HD Videography on the Cheap- Part 2: Camcorders
19 11 2007This week we are talking about camcorders. Specifically HD camcorders.
Why go HD?
The real question here is… why not. In order to get a quality digital video picture from any camcorder you will need to buy a decent broadcast or prosumer camcorder. That’s gonna cost you at least $3k. You can now get consumer quality HD camcorders… that have a nicer picture quality than the DV ones for under $1500. Almost all computer video editing software is HD compatible, and the increased space the footage takes up on your hard drive is no longer an issue. (hard drives are CHEAP) ‘
Also, in the end it comes down to being upward compatible. HD is the way that television is going. You will someday replace the tv you mom gave you to take to college… when you do… I bet you buy an high definition television. Watching DV footage on that TV will show just how horrible the image quality is. You will notice right away that your film looks amateurish compared to a deep crystal clear HD image.
This is just an opinion. Feel free to argue.
Ok, fine. HD is the way to go. What do I buy?
We talked last week about your budget. Take the money from the budget you laid out for yourself and plan on spending at least a 1/4 of that cash on your camera. Although camcorders are getting cheap, it is going to be your first line, your ground troops, your artillery… so make sure you don’t cheap out on this part.
Consumer Camcorders
Small hand held camcorders are nice. They come with some simple features and they won’t break the bank. Something to keep in mind is; the smaller the camcorder the shakier the footage. It will be hard to keep something that light and small stable. Image stabilizers are good, but not good enough.
Something most pro’s don’t tell low level consumers. A steady image is the key to looking professional. Big camcorders have an advantage of being easier to keep stable. Shoulder mounts and pure weight help steady the hand. This is one of the key differences between dad’s home movie and a professional wedding video. So if you go with a small camera, buy a decent tripod and USE IT.
The only other thing I can tell you at this stage is test, test, test. There are a lot of consumer HD camcorders out there. Read the reviews, go to your local mom and pop shop and test the bejeezus out of them. Find one with all the options you want, then search for the best price. Don’t jump at the cheapest one… there is a reason it is cheap. Jump at the one that makes you warm and fuzzy inside. For reviews on current camcorders go to Camcorderinfo.com. They are great and very informative.
Prosumer Camcorders
For the prosumer, you should be spending somewhere in the range of $5000-$10000 bucks. I recommend in the lower range. Sony, Panasonic and Canon all have amazing low range prosumer camcorders. I recommend Sony. I have used all three and in the end I keep marching back and buying another Sony camera. Here’s why.
- Sony generally costs less
- Most models can record HD video to a DV tape
- For outdoor video I find the image superior.
- They worked hard for my business and gave me all the options I wanted. (Sony may be the black sheep of electronics right now, but their pro camcorder division is still top notch)
- Sony makes inexpensive underwater camcorder rigs specifically for their small camcorders. (more on this in a few weeks)
Cost is a huge factor. In outdoor video, camera’s are going to get wet, dropped, and eventually broken. It needs to be reasonable to replace. You don’t want your life destroyed because your 20 thousand dollar camera fell in the drink and you need 4 contracts to replace it. Options are also very important. It makes sense to be able to do the things you want when you are in the feild — but nothing is as important as DV tape.
I harp on this. People will find me annoying I am sure. But If you take anything from this, remember the Animal’s Law; MiniDV TAPE IS KING.
It is cheap- at 5 bucks a tape. It is re-usable. You can get it at the corner store. It is small and portable. It is tough… you can drop it off a cliff and it usually won’t get destroyed, and best of all you get 60 minutes of quality HD footage per unit.
Last time I used a Canon HD camcorder, it couldn’t record HD to the dv tape. It used a DV tape, but could only record standard DV video to that tape. Panasonic wants you to buy specal ‘P2′ flash drives. They are overpriced and don’t hold a lot of footage (and not super durable like a tape… trust me). So although, I love the features on Panasonics, and I love the look and lenses on a Canon, I have to warn people off buying them. Sony’s only flaw is that you can’t swap out lenses and the image err’s on the blue side, but for filming lakes and water, this is great. These factors may change in the future, and at that time I will sing a different song.
There is one other factor to take in to account when looking at camcorders is sound input. If image stability is the first sign of an crappy film, sound is definitely the second (Some even argue the other way around). Look for a camera with one or 2 “XLR” inputs. We will talk about sound at length in a few weeks, and having XLR direct input will be a HUGE advantage. If you really can’t find one in your price range, just double check and make sure that it has a mic jack. Many consumer camcorders don’t come with one. You will need it. The on board mic won’t be good enough for film making and you will be bummed out if you buy a camera and can’t hook up better sound to it.
These are my opinions and it is important that you form your own. Do the research. Your camcorder is your first line of defense, and if you hate it, you are going to hate your film. Once you buy it, spend time learning the options and how to quickly switch them up.
So.. quick review:
- Spend at least 1/4 of your budget on your camcorder… don’t cheap out here.
- Make sure it can record the HD video to miniDV tape
- Make sure you have some sort of microphone jack. XLR input is preferable, two XLR inputs are great. ( this will generally only be available on the bigger camcorders)
- Take your time and research the options. If you hate your camcorder, you will hate your film.
- Small camcorders will be shakier. Buy a tripod and use it.
Now down to brass tacks.
What camcorder do you recommend?
Currently, Heliconia Productions uses a Sony HVR-V1U. I simply love it. It has proven rugged (dropped on day one of shooting… no damage) It was relatively inexpensive at around $5k Canadian at the time. It has two XLR input jacks, films in 24, 30 and 60 frames per second (which is really great) and it even came with a decent shotgun style mic. Last but not least, it records an excellent image to a miniDV tape (bet you knew I was gonna say that).
We also have a small hand-held Sony HCR-HC5 camcorder. Specifically because sony makes a waterproof sport case for it for around $200. This is invaluable. We went with a second sony camcorder to keep image about the same. The quality is lower on the smaller camcorder, but that was to be expected. So far it has served us well, and I was really impressed that the batteries recharge in about 15 minutes.
That’s it for this week. Next week we will be talking computers. Stay tuned
The Animal
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So I got a question…
What would you recommend for a camera (probably doesn’t need to do High Def) for recording University classroom instruction. It needs to be able to accept sound input, and needs DV out. Portability would be nice, but is not necessary.
I am new to the digital camera arena, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I don’t think you will require much, and as far as portability is concerned… the digital camcorder you buy from bestbuy will most certainly be portable. Sound input is gonna be your key since you will need a mic of some sort for your students to hear you at all. A remote lavalier microphone would be best, and you can get one for around 200 bucks from your local video store. ( i can’t recommend this enough, nothing is worse than a classroom video where you can’t hear the teacher talk)
Try a Samsung SC-D365. it is very inexpensive, uses DV tape and has an external audio jack so you can attack your microphone. It is a ‘mini’ jak, not an ‘xlr’ so make sure you find the right kind of microphone. Most photo/video specialty stores can point you in the right direction.
The Animal
Cool, thanks for the input. I think our eventual goal will be to purchase some Mac Mini’s and feed the camera directly into the Mac. We are very close to getting a Mac server which has the capability to grab the video content from the Mac Mini and encode it. So whether or not the camera has tape or hard drive functionality may not matter. Unless the Mac Mini can only grab post-recorded content.
Thanks for the MIC recommendation, I will certainly keep that in mind as we will need to think that through. I am guessing that you are asserting that the MIC built into the camera sucks? I heard that some of the more expensive HD cameras have better MICs. Is that true?
Thanks so much for your help.
Yes, the bigger cameras have better mics, but, I have yet to run in to a built in microphone that is any good, particularly if you need to record anyone speaking. The problem is that on board mics are built to pick up EVERYTHING. So you will get a lot of room noise, people talking, breathing and lights buzzing. Lavalieres are designed to pick up one person’s voice.. the person wearing the mic, and are a far better option for what you want to do.
i am gonna talk at length about computers next week. But to help you out a bit now, Yes, you can do a live feed from virtually any camcorder as long as it has a ‘firewire’ output, through a mac. I think the ‘iMovie’ software that comes with OSX will be all you need. That being said, doing it this way takes a lot of RAM and mac minis are notoriously short on RAM. Make sure that you test before you buy, and pack as much RAM as you can in the little sucker… 2 gig at least, or you will be getting drop frames.
Doing live feed is great, you don’t need DV tape. But you may regret not having the other option when your hard drive is full and you have to go buy one in a rush.
For hard drives, you will need to look at externals. Find one with a firewire or firewire 2 option, as they work better with macs. Western digital makes affordable 1.5 terrabite drives, you will use that space up quick, so get one as big as you can afford.
Thanks for your comments, tell me how it goes, and contact me any time if you have more questions.
The animal
Well the system we are looking at is having a MAC Server that actually does the encoding. So the MAC Minis just act as a front end and send the data off to the server to be encoded. MAC has a piece of software that works great for this called Podcast producer. And like most Apple software, its pretty easy to use from what we have read. We are just testing out this system right now.
To make things as easy as possible for our users we are going to end up grabbing sound from MICs built into the room. So I think the only thing we are worried about now is getting decent video that can be transferred via firewire. My coworker seems to think we will be around $1000 for a camera. I looked online and some reviewers seemed to really like the Canon Elura 100. And it is still very much in our price range.
“Last time I used a Canon HD camcorder, it couldn’t record HD to the dv tape. It used a DV tape, but could only record standard DV video to that tape.”
My understanding here is that the HD resolution from a consumer level Canon camera (ex. HV20) or a prosumer Canon (XL-A1) won’t transfer onto a minidv tape. Does that also include the HD mini-dv tapes?
I’m trying to see which way to go on brand and Canon seems to be ahead (lens capabilities, Canon’s HDV vs. Sony’s AVCHD) except for the above mentioned flaw.
thanks,
Jack
You are absolutely right. Canon made a gigantic blunder with this one. Yes you can exchange lenses, yes they get slightly better color rating on the test charts, but in my op. it isn’t worth the hassle of having to buy solid state memory to record your images. On top of that the canon is almost double the cost.. before lenses.
Sony also tends to work better with the editing software, less fiddling on the back end. No, hd Mini dv tapes won’t work either. You gotta shell out the big bucks for solid state memory. Then pay more for a card reader so you can empty the sticks on the fly. It sounds like the work you are doing is higher end than what I do, so maybe lenses are really important to you, but i find i really don’t use much more than a wide angle and a fish eye from time to time.
Tell me more…
The Animal
I’m looking for advice about the best type of camcorder to get. I appreciate what you’ve written and think you explain things clearly.
What’s the difference between HD and HDV? And is AVCHD really the future? The latest issue of Videomaker magazine seems to suggest that with the new cameras coming out this year from Sony and Panasonic.
One guy who’s trying to sell me his camera is telling me that his recommendations for cameras are DVX100B, XL2, GL2, DVC30, or anything Sony. I believe the last part about Sony.
I really think the Sony HVR-A1U and the V1U models are sweet. I also like the Sony VX-2100. Finally one friend recommends the Panasonic HVX200 DVCPRO and the Canon XH-A1.
My head is spinning with all the choices. I do agree with you that MiniDV tape is cheap and is more durable than the memory sticks or whatnot.
I’m interested in having a camera that can do the run-n-gun piece for news websites but I also want one with excellent resolution, XLR inputs, and low-light performance for doing the documentary-style full feature or the special event (i.e. weddings).
Could you help me sort this out?
Thats a pretty tall order novicedocmaker.
To start, HD and HDV (high definition vs. High definition Video) are one and the same as far as I am concerned, anyone tell ya different is just trying to sell you something expensive. AVCHD stands for ‘Advanced Video Codec High Definition’ and is just the latest one to hit the market (panasonic and sony started using it in 2006). It currently is doing a good job of storing HD video. It isn’t the ‘future’ it is just the current format, and it will be replaced by another codec in the future.. thats the way these things work.
Hope that answers your first questions.
I would stay away from the DVX100b, and the XL2. neither can record HD to a DV tape. They use very expensive hard drives. The GL2 and the DVC30 are not high def and you will be let down if thats what you were looking for. I believe it is truly silly to go non HD at this stage of the game if you are shelling out this kind of money.
The Sony HVR-A1U, the v1u and the Canon XH-A1 have all the things you are looking for and are the safe bet. It is up to you to fiddle with them in the shop and see which one feels right to you. I am not a camcorder reviewer so I can’t tell you which one is best. I personally use a Sony…
Hope that answers your second bunch of questions.
The Animal
Thanks, Animal, I appreciate you clarifying things for me. Yes, I do need to go to the camera shop and fiddle with those models.
Cheers,
Novicedocmaker