a few times so they have seen the common mistakes so they can help you avoid them the first and second times...

Best of luck.
 
Sorry about that angry post. It's just that I waited a long time and the only advice I got was to steal a camera. I was not impressed. However, after my last post, now everybody jumped on it and I take back what I said.


I have been looking at the DXG-5FOVR camcorder, although I have considered used cameras on eBay, where I could probably get more bang for my buck. I am not concerned about framerate anymore, I will be getting Apple Motion as well, in which I assume I can easily change the footage to 24 until I get an actual 24p camera. (I can't afford an NLE at the moment, but I'm sure you could do it in many of the mid-end NLE's, including FCPX. Until then, there's no reason why I can't use iMovie.) Does anybody know anything about this DXG camera? By biggest concern is Mac compatibility. Note that I will be using an SD card.

Here's the B&H link: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/756702-REG/DXG_DXG_5F0VR_Pro_Gear_Series_DXG_5F0VR.html

j said:
they will be focusing on their own craft (pun intended),
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I'm sorry, but I don't see the pun.
 
Well I don't think $100 will get you much. But save up a little more and maybe look at the Sony HDR-CX190 for around $250 new or a used HV20 as suggested. Once you get good with it then you might want to move up to a used Panasonic GH2. IMovie is fine for starting out. Please give this forum a chance. Everyone here was a newbie at one time. Some may just forget how difficult it can be to acquire equipment on a very low budget.
 
As a matter of fact, this forum is serving me very well. I posted this on another forum, and everyone there just said use a cellphone to shoot video. Here, I got buried in actual camera suggestions. Thanks everyone, I still haven't checked them all out.
 
I will +1 J's statement and warn against getting a DP and all that jazz. You'd have no idea what to tell the guy (or the actors) to do. I WISH I had taken robert rodriguez' advice earlier which is to shoot with the first camera you can get your hands on (cheap, borrowed, the vhs or Hi8 in the attic, whatever) and just focus on getting good at telling a story in shots ,by shooting tons and tons of meaningless movies with whatever resources (friends and their apartments)that you have avaliable.

best way to go would've shaved YEARS off the learning curve im still on.

go to Best Buy get an HD video camera for about 100-200 bucks don't even bother worrying about 24p, spend the next year making a boatload of short movies.

best advice youll ever get.
 
nycineaste said:
shoot with the first camera you can get your hands on (cheap, borrowed, the vhs or Hi8 in the attic, whatever) and just focus on getting good at telling a story in shots ,by shooting tons and tons of meaningless movies with whatever resources (friends and their apartments)that you have avaliable.
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Thank you. Someone who finally understands exactly what I want to do. I just want a camera, any camera, to start with, and focus on the storytelling. I ask for a really cheap camera to start with and everyone spends their time finding other solutions for me. I just want the cheapest usable digital camera on the planet right now. Better stuff will come later. Even the $150-$200 area is almost out of my reach at the moment. Can somebody just point me towards a $100-$150 camera? Please? I don't want to worry about this step, I want to be making films.
 
dude, we love you, but u suck at the internet

I went to bestbuy.com

typed in "camcorder"

theres a section for you to choose price range 50-99 dollars


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchp...##3##t&list=y&usc=All+Categories&nrp=15&iht=n

I would choose one of the ones thats bullet shaped like a regular camcorder but that just me ...

I wouldnt buy any of these online cause sometimes the super-cheap camcorders especially the ones that look like ipods act wierd like they have some super low frame rate or other wierd stuff (youd be able to tell this easily- any movement by a subject will be all blurry cause the cameras only taking very few pictures per second). Go to Best Buy and make sure it at least works normally, like youd expect a camcorder is supposed to, I say. Again, forget 24p who cares wont help you learn to tell a story at this phase.

now go make movies!!

woohooooooo

:)

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EDIT: more stuff- what i did next was put some of the models into youtube see if i could find reviews.

example i looked up the vivitar 810HD, heres some sample footage.

notice i was right- it says on fullHD it only shoots 20 frames per second which is wierd (too low)

but it looks like it does 30 fps in 720p which should be good.

also looks like it might get all wavvy picture when you pan but what the hell its less than 100 bucks any camera at that price range is gonna have quirks dont sweat it.

dont listen to the haters looks fine to me to start, if you only got 100 bucks to spend and you want to get started.

go to the camera store look at other models maybe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8hRestDp5g&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ-danmQVq0&feature=related

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ONE MORE THING:

this is just a lil secret:

IF you are the type of person who CANT STAND TECHNICAL THINGS, don't be a filmmaker.

I agree that you shouldnt get hung up on your first camcorder. Very smart of you.

but if there is anything you should know about filmaking its that it is the one ART FORM THAT IS HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON TECHNOLOGY!

so start to learn to dig technical things at least a little, cause its part of the game

:)
 
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