Q. Hi,
I'm doing a bit of off road travel and need a camcorder that will charge from my solar panel, so it will need to charge from a USB port. Also, i'm looking for some thing that will work off SD cards, these products seem to be cheaper than the HDD camcorders.
Any help or advice appreciated.
Luke
I'm doing a bit of off road travel and need a camcorder that will charge from my solar panel, so it will need to charge from a USB port. Also, i'm looking for some thing that will work off SD cards, these products seem to be cheaper than the HDD camcorders.
Any help or advice appreciated.
Luke
A. Never buy a HDD camcorder, as camcorders move around a lot it is much easier to damage the HDD from a fall or drop where as memory ones are almost indestructible(depending on the model) I would recommend one of the flip camcorders. Personally the flip mino HD is the best in my opinion, the only problem is that it only has a 1 hour record time and you can't upgrade the memory. If you want more record time you could look at the Kodak zi6 HD camcorder. It uses SD cards (up to 32GB) and standard AA batteries. My problem is that although with a 8GB memory card its around $30 cheaper, is that the colors are over saturated and the camera is much larger than the flip. Also I don't believe it does USB charging but than its not like AA batteries are hard to come by. Either way the quality on both camera is great for the price. Only problem with most SD budget cams is that its digital zoom only (reduces image quality) and they tend to be a little more shaky, however for $200 or less for HD its also a lot less of a deal if they get damaged. I have the Mino HD and love it for on the go recordings, and the battery on it last a lot longer than the 1 hour of storage does. Basiclly Mino- Smaller, better footage Kodak-Expandable Memory/Batteries. Hope this helps
Oh PS- Both cameras save their video in an easy to use format Mino HD-MP4 H.264 Kodak- .Mov
Oh PS- Both cameras save their video in an easy to use format Mino HD-MP4 H.264 Kodak- .Mov
Looking for a decent Budget camcorder.?
Q. i make youtube videos. about working on cars. and fixing computers. so i need a dedicated camcorder. something low cost that i wont care if it gets banged up. the one i use now kind of sucks. its a gigaware flip cam i got at radio shack. it sucks in low light. has a terrible mic. it's just junk. i want something better. but i am on a tight budget. i don't need anything spectacular. its for youtube. i'm not trying to make a professional grade movie or anything. just vlogging and stuff like that. here's what i am looking for. i want a good Microphone. decent in low light conditions. no less then 720P. and i want it to record in MP4 format. MP4 just works the best with the software i use. currently my flip cam records in AVI and i have to convert it before i can edit. that's annoying. and it hurts quality. and also Windows 8 has issues with some AVI formats as well. so MP4 format is absolutely preferred. and i want all that for 200 bucks or less. i found one from Samsung on Amazon that fit the bill but whats on paper and how it actually functions in the real world are two different things. that's why i am asking for recommendations. do you know of any budget cameras that fit my requirements that don't suck?
A. Issue 1:
Camcorders in your budget range have small lenses and small imaging chip. The will not do well under low light or poor lighting conditions. As camcorders increase in price, their lenses and imaging chips get larger and their ability to behave better under poor lighting conditions increases. If you cannot increase your budget, then add light. More on this after the next paragraph.
Issue 2:
Camcorders in your budget range generally do not have a mic jack. As you have discovered, if the mic is in the right place to capture decent audio, then the camcorder frame is not right... or if the camcorder frame looks good, this is not usually the best place for the mic to be. If the camcorders you are looking at don't have a mic jack, then your other option is to use an external digital audio recorder. The audio you want to use is recorded separately, import it to the editor with the video, sync, then mute the audio captured by the camcorder... this is an extra step, but the alternative means paying for a more expensive camcorder with an external mic jack.
So... assuming you stay with the budget you have, a couple of worklights from the hardware store mounted on tripods will provide additional light. An external audio recorder (Sony and Olympus make good, affordable units), allows you to stay with the existing camcorder and process flow. If you are set on on replacing the camcorder, it may be best to alter your process flow, too - and look into something in the Canon HF R series or perhaps a Zoom Q3HD... And converting the video should not reduce video quality - assuming the transcoder is doing the conversion correctly.
Camcorders in your budget range have small lenses and small imaging chip. The will not do well under low light or poor lighting conditions. As camcorders increase in price, their lenses and imaging chips get larger and their ability to behave better under poor lighting conditions increases. If you cannot increase your budget, then add light. More on this after the next paragraph.
Issue 2:
Camcorders in your budget range generally do not have a mic jack. As you have discovered, if the mic is in the right place to capture decent audio, then the camcorder frame is not right... or if the camcorder frame looks good, this is not usually the best place for the mic to be. If the camcorders you are looking at don't have a mic jack, then your other option is to use an external digital audio recorder. The audio you want to use is recorded separately, import it to the editor with the video, sync, then mute the audio captured by the camcorder... this is an extra step, but the alternative means paying for a more expensive camcorder with an external mic jack.
So... assuming you stay with the budget you have, a couple of worklights from the hardware store mounted on tripods will provide additional light. An external audio recorder (Sony and Olympus make good, affordable units), allows you to stay with the existing camcorder and process flow. If you are set on on replacing the camcorder, it may be best to alter your process flow, too - and look into something in the Canon HF R series or perhaps a Zoom Q3HD... And converting the video should not reduce video quality - assuming the transcoder is doing the conversion correctly.
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