cheapest or best camera with single-frame animation function?

T

themagickite

Well-known member
Hey,

I was wondering if you guys can help me find a camera to fit a particular need.

I want to get a camera to do animation tests as I learn the art of animation, I know I can stitch a whole bunch of stills together and achieve great quality, but I'd prefer a quick and dirty method like the way the EX1 allows. The EX1 is a bit out of my price range, so I was wondering if there are any other cheaper cameras which allow a series of frames to be turned into a video stream in-camera. Any info or experience using this method on any camera would also be appreciated

cheers!
 
An SLR like the T2i is $500 bucks. Put it in stills mode and snap away. In you edit software you bring in the stills as a sequence and it plays back as a movie
 
Anything with a firewire port can be plugged into stop-motion software in your computer, allowing you to get the frames in a proper format immediately. Some even include previous frame overlay to help guide your movements.
 
As mentioned the dslr is fine for stop motion or animation photography. I would also recommend a totally manual lens. This is to prevent any automagic changes to the exposure or focus and result in flicker.
 
Yeah. I say go with a DSLR. You can put the stills together as a still sequence/movie in Quick Time 7 and then pull them into a NLE with no problem. That is the basic workflow of most of the DSLR timelapse footage you see out there.
 
Cassius said:
Anything with a firewire port can be plugged into stop-motion software in your computer, allowing you to get the frames in a proper format immediately. Some even include previous frame overlay to help guide your movements.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is how I do all my stop animation. Sure, you're limited by needing your computer running on the other end of the firewire cable, but that's hardly difficult in most stop animation sets.
 
Thanks for the replies! I was aware of these options but initially I was more interested in a cheap dirty built-in single frame mode, like you would find on an old super8 camera. The ex1 allows you to do this, and some of the canons do too, I think the xf100 is the cheapest digital video camera with a single frame animation mode which creates the animation in-camera. I was hoping there would be a cheaper option that I could use for quick tests requiring a very minimal basic low-tech setup.
 
If it was my dime, I'd probably buy a micro 4/3 camera, or maybe one of the new Sony NX cameras for this. None of these cameras have mirrors or moving shutters- fewer moving parts to break. Any of these cameras can be used with your choice of lenses via reasonably priced lens adapters.
 
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