Video Camera Question - As any of you who have gone drinking with me know . . .
 

I have a video camera question. As any of you who have gone drinking with me know, I like to sometimes document the fun with tipsy snapshots.

I'm thinking of getting a video camera and microphone which can be used for similar purposes. I'd like a video camera which has as good quality as possible, while being small enough to put in a large purse, and a microphone, probably one of those handheld reporter on the scene type ones with a puffball of foam on top, which is decent for picking up who is speaking directly into it and cancels out some background noise. Possibly a very portable on-camera light. Not concerned about budget, just quality and practicality. (Did I just use the term practicality to describe my intentions here? I guess I did.)

Suggestions?

for hdv the canon hv20 I think ,for sd the small panny 3 ccd cams they shoot great stuff.

Hi Amelia.

These days there are too many choices for the kind of camera that you seek without narrowing the field a bit.

There are HD cams, SD cams, Cams that record directly to DVD, cams with built in hard drives, flash memory card cams, and of course MiniDV cams. All of which can handle what you want to do.

So.....Here's a few things you may want to keep in mind.

1: HD cams require HD editing software and not all editing programs include HD support. Not sure if you are currently using HD and prepared for that or if you are hoping to use existing software that may not support HD.

2: Not all of the hard drive based cameras have firewire ports. Most of them have HDMI but when I was researching this, back in August, I was unable to find HDMI cards for importing to my computer from those cameras. They do offer USB but IMO, that option sucks. I'm a Sony fan (other than their computers and car audio) and although other brands do offer this, I was unable to find a single small Sony Hi-Def hard drive camera with firewire so I opted to stick with MiniDV.

3: Lux factor. Considering that you want to shoot in bars or what have you, you may want to think about how much light the camera needs to capture a decent image. Using a camera with a lower Lux may be a better option and allow you to avoid bringing a light into the situation. Video lights are just one more thing to break or get lost on your tipsy nights out.

I ended up buying a Sony HDR-HC7 because it fit my needs perfectly for the project it was intended for. It also has a hot shoe that you can mount a light on if needed. The Lux rating is 2 in normal mode and it also offers night vision which can be fun under the right circumstances.

Unfortunately I have zero experience with the kind of mics that you are referring to so I have nothing to offer you on that topic. :)

I have had great experiences with my Xacti video cameras. They are TINY.
The HD version has a mic input, but I have never had luck with it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...activeda652-20

All of the videos on hugmobile.com were recorded with tiny Xacti cameras on SD cards.


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/170/4...a5945e87dc.jpg

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Very cool. Thanks so much for the info, Aaron! It looks like the one Sony computer I've got here is the only one which has an HDMI port. I would have assumed the hard drive ones all had firewire because all my machines have that, but I guess not.

I've got a GL1 which uses MiniDV, so it wouldn't be awful to have something with that option for this, but hard drive would be a lot faster to put to use I would think.

Wow, very interesting. Your videos always look really super good for this type of thing. Any suggestions on a mic? Although I think I won't get a pink foam one and strap it to my groin, as that is your dept :winkwink: