Camcorder advice sought

[bc6]

Hi guys as I get deeper in to my trains I guess its a natral progression to want to show em off with video & photos, So I need a camcorder Id like an HD one if possible, small, brand name and inexpensive. Ive been looking @ a Flip Mino but I wanted some other suggestions if there were any to offer thanks.

[bc6]

Wow I cant believe that  no one has any advice for me. With all the Youtubers on here myself included I thought someone could offer a suggestion or two. Ive picked out and purchased a Creative Vado to be used to videotape my trains. I looked at Sony, Kodak, Flip mini camcorders but after seeing several videos shot on the Vado Im very impressed with it. It should show up on Monday & I take some test videos with it as soon as its charged. I wont boar you with too many specs but lit does he Vado has the latest H.264 video compression technology provides unprecedented video quality at ultra-efficient file sizes for the best possible viewing experience. Record up to 4 times more videos, compared to MPEG-4 encoded ones.It has up to 4 hours of HD quality video or up to 8 hours of video at VGA resolution.record video at an HD video resolution of up to 1280x720p.

 

Below are a couple of videos shot with the Vado & edited with various software packages.

 

 

 

[Guest ___]

Sorry, coming out of crisis mode. I recall not too long ago, talking to Bernard about camcorders. He's pretty up to date o nt hem. Sadly, I'm a photographer, and never really learned video stuff. I tried to make heads or tails out of a really dinky Panasonic HD camcorder that I bought him for Xmas for $300 that uses an SD card, but post-production was too much of an annoyance to be bothered with and went no further with it. If I do something on my layout for YouTube, I sue use the video mode in one of my little CoolPix cameras because it writes to Quicktime and I just upload it as is to YT.

[cteno4]

The video producer i work with all the time has flipped over the flip cameras. she loves them for fast use for normal shots (ie ones that dont need a close up!). she recently took her 3 flips to Antarctica with her and they performed wonderfully. she can hand them to anyone to shoot while she is doing something else or if they are in a unique situation and it gets very usable HD footage for the odd shots! she has taped them to a skate boarder helmet on one kids science shoot and worked wonderfully for a quick pov shot!

 

i keep eyeing one for myself, but dont end up using video enough usually (or doing much with the material i end up taking - hours of stuff in the drawer) to pay for it as a toy... the nice thing is the flips fit in your pocket so you can take them anywhere, so may get more use!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

I've asked Aaron advice on this and even spoken to a few cameramen at work. I am looking for an inexpensive camcorder and the Flip cameras range from $130 - $200 USD. (that's about a set of trains) The best prices I've seen on that camera are Walmart, Target or Amazon (the best so far about $20 USD less than anybody else)

I've also heard good things about it if you're looking for a quick point & shoot camcorder that downloads to the web with ease.

[Guest ___]

I always wondered what format those flip cameras record in. I know it seems that anything in HD gets really goofy when it comes to the codecs they run, and nothing HD out of camera runs right on a conventional monitor, or at least within the Windows architecture. (Haven't dared to see what my Linux PC would do with it) For some reason most video players take 16:9 and crunch it down to 4:3.

[cteno4]

I think the new one comes out very easily right into a qt codec. lisa is a final cut pro jock and i know it slips right in there very easily. a few of the mp4 hd cameras make you go through a nasty conversion loop before you can start editing and blows lots of field time.

 

lisa is a great judge of this stuff as she is an all in one video producer, she shoots, writes, and edits (and even has a decent narration voice). so has to deal with equipment thru the whole process. she also teaches media at uc santa cruz for science writers so is always searching for simple but good quality video equipment at nab for both herself as aux equipment and her students.

 

i can ask lisa in a couple of weeks as she is now off in egypt, the lucky nuck! got a gig to go on a NOAA trip to film them doing AROVs searching for deep water ancient wrecks. I keep trying to be her best boy on some of these wild shoots she has gone on lately, but no luck!

 

cheers

 

jeff