im always looking in mags but it never says what the quality is!!!
how do u tell or are they all just the same quality or something.
and whats MTB?
MTB=Mountain Bikeing
Frame rate, higher the better (FPS).
And you might be given a resolution too, which is two numbers determining the size, and bigger usually means better quality.
type your model number into google, and figure it out :)… you can post the specs here and ppl will tell you you need a better one. I have a 640x480 30 fps camera and it works great.
my oldest one, 15fps likes to glitch up on fast movement.
Price is usually a good indicator of camera quality. Typically the better something is the more expensive it is, this is especially true in the digital word.
The more dots/pixels per frame the better the picture is going to look.
haha!
all my videos have been made with a 100 dollar camera… 
youtube kills quality though.
Well, I got this camera for £100 (200$) and it records in beautiful HD so… 
… and that isn’t particularly expensive is it?
No that may not be that expensive, but compared to a $50,000.00 HD camera, the picture would not compare.
I was not saying that you will only have good picture quality if you spend tons of money, but you will have a better camera. The better the camera the more it will cost. Just because something is HD doesnt mean it has the best picture quality you can get… all HD is not created equal.
Not necessarily true. The higher the frame rate the more frames go by the hypothetical gate which means only that your super slow motion shots look very gradual. A screen shot comparison of both would show no difference.
Another really good indicator is if it has three CCDs. If it does then it is probably very good.
I think Spencer uses 3 CCD and his videos are very crystal clear.
Yeah def. 3CCD is a good indicator.
I like to think that point and shoot still cameras are to digital SLRs…
as handycams are to 3ccd video cams.
Has anyone though about shooting a good trials vid on 16mm or 35mm cameras? It would cost a bit, but in terms of quality and warmth it would blow everything else out of the water (that is, if you have a good place to host it at full quality)
The best indicator is what format it shoots on:
8mm
digital 8
mini dv
mini dv hd
dvcr pro
dvcr pro hd
From wiki:
Tapes
* Betacam, BetacamSP, Betacam SX, Betacam IMX, Digital Betacam, or DigiBeta — Commercial video systems by Sony, based on original Betamax technology
* HDCAM was introduced by Sony as a high-definition alternative to DigiBeta.
* D1, D2, D3, D5, D9 (also known as Digital-S) — various SMPTE commercial digital video standards
* DV, MiniDV — used in most of today's videotape-based consumer camcorders; designed for high quality and easy editing; can also record high-definition data (HDV) in MPEG-2 format
* DVCAM, DVCPRO — used in professional broadcast operations; similar to DV but generally considered more robust; though DV-compatible, these formats have better audio handling.
* DVCPRO50, DVCPROHD support higher bandwidths as compared to Panasonic's DVCPRO.
* Digital8 — DV-format data recorded on Hi8-compatible cassettes; largely a consumer format
* MicroMV — MPEG-2-format data recorded on a very small, matchbook-sized cassette; obsolete
* D-VHS — MPEG-2 format data recorded on a tape similar to S-VHS
my sister and her friends broke my camera:(
Ive thought about getting the “Letus” adapter for my camera which will give a 35mm effect. Unfortunately it is pretty pricey and there are few things higher on my list.
Neato! It has a video feed as well. I guess because the normal viewfinder wont show the adapted footage.
interesting that no-one has mentioned lenses yet, possibly the most important part of any camera. The CCD size is a reasonably good indicator, by which i mean the physical size not the number of pixels. Jamming extra pixels in to the same size CCD does little good. You have to think about suitability too, I’m using a camera at the moment that by any parameter mentioned would be highly rated (145,000 fps, £90,000) but which would be utterly useless for shooting uni movies.
Where is Brian McKenzie on this thread?
Why not ask a pro. Post a PM to Brian.
Why? 
My guess is high speed macro. For slow motion close ups. …?
Still seems a bit exaggerated.
particle physics?
I guess sometimes CMOS is better than 3CCD… But there are cameras with 3 CMOS chips as well, which can provide much better quality of course.
Size of the lenses, and the format you’re recording to matters the most.
Number of frames recorded per sec. doesn’t affect quality at all.
But as been said earlier, more expensive the camera is, the better result you’ll get. And if you want to keep high quality, you won’t upload your stuff to youtube.
I thought if you were recording more frames per second then the video looks much smoother, no?