Video Camera Suggestions?

[eap7]

After trying to record at powwows on my cheap digital camera and generally producing really bad videos, I'm thinking of getting an actual video camera/camcorder (are they still called camcorders? My mom had a giant one about 15 yrs ago...) Any suggestions? What video camera do you have and like? I'm kind of technologically challenged, so anything easy to use would be great.

[injunboy]

i gots a SONY and it works pretty good. it has some kind of stabilty program but i dont use it. the trick is too be stable your own self haha. dont zoom in and then zoom back out and dont ever start swingin that thing from side to side. i also dont use any of the fades, borders or letters on screen. those can be so annoyin. if all else fails zoom out, get closer and tri pod that thing.

[Paul G]

And get a monopod to help you stabilize your shot!

[Josiah]

Now days its called Digital Camcorder
Which instead of recording to tape either 8mm or VHS
They either record digitally onto a DVD Disc inside the camcorder or to a memory device such as a card or thumb drive
Which you would transfer it to a Computer to edit and then record into a format that you could actually watch on your TV

All of them allow you to patch directly into a Monitor and you can preview what you have recorded
However to make more room to record more footage you will have to transfer the recorded stuff to a more permanent location such as a hard drive on your computer

Price ranges equal features and resolutions

$800.00-$1000.00 Canon Vixia HF11 Digital Camcorder reviews - CNET Reviews

$500.00-$800.00 Sony Handy cam HDR-CX7 Digital Camcorder reviews - CNET Reviews

$200.00-$500.00 Canon DC40 Digital Camcorder reviews - CNET Reviews

[kneegrow_native]

Good call on the monopod, it also helps you get great drumside shots if you are way in the back of the crowd.

You might also want to cosider what kind of media would you want to use. With a DVD camera you can simply just burn directy to a disc and be done with it, but if you do have room on your PC and the know how to do it you can always consider a mini-dv (digital tape), a hard drive camer, or a flash drive camera. You can put the video on your computer and doll it up a little.

With a mini-dv you have to run a capture process, and that does take time, however with a hard drive and flash drive it might as simple as a file transfer and then you are off and editing.

[wyo_rose]

The DVD is pretty cool if you just want to record and play it. If you want to copy it to a computer or edit it at all, you might be stuck. We were trying to edit a DVD recording of our school's choir to send to the Denver Nuggets and couldn't copy it to ANY computer for editing.

[eap7]

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I just want to be able to create DVDs or upload to youtube (or powwows.com :)) not so much editing.

[Josiah]

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I just want to be able to create DVDs or upload to youtube (or powwows.com :)) not so much editing.

Well then you want to look into a camera that will record or output in a format like MPEG or AVI

I messed with a panasonic camera and it records in a format that is not easily converted
I finally bit the bullet and bought a video editing software program and converted it to a format that could be used on Youtube such as Mpeg or WMV or even AVI