If I wanted to make a video.....

R

RAMI

Guest
I didn't want to put this in the "Video" section because I don't think anyone ever goes there. I sure don't.

Anyway, a pretty open ended question.

If I wanted to start making videos, either of my songs or instructional videos, what kind of camera would some of you that know this shit recommend. I don't even know where to start. I obviously want something better than a phone recording. Maybe not pro quality, but not cheap looking either.

Let's say I wanted to spend anywhere from $300-500. Is that reasonable or a waste of time?

Pretty vague question, I know. I had access to a good digital camera a couple of years ago, but I was stupid and didn't grab it when I should have.
 
Hey RAMI.
I'm sure there'll be guys on here who really know about this kind of thing.
I'm not one of them but I've been thinking about doing a video or two lately and recently did a bit of research on cameras for the job.

A pal of mine is a semi-pro photographer and has an upmarket canon DSLR. It does video and looks absolutely stellar but, of course, is way out of my price range.

One thing to be aware of is the sensor size in the camera. I ended up picking up a samsung nx1100 and a few old canon prime lenses+adapter, mostly because the nx1100 shoots 1080p and has an APS-C sensor.
That's 1.5 crop so compared to your average budget still/video camera it's still pretty big.

I haven't used it for anything serious yet but I was bowled over by the video quality from this thing doing a few tests.
It ran me about £160 with a the lenses I mentioned.
The stock lens would be absolutely fine for youtube tutorials and the like, though.

I'm not speaking with any authority here....It's just what I think I know. :p

Anyway, hope that's some way useful to you.

PS. My first impressions tell me that lighting is kinda the video equivalent of treating your room for audio.
I watched a few demonstrations of different basic lighting setups and the difference really was amateur vs pro.
 
RAMI, what do you want to do with the videos? Are these just for fun, posting on YouTube, showing your friends?
 
I just started this myself. I dont know if I made the right decision but I got a GoPro 3+ black music edition.

Great picture, up to 4K content, but 1080P works great for me. Its cool because you can do all those fun shots like mounting the camera to the head of the guitar for an interesting perspective.

The internal mic leaves a lot to be desired, but there is an adapter to plug in a proper mic. It matters not to me. I edit the videos (using the free gopro editor) or iMovie. Use that for the scratch track, and we record our parts, mix and mash and it comes out pretty sweet. I think the GoPro site has a video on the music version, check it out.
 
Hey RAMI.
I'm sure there'll be guys on here who really know about this kind of thing.
I'm not one of them but I've been thinking about doing a video or two lately and recently did a bit of research on cameras for the job.

A pal of mine is a semi-pro photographer and has an upmarket canon DSLR. It does video and looks absolutely stellar but, of course, is way out of my price range.

One thing to be aware of is the sensor size in the camera. I ended up picking up a samsung nx1100 and a few old canon prime lenses+adapter, mostly because the nx1100 shoots 1080p and has an APS-C sensor.
That's 1.5 crop so compared to your average budget still/video camera it's still pretty big.

I haven't used it for anything serious yet but I was bowled over by the video quality from this thing doing a few tests.
It ran me about £160 with a the lenses I mentioned.
The stock lens would be absolutely fine for youtube tutorials and the like, though.

I'm not speaking with any authority here....It's just what I think I know. :p

Anyway, hope that's some way useful to you.

PS. My first impressions tell me that lighting is kinda the video equivalent of treating your room for audio.
I watched a few demonstrations of different basic lighting setups and the difference really was amateur vs pro.
Thanx Steen. That does help. I'll keep all that in mind when I start shopping.
RAMI, what do you want to do with the videos? Are these just for fun, posting on YouTube, showing your friends?
Yeah, all of the above. I wouldn't mind doing "videos" of some of my tunes, even if it's just a camera on me playing all the instruments and then splitting the screen in 4, if you know what I mean. Just something for people to look at, other than a blank screen or just the lyrics. I also want to maybe do some simple Drum instruction videos, all for fun.
 
I just started this myself. I dont know if I made the right decision but I got a GoPro 3+ black music edition.

Great picture, up to 4K content, but 1080P works great for me. Its cool because you can do all those fun shots like mounting the camera to the head of the guitar for an interesting perspective.

The internal mic leaves a lot to be desired, but there is an adapter to plug in a proper mic. It matters not to me. I edit the videos (using the free gopro editor) or iMovie. Use that for the scratch track, and we record our parts, mix and mash and it comes out pretty sweet. I think the GoPro site has a video on the music version, check it out.
Awesome man, thanx. I'll check that out. I'm not worried about the audio, because I'll be syncing it up to my actual tunes, so in other words I'll be lip-syncing my songs. For the instructional vids, I'm thinking that I'll use the audio from my DAW, so my mics will be going into REAPER, rather than using the camera's mic.
 
It seems like the more you play with it the more ways you think of using it. My drum instructor suggests that I record myself often and gauge progress and identify problem areas. This thing works great for that. i sometimes mount it on the drum rack in various positions. Last night I tried it on a headband mount so I would see my perspective of drumming. Its fascinating.
 
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If you can run an extra Ben, Panasonic HC-V720 Live Streaming HD Camcorder is a great all around cam and capable of doing live broadcast (haven't played with that yet)...I love this camera. It's fairly stable for a camera in the under $3k stable (nice double use of "stable", eh?). The stuff we use at church for live are $3500 Panasonics mounted on remote gimbals, but for your price range, this is the camera I'd recommend. Got mine a few months ago. Nice camera. Great optics, shoots down in the dark (we do stick dramas in blacklight, and it's great for picking that stuff up.) If you're using your glow-in-the-dark sticks for a cool drum solo, this'll get it! 21x zoom, but you lose a lot of stability if you go out too far.
 
I'm trying to get a "band" video of me playing drums, guitar, bass, keys and singing live. Record each separately with the camera movements MIDI'd with the church's setup and bring all the vids into Vegas and see if it will edit. If I have to green screen, I'll just scrap it. First step, click track with gimbal movements midi'd. Got to figure out my choreography before I even start this mess...
 
There are, basically, two ways you can go: camcorder (and that includes things like the GoPro) or DSLR. The difference between the two is that a DSLR lets you use DOF (depth of field) -- you can throw the background out-of-focus, while keeping the foreground sharp. This is one of the things that makes movies look like movies. However, DSLRs tend to be on the more expensive side, and a bit outside your budget.

The GoPro is an amazing device, but it has a fixed focal length wide angle lens, which limits what you can shoot and, as noted above, you can't do shots that exploit DOF.

Also, 4K (and 2K) is still, almost exclusively, a professional format for shooting films that will be screened in commercial movie theaters. It chews up enormous amounts of data very, very quickly, and is difficult to edit unless you have a very, very fast computer with a lot of memory. HD (1080p) is a far better format for home shooters, though there are many flavors of HD.

1080p specifies the resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels). It's usually expressed as 1080p/60 or 1080p/30, with the latter number specifying the frames per second. Broadcast HD is usually 1080i or 720p ("i"= interlaced scanning, "p" = progressive scanning). Again, 1080p/60 is preferable, but most camcorders are 1080i/60 or 1080p/30. Less expensive DSLRs are 1080p/30, higher-end are 1080p/60. For your purposes, the difference probably wouldn't be noticeable. Another important factor is compression. There are several compression schemes around for HD, but the primary characteristic to look for bit rate. 15 mbits and below won't look good. 18-20 mbits is okay, 20 and over is best (and is available in amateur camcorders and DSLRs).

Camcorders will tend to have better low-light performance than DSLRs. Low-light performance is important to bear in mind, because, I'd assume, you're going to be doing most of your shooting indoors and you'll be using available light, rather than lighting the space in which you perform.

Even given that, I'd still consider a DSLR over a camcorder. Shooting video with DSLRs usually means using a tripod, and they're not really intended for chasing-your-kids home video. The lower-end DLSRs are not image-stabilized (and IS lenses intended for still photography don't work well when shooting video). However, you can get very high-quality video out them -- many television shows and commercials are shot with DSLRs, though these are "tricked out" with matte boxes, various kinds of mounts, etc.

Canon recently introduced the 70D, and you can still find 60D bodies for relatively low cost. I picked one up in January for just under $600. Add a $200 Tamron 18-250mm lens, and you've got a basic video package that can turn out very fine video. If you're so inclined, there are third-party firmware additions that let you shoot raw video -- this is important for a professional look, because it allows you to "grade"your shots -- match color and contrast so they look consistent.
 
Interesting that you brought this up RAMIDude.
I've been thinking of doing video too. I've got a pretty good camera and it said something about 14 megapixels... has the smart card thingy etc.
It does pretty decent video. I could get the info about it if it sounds like it sounds like something that might work for ya.
 
There are, basically, two ways you can go: camcorder (and that includes things like the GoPro) or DSLR. The difference between the two is that a DSLR lets you use DOF (depth of field)

This is another reason I went for the Samsung as a lower end alternative.
I popped a Canon 50mm f1.4 on it and the DOF is crazy tight if you want it to be. Only cost about £20. :eek:

I think it'll be a nice tool to have in the arsenal. Obviously it's manual focus and aperture with the adapter but who cares for basic video, right?
 
What are you doing a Madonna video? :eek:

Just play, man! :)

Not dancing, where I can move in each set without running into myself and where the cameras will need to point at each point in the song for vocal, drum, key, guitar bass close ups and how to pan the cameras around, etc. for the best look.
I'll be recording myself with four cameras six different times playing the same song over and over with the same exact camera movements each time. I think it's going to be scrap though, cause I don't know how to do the exposure to keep the room from being over/under exposed in contrast to my single times in the room....
 
Don't forget about the "mixing" here too. What I mean is that if you are going to lip sync the video, you should probably do multiple shots from different angles/scenes, then combine/glue it all together to get a pro-ish look to it. That will require SW to do it. Options are a plenty for that portion, but I use (or rather my son does, as an aspiring film maker) Adobe products for that, as they are dirt cheap for the student versions as they charge per month. Just turn off the extra services it runs if you are using the same computer when you mix audio in a DAW.
 
I use my Sony P&S WX series, 16 M, HD 1080 video, 5x zoom which can be used when videoing (not all combo P&S allow that). With good lighting, the quality is excellent, with low light not so much. $140.
Check out my videos HERE and HERE. The stereo mic actually works quite well for concerts as long as I'm not too near a loud PA speaker. Of course typical problem with built-in audio capture (and this usually applies to video cameras that willlet you plug an auxillary mic in): built-in compression that is not switchable. As long as you are doing your audio editng separately, then that whole point is moot.
Like already said, a DSLR with interchangeable lenses will give you better quality, more choice and better low light usage.
 
Thanx for all the help, guys. I'll look into all that. I almost want to close the thread because I'm getting TOO MUCH help here and my eyes are starting to glaze over like a 9 year old when you start giving them too much info. :D
 
What PTravel said, about DOF. A decent DSLR > handycam if you have any aspirations to anything "arty". If it's just instructional videos, it doesn't matter so much. Don't know what cameras cost over there but it might be a struggle at that budget.
 
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