Cheap HD Camera

GaryinCalifornia

GaryinCalifornia

Veteran
A guy at church came up to me.. he wants to make a "How to play a musical instrument type of dvd"....

Said he like to set up 3 camera and just do it on his own type of thing...

So he has a grand to spend...

Saw the Canon VIXIA HF R20 Full HD Camcorder with 8GB Internal Flash Memory (Black) on Amazon and I believe Canon has it for $329 also...

Anyone have any other suggestions than this... my first thought was the HV20... didn't realize it was close to a grand still...

Mods if this is in the wrong place or you can think of a better place to move it to... that would be great...

Never had much need for these types of cameras... so don't know much about them...
 
Unless he has a reasonable amount of experience editing three video streams is going to be a pain, and he probably won't have the proper lighting or set dressing to really make the video pop. People will be watching for his teaching. I would advise him to get one camera and a good microphone instead. Clear sound at this level is many magnitudes more important and will make him stand out a lot faster than multicamera editing will. He can have a simple framing for the entire lesson, with cut in close ups to demonstrate the lesson (or use a second camera on a close up of wherever).

I also don't have good camera suggestions, but I don't think it really matters. Just look at sample footage and ease of use. The need for three cameras just stood out to me. My first paid video job was doing super quick, low paid educational videos, a number of which were instrument lessons. All done with one camera and an operator, but two cameras would be good without an operator.
 
Again with suggesting HD cams when the output is dvd? People are giving away their mini-dv camcorders for under $100 typically. You might even be able to get a couple of 3chip for that budget. Just about any system can handle dv, especially for multiple streams, as long as you have a firewire port to capture it. Much easier to do the final dvd renders as well. Just saying.

You could even put together a fulling functional studio around an older 'obsolete' Mac, G4 or G5, and still be under budget. DV in DVD out is totally viable on a system up to 10 years old. Trying to keep up with hd is another matter.
 
Thanks... totally understand all the production and post things... basically a lot of things that I have already expressed... he just wanted info on cameras...

I thought about the DV thing sorta as well... told him it might be better find a young college kid to help him... can only advise... can't change people's mind...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top