Hi,
I'm looking to buy a camcorder after my exams (in a couple of weeks) but I've never owned one before so I'm not really sure what to get.
My budget's £200 and I want it to have at least 720p at 50fps. I'll mainly be using it to make short (<10 mins) movies or clips for youtube.
Thanks
Make sure you get something that has manual focus, making an vaguely artistic movie with continuous auto-focus only is difficult.
[QUOTE=B-hazard;30135335]Make sure you get something that has manual focus, making an vaguely artistic movie with continuous auto-focus only is difficult.[/QUOTE]
ok, thanks :buddy:
[QUOTE=Alcapwne;30127604]Hi,
My budget's £200 and I want it to have at least 720p at 50fps.
[/QUOTE]
Wut? You WONT get that for £200 if you want something that shoots in HD for £200 you will get a shitty flip camera, i would say go SD and buy a canon FS200-FS300 it's good to start out and has some manual control. Anything with decent HD footage will cost you around £1000.
If you want to have HD and 50FPS it will automatically be a 1080P camera since to my knowledge there is no 720P 50FPS camera.
HD has nothing to do with the picture quality it's all about the lens and the censors, HD is simple the bigger size of the picture, sure HD on youtube looks better than 480P but that is because you stretch the video, if you would look at SD hand HD without enlarging the SD video with exactly the same camera/lens you wont see a difference, except some small details like small hairs but for under £1500 you won't see that anyway because those camera's simply use a plastic lens instead of a crystal clear glass one.
Lemme make a quick example with some picture so you can understand it more clear
Those are 2 pictures shot on exactly the same camera, on is 1080P HD resolution and the other one is 480P SD format.
This is 480P SD format (non HD)
[img]http://i53.tinypic.com/vg3r4y.jpg[/img]
1080P HD
[img]http://i52.tinypic.com/egq1dh.jpg[/img]
You can see just a few differences (apart from the size) only a little bit of detail but the picture still looks great if this would be a human on the HD version you can see some if it's hairs on the chin for example but that is because this is shot on a 2000 Euro camera with a 1500 Euro lens, anything under £1500 won't show that and even that you have to know what you are doing.
Now i upscaled the 480P this is the same thing that popular websites like youtube and vimeo do when you watch the video fullscreen or even non-fullscreen, this is why many people think that HD is automatically better which it isn't.
480P Upscaled to HD
[img]http://i56.tinypic.com/k2eat2.jpg[/img]
1080P HD
[img]http://i52.tinypic.com/egq1dh.jpg[/img]
So please keep that in mind if you want to buy a HD camcorder, or else you will just be disappointed if you dont want to spend more than 1500 Dollar/Pound/Euro's but a SD camcorder or save for a decent HD one.
there are some SD gems out there
Thanks for the replies
I'm currently taking a look at the Panasonic SD-60, it's HD, has manual focus and exposure, and has good reviews. I've found one on ebay for £250
Is it any good?
Don't listen to reviews from average consumers, look for reviews who actually use the camera for artistic or professional purposes.
Look for camcorders with the largest sensor size possible and also with good wide aperture lenses.
Ignore things like 'holy fuck 25x optical zoom'. In most situations zoom is useless, and it is bad practice to use zoom while recording.]
Something with an f/2.8 or wider lens, a fairly large sensor, manual f/stop and exposure would be good.
[QUOTE=B-hazard;30288533]Don't listen to reviews from average consumers, look for reviews who actually use the camera for artistic or professional purposes.
Look for camcorders with the largest sensor size possible and also with good wide aperture lenses.
Ignore things like 'holy fuck 25x optical zoom'. In most situations zoom is useless, and it is bad practice to use zoom while recording.]
Something with an f/2.8 or wider lens, a fairly large sensor, manual f/stop and exposure would be good.[/QUOTE]
let's be realistic, hes not gonna get that
[editline]6th June 2011[/editline]
not on £200
[editline]6th June 2011[/editline]
can't even buy a used PDX10 for that
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;30288979]let's be realistic, hes not gonna get that
[editline]6th June 2011[/editline]
not on £200
[editline]6th June 2011[/editline]
can't even buy a used PDX10 for that[/QUOTE]
Yeah I know but I'm just stating some things he could be looking for.
If you don't mind lugging a big thing around, check out the JVC GY-X2BU (It was on another thread here just now)
Professional VHS camera. One is going on ebay for ~£300
He could probably get a decent HDV camera for £200, the JVC is good but it's only 560x480 and people tend to dislike that aspect ration these days.
The reason I want an HD one is so that the quality is still half decent in 360p when I upload it to youtube
[QUOTE=Alcapwne;30307151]The reason I want an HD one is so that the quality is still half decent in 360p when I upload it to youtube[/QUOTE]
go over to your tv. change to bbc 3 or whatever. Enjoy some DVCAM or Betacam footage.
[editline]7th June 2011[/editline]
(they are standard def)
Yeah but Youtube has weird ways of compressing. A 480p video will look worse on Youtube than a 720/1080p video compressed to 480p on Youtube. He said he will mainly use this for Youtube.
use some careful sharpening and upscale it? (for youtube)
[QUOTE=H4Z3Y;30307660]use some careful sharpening and upscale it? (for youtube)[/QUOTE]
how would I do that?
[QUOTE=H4Z3Y;30307660]use some careful sharpening and upscale it? (for youtube)[/QUOTE]
I think he would be better off getting something that can produce at least 720p.
[QUOTE=Sylerr;30278899]HD has nothing to do with the picture quality it's all about the lens and the censors[/QUOTE]
HD has nothing to do with the camera lens, it's just about the image resolution that the sensor can output
people thing hd = SUPER HD CRYSTAL CLEAR NO NOISE
[editline]7th June 2011[/editline]
and SD mean = LOW RES SHIT VIDEO PIXELATED NOISE NOISE
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;30309341]people thing hd = SUPER HD CRYSTAL CLEAR NO NOISE
[editline]7th June 2011[/editline]
and SD mean = LOW RES SHIT VIDEO PIXELATED NOISE NOISE[/QUOTE]
Only illiterates think that. To be fair though SD does have a lot less detail, even high quality SD looks bad on my 50 inch TV.
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;30309341]people thing hd = SUPER HD CRYSTAL CLEAR NO NOISE
[editline]7th June 2011[/editline]
and SD mean = LOW RES SHIT VIDEO PIXELATED NOISE NOISE[/QUOTE]
sd would be okay if youtube didn't compress everything so gayly, and yeah sd looks bad on a tv or even on my 1280x1024 monitor in full size
thats because the source is not 1024 pixels wide.
if you view at 100% it would be fine
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;30311168]thats because the source is not 1024 pixels wide.
if you view at 100% it would be fine[/QUOTE]
yeah but 100% is really small :smith:
Most people don't have SD monitors Cueball. Having an SD camera for web use isn't a good idea.
do you all view youtube videos full screen?
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;30311774]do you all view youtube videos full screen?[/QUOTE]
no but watching sd on full screen offline or on a tv is terrible
and youtube makes sd terrible even in 100%, not even full screen
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;30311774]do you all view youtube videos full screen?[/QUOTE]
i do quite often with hd videos, mostly because of my glorious hd resolution-endowed monitor
where does the SD-60 have MF?
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;30312134]where does the SD-60 have MF?[/QUOTE]
if MF is manual focus, the reviews and stuff say it has on-screen manual focus buttons
[QUOTE=Alcapwne;30312679]if MF is manual focus, the reviews and stuff say it has on-screen manual focus buttons[/QUOTE]
that sounds dead easy to use
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