Camcorder

Timbuck

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I need some help with a topic I know very little about:eek:
Mrs Timbuck wants me to buy Her a new fangled camcorder thingie so She can make movies of me making ukuleles and also record sound and moving pictures of the finished job....I believe what i'm looking for is some thing at about Max £200 UKP..Simple to use and produces professional looking moving pic's...and the sound has to be good as well....Advise please ?

PS The quality has to be better than the videos that PH keeps putting on you tube ;)
 
MaxiPad?

Don't forget that there are a lot of accessories for the Mac family, and if you've got one, you've got a lot more than a video camera. The iPhone takes incredibly good pictures...better than my 5 meg digital camera.
 
One of the Canon Legria range will give you very high quality video with good built in audio. The lens quality is reasonably good, as is the capacity to use common SD type cards. Most modern HD editing suites will cope with the footage whichever your leaning computer-wise. ;)
Battery life is good, and with a decent cable length on the ac adapter/charger so that you can use tethered. Budget for a tripod as well if you don't already own one.
Here is an example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-U...ctronics_Video_Camcorders&hash=item3f1da25150

HIH. Any advice pm me.
 
video is one thing, audio is another. Pete has a pretty cool solution, ask him about what he uses.. unless he pipes in here soon...


Oh... and... really...? Mrs. Timbuck that wants this 'video thingy' so she can record your uke building and record your instruments.... ? You are a lucky man!


Gopro are really, really cool for video, though I am not sure about audio. The gopro I have seen might lack some of the polished 'bling' that the general population might like. They are small, and 'techie', simple and powerful. In a way they are at the cutting edge of one small aspect of video. iphone too, but in a different way still. I helped with some underwater filming for a film maker friend, with my Canon 5D MKii camera in an underwater housing, and with 2 other cameramen equipped with gopros. The video footage was surprisingly good with the gopros. If I needed one, I would have no hesitation buying one.
 
Ken - Tim Smithies (ukulele aficionado and film maker) suggested to me the simple point-and-fire Kodak Zi8. It's what I do my vids with and it is great. I use the free microsoft editing software - MovieMaker and if I need audio, the free software - Audacity. The important thing is lighting and a tripod. Sound is going to be the proverbial bug-bear because of the poor quality produced by computer systems. Most people find my vids well shot and edited - I'm doing it all for less than £150. Problem I have found with cameras that have a video function is that they are noisey...
 
I don't want to highjack this thread, but it is related to something that needs to be considered. Can you zoom in or out when using the iPhone in video mode?
 
We have a JVC GZ-MS Everio something or other... camcorder that has all the standard video functions like zoom-while-you-shoot, and so on. It also has stereo audio which is really quite good - you do get all the ambient sound, so it's not as if you were playing directly into a mic, but that's not what it's made for. We've actually used it for gig recordings and the audio is not bad at all.

Affordable at about 150 euros - but of course Mrs. Timbuck will probably want an iPhone if she has the choice :)
 
So I bought "ipad 2"..it was a struggle at first but i'm begining to get the hang of it slowly..the "still pic's" seem a bit grainy but that could be down to poor lighting..but the videos are great fun and easy to do....with the help of the younger members of the family i had to buy a Wifi thingie (more of my money gone):( and we are downloading loads of App's (whatever those are) :confused: and the first things I've managed to do without problems is send an e-mail & buy an ipad case on ebay..Next i'll try posting on this forum with it.
 
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