I have read some of the various posts on people’s video-camera’s, but would like to ask this question:
What brand/model of digital video-camera is the best for shooting a unicycling movie? I need something that will be pretty rugged. What are my options for getting a video-camera with a built-in digital camera (still-shots) or for getting one without this feature? Also, I will be receiving a tape from an Australian unicyclist; if a tape conversion is needed, what digital video-camera/equipment would be best to do this? My dad knows a little bit about the different tapes and conversions, but we don’t know what to buy. I have a price range of $300-$500 here. Thanx for any suggestions, pro’s and con’s, or reviews of any digital video-camera’s!!
I’ve only ever used the video camera that I now own but I’ll tell you a little bit about it. It’s a Sony DCR-TRV22E if that means anything to you. If you do a little search you’ll find heaps of reviews and so on for various digital video cameras. Mine is nice and light and compact. It has a touch screen which I wasn’t sure about at first but now I realise that as long as I’m careful with it it is really handy. I’ve been doing lots of filming since Christmas for my movie. Here’s what I think you should look out for (keeping in mind that I know nothing about digital video cameras) - a nice optical zoom, the feature that finds the end of what’s been recorded for you, a reasonably long lasting battery. You should, in my opinion, completely ignore whatever digital zoom a video camera has. This Sony one that I have has the feature I mentioned called ‘End Search’. You press a button and it will find the end of the recording for you…very handy.
Who’s the Australian that you’re getting a tape from? Are they going to be in your movie?
I think you should get a Sony DCR-TRV22E. That way you can work out how to capture the videos onto the computer and tell me.
I personally own a Sharp Viewcam Z and for an amazing price I think I’ve found the perfect camera for the kind of strange angles and positions you might need for a unicycle film. The VL-Z3U is the one I bought and it comes standard with
Digital Image Stabilization (duh!)
A CG Silicon Display with a switchable backlight. This is cool because it saves on battery power and instead of using the backlight for the LCD it uses ambient light to cause the screen to show. This also eliminates the suns glare completely.
A SD memory card slot (64 mb will take 850 pictures at a low but enjoyable res.
A three point swivel design that allows you to take otherwise extremely hard shots.
Scene Menu for different lighting
Manual and Auto focus
Records on Mini DV
and… has a 40x optical zoom with a 500x digital enhancement zoom.
pricetag?: between 350 and 400 US dollars without the SD media card
I haven’t experienced any problems with it yet. If your going to make a good uni film I find the most important thing to do is to use a decent editing program. This is something I know little about as when I film we use my friends software… We have used Final Cut Pro 4… but we hope to find better software soon.
Anyways,
Good luck and keep the focus on THE WHOLE RIDER NOT JUST THE WHEEL!!!
Look for a camera that will let you add on a very wide angle lens. A lot of the shots in skate videos are done by getting the camera very close to the action and using a very wide angle lens. Sometimes they even use a fisheye lens which is so wide angle that it distorts the image.
Also look for some sort of camera mount for steadying the camera, for follow shots, and for follow shots where the camera is held at about knee level and looking up at the action.
Camera stores also carry similar camera mounts but they tend to be more expensive and more complex. The style that DansComp has is nice and simple. The complex ones have extra weights and arms to balance and counterweight the camera. Needless to say, they are quite a bit more expensive (several hundred dollars rather than $39.99 for the one at DansComp).
