looking for camera recommendations

D

dyermaker8

New member
I'd like to be able to do some decent in studio performance videos and was hoping you fine people could point me in the right direction in my camera search. I wouldn't mind getting a good deal on something used thats a couple years old,. I can budget a couple hundred but - 100 or less would be better. I'm hoping to get a better camera used than I would get by spending the same money on a new low end model. Would like to have reasonable low light performance, but know better than to expect a lot here.

My current cam is a prosumer panasonic point and shoot that only does VGA,. I love it for stills,. but I also thought about upgrading this for video use as well.

anybody using an older camcorder with great success that I might be able to find a good deal on?

Am I missing anything?
 
My friend shot a music video using Canon DSLR and my Nikon D3300 and some shots with Nikon P310.. I guess they all know shoot Full HD. The video is not ready yet but I guess, I am happy with outcome
 
I bought a Nikon d810, it's the successor to both the D800 and D800E cameras. It give excellent images and quality videos.If you are looking for a camera with the latest technology and will last you and long time then you would look at the D810
 
Considering the budget of less than $500 I honestly think the best camera you can get is going to be the JVC HD110 or HD100 ... however they don't do wide angle in small rooms (though there is a wide angle adapter) and they have some serious low light problems. (google HD100 low light split screen)

The JVC is an entry level professional camera from a few years ago, it uses CCD sensors so they have poor low light, a bit more noise, but are perfect for fast action and circular motion because there is no rolling shutter. You should be able to get a base camera for not very much nowadays and record to minidv tapes (use panasonic PQ tapes... at the very least NEVER mix tape brands because the lubrication differences will screw up the recording deck after a while). You can then save money for an Anton Bauer or IDX battery plate and a Firestore hard drive recorder or some sort of HD-SDI recorder like from Black Magic ... which will then give you about 10 hours of continuous recording. (great for events) ... and the battery systems (not the plate so much) will work with any other professionally used camera you buy in the future... so thats a huge upfront investment but I know people who have been using the same batteries since the 90's.

Keep in mind almost all older digital video equipment is Firewire based.

Another option is to buy a bunch of super cheap cameras to get multiple angles... which would likely lead to a more interesting video... people are willing to forgive low quality video as long as the sound is good and the content is interesting.

Disclosure: I own a JVC HD110 that I am considering selling as I now shoot on a Black Magic Pocket... but the JVC is just do dang useful for long events...and I dont have a large hard drive recorder for the Pocket yet.
 
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Thanks Zek,. great tips! I'm ending up going the second route with multi cheaper cams. I just recieved a like new but non-funtioning canon powershot for $20 that does 720p. I've already repaired it(cold soldered +pin on the mobo! easy!) and plan on doing the canon firmware hack to get past the 10min? recording limit,. although the plan is to record only single song in studio performances so..

After I get the bugs worked out on that cam the second will be an older panasonic 4/3ds that also does nice 720p and an adaptor so I can use some of my old canon ae series primes! Then I'll have a new stills cam and a 2 cam studio setup!

I'm planning on using mains power cords for in-studio use. Hows that sound? workable? I'm a little new to video work but I'm having alot of fun dreamign about the possibilities,. despite probably reinventing the wheel a few times over.
 
tripods i got,. for video are thier any good rules of thumb/hacks for lighting., I normally keep the lights pretty low and would like to maintain that ambiance,. I plan on using pretty fast glass(1.6-1.8) on the panasonic when I get it ,. but the current sony only does like f2.8,.; ]

I've started to try to think of video more like audio,. in terms of garbage in/garbage out, and what kinds and quality of raw data you need to capture in order for tools to be effective in post,.
 
Sounds like you're sorted but, should anything fall through, I'll just mention that a couple of years back I bought a JVC "Everio" camcorder dirt cheap at a local pawn shop. I wasn't expecting lots from it but I've been very impress by it's quality. It shoots to an SD memory card...8 gig gets me around an hour of recording. Low light isn't spectacular but fairly adequate but, in good lighting, the picture quality is very good indeed, even on a 50 inch plasma.

Downsides are that there's no way to plug in better audio (but I just record "double system" with my laptop and a bus powered interface) and, to shoot outdoors in bright sun I've had to concoct a home made sun screen for the LCD viewfinder.

Anyhow, an example of the quality is attached. Please ignore the content...I was on instructions from SWMBO...

 
Lighting is a whole 'nother profession :)

Light, fundamentally, is just like sound in that it occurs across a spectrum. Generally Tungsten, Daylight, Fluorescent, LEDs are all going to produce different colors like orange, blue, green, yellow. It helps a lot to match all of the lights to the same color... so everything is tungsten or daylight, etc. then white balance the camera so that white objects (ie printer paper) are white under that light... lights can be filtered to match or mixed for effect. Just like how a guitar has highs and lows a tungsten bulb has oranges and blues.... LED's can get pretty sparse in their spectrum though...

Keeping the above in mind you can use some super cheap lights. The movie Hanna (2011) used white foam-core with white Christmas lights taped to it to assist with lighting in some scenes.

As far as lighting techniques; In low light situation I focus on backlighting the subject because it creates a rim around them and separates them from the background. It makes it easier to keep the scene looking dark while the audience can still see the motion.
 
Oh zek,. thems some money tips right there. Thank you very much. I love this forum.

zekthedeadcow said:
Lighting is a whole 'nother profession :)

Light, fundamentally, is just like sound in that it occurs across a spectrum. Generally Tungsten, Daylight, Fluorescent, LEDs are all going to produce different colors like orange, blue, green, yellow. It helps a lot to match all of the lights to the same color... so everything is tungsten or daylight, etc. then white balance the camera so that white objects (ie printer paper) are white under that light... lights can be filtered to match or mixed for effect. Just like how a guitar has highs and lows a tungsten bulb has oranges and blues.... LED's can get pretty sparse in their spectrum though...

Keeping the above in mind you can use some super cheap lights. The movie Hanna (2011) used white foam-core with white Christmas lights taped to it to assist with lighting in some scenes.

As far as lighting techniques; In low light situation I focus on backlighting the subject because it creates a rim around them and separates them from the background. It makes it easier to keep the scene looking dark while the audience can still see the motion.
Click to expand...
 
As to cameras - the Sony W series all shoot HD video, you can get a new one with a 5X zoom for $120 or less. I've got two, but never tried doing a 2-camera shoot before. Hmmm....
 
As a principle, I think that technology and cameras may not be as important as talent of the director. The famous Police video (Every breath you take) is shot using equipment not as modern as nowadays camera, but its breath-taking anyway
 
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