Formaldehead Posted May 22, 2003 Posted May 22, 2003 Any reccomendations? I don't know Jack about Dig. Vid., but I've been making a Premiere slideshow, and want to start making videos. Any info about either Premiere (why do some of my titles look blurry, what is the best scanning resolution for export to VHS, etc.) or Digital Video would be apprecitated Quote
Fence_Sitter Posted May 22, 2003 Posted May 22, 2003 i am studyign this in school. if you want a really good DV cam you are looking at 3-chip technology. a good starter in 3 chip in the GL-1 (which is discontinued). The GL-2 is now available (which IMHO is crap as it is heavier and jsut looks cooler). the base for 3-chip is about $2500 depending on the package. This will include firewire connection straight to your comp, decent optical zoom and high quality lense. If you want to be able to put on quality lenses (like SLR lenses or zooms) you will need something like the Cannon XL-1 or XL-1S. PM me if you want more options or want to know more. Quote
Formaldehead Posted May 22, 2003 Author Posted May 22, 2003 What's good for a starter camera (<<$1200?) Also, weight is a consideration.... Quote
Fence_Sitter Posted May 22, 2003 Posted May 22, 2003 i would look at something like a cannon alura (sp?) it is really lightweight. it only has one chip, but it is good quality picture and full featured for its small size... you could find it used conceivably for under $1000. Quote
Fence_Sitter Posted May 22, 2003 Posted May 22, 2003 (edited) any in the list iain provided would suffice. they just get progresivly better picture and features as you go up in price... the advantage of the cheaper ones is the tend to be dramatically lighter and teh batteries used are up to 1/3 compared with something like the GL-2 which, in the cold, eats batteries like crazy! Edited May 22, 2003 by Fence_Sitter Quote
CascadeClimber Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 Some of the Canon cams have audio problems: The mics pic up sounds that the camera makes. Great optics, though. Â I got a Sony DCR-PC101 last fall. I'm quite happy with it, and it's plenty small. It can be had for well under $1000 now. Â -L Quote
sobo Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 We're not talking Mini-DV here, are we? We just got a Canon AZ40 Mini-DV camcorder for under $500 from ABT Electronics (off the net). We're quite happy with it. It's small, light, takes great vid/aud, stills, and has full edit capability and plugs into your PC or TV to save on batts (the LCD viewer eats batts for breakfast).  See here  Just so you know, the Canon GL-2 is going for $2800 on this site, with no tax and free shipping. Quote
CascadeClimber Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 Formaldehead said: Any reccomendations? I don't know Jack about Dig. Vid., but I've been making a Premiere slideshow, and want to start making videos. Any info about either Premiere (why do some of my titles look blurry, what is the best scanning resolution for export to VHS, etc.) or Digital Video would be apprecitated  Premier kinda sucks, but everything in that range seems to have problems. I've used Ulead Mediastudio Pro, but they can't seem to get all the bugs out and keep issuing patches for patches. If I was spending the money over I think I'd go with Vegas Video, which was just purchased by Sony.  Best way to get VHS into the PC is to use the passthrough on a mini-DV cam and run it in on IEEE1394 (firewire). Analog capture tools, like the ATI All in Wonder products are a nightmare for editing, so work in DV type AVI as much as possible, and copy from mini-DV to VHS at the very end.  Check out some of the forums at www.dmnforums.com and www.creativecow.net for more info.  -L Quote
philfort Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 Vegas is great, and if you don't need anything too fancy, their entry-level program called VideoFactory is good too. Â Someone mentioned the Canon Elura - I have one of those (40MC) and the things that suck about it are: 1) the mic picks up tape noise, and 2) batteries last less than half an hour (with the LCD off!). Otherwise it seems fine, and its really tiny. Quote
CascadeClimber Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 philfort said: Vegas is great, and if you don't need anything too fancy, their entry-level program called VideoFactory is good too. Â Hey! You aren't supposed to be using anything other than Windows Movie Maker! I'm turning you in. Â Â Seriously, though, I just finished up making some short videos from stills, and (free) WMM was a much better tool for the job than ($500) Mediastudio Pro. MS has a pretty decent product for basic editing. Â -L Quote
Weekend_Climberz Posted May 24, 2003 Posted May 24, 2003 I have a panasonic dv951d with the 3CCD that was only about $1250 and it takes excellent video. I use pinnacle studio to edit everything down to RealVideo so I can stream it off of my website. It takes DVD quality video and can zoom in 100x digitally, and it only weighs about 2.5 lbs and fits in the palm of your hand. It also takes still pictures via an SD card so you can easily move pictures around with the reader that is included. It has worked great for me and has really held together even after dropping it several times. Quote
Steigerman Posted May 25, 2003 Posted May 25, 2003 I have a Sony TRV-27 and I've made some cool looking vids. I keep batteries on the inner layer of clothing to keep the cold from draining them. Quote
icegirl Posted May 25, 2003 Posted May 25, 2003 I like my Sony DCR TRV-730 It's not the smallest around, and runs digital 8, not the "newest" fanciest, but works fine for me, and plugs right in to my computer (firewire) also the lens, zoom and sound seem quite good. Quote
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