Q. Hi, I'm Tyler McDonald and I have a passion for making videos. After I graduate high school, I plan on attending either Grand Canyon University or Northern Arizona University to get a degree in Digital Film. I understand that these colleges will have cameras that I will be able to check out, but I'm really considering purchasing one of my own. The cameras at my school work, but I have problems with them from time to time with my MacBook Pro. I'm looking for a 1080p, 60 fps DSLR or camcorder thats within a reasonable price, no higher than $3000. I've been looking, but I've got a lot of great feedback from Yahoo Answers on previous topics so I decided to ask of your guy's opinions yet again! I would greatly appreciate any help with this, and links to where I may purchase these cameras would be great as well! Thanks!!
A. the longer you postpone your purchase decision, the better it will be.
1. you still have a lot to learn about what features are important in a video camera and what is just sales fluff.
2. technology is changing rapidly, and what might look as a good option now might not be so satisfactory 4 years from now.
3. you most likely will graduate to something more sophisticated than a MacBook Pro, and using that as the criteria for limiting camera selection is not wise.
4. depending on how you intend to use your college education, you may find that a dSLR is a truly poor choice for professional work. some projects require more than 12 minutes of continuous video recording.
What's the difference between a camcorder and a 'professional' camcorder?
Q. For example, why is an HVX 200 better then a vixia hf100 which shoots 1080p to or the sanyo FH1a which shoots 1080p at 60 fps which the HVX cant even do? Also, why are camera lens so expensive? LIke 700 dollars for 3 or 5 or whatever pieces of glass on a metal rim??
A. Its all about sensor size, pixel density, sensor type, format, interchangeable lenses, manual controls, brand, inputs and preference
Sensor size: A professional camera will have a larger image sensor which allows for a higher pixel density and a shalower depth of field which is very important for professional looking videos, while a consumer will have a much smaller sensor which means a wide depth of field and smaller pixel density
Sensor type: you can have either ccd,3ccd,cmos,3smos. ccd is one ccd chip so it has to process everything through one sensor meaning lower sensor while a cmos is pretty much more powerful version of the ccd (if you don't want to get to technical) While a 3 cmos and 3ccd have 3 sensors which do one color red green or blue and put them together which makes it higher quality and also contributes to the price
heres my opinion on which one is best
ccd<cmos<3ccd<3cmos
format: You have to decide what your computer can take, does it have a fire wire? usb? other stuff
There are a few recording formats, minidv, hdv, avchd (mts2) mpeg4,mpeg2, mov, wmv, minidvd, p2 cards, film, and redcode
Minidv: Common format in standard definition prosumers, it is a Digital tape and is connected through firewire it is very high quality and the best standard definition but can be a hassle to edit, but there are cheaper minidv models which are not half as good because of the other factors before
hdv: probably the best hd format because it is reliable and high quality but is also pain to edit, most current prosumers use hdv like the xl-a1 and it is very high quality
avchd: seen mostly on consumer cams and is clearly the best for smaller cams, no contest (but it is highly compressed and easy to edit
mpeg4: commen on lower end cameras is ver low compressed and easy to work with, mpeg2 is a lesser quality mpeg4
mov: very differed on quality throughout camera can be terrable or amazing, it depends
wmv, uncommen and not the best
Minidvd: a very bad idea (worst format)
the last 3 are extremely professional and cost tens of thousands of dollars but will obviously be the best quality possible (especially red)
interchangeable lenses, important for getting multiple different shots and is a reason that a camera is considered professional and really is a way to make it look how you want it to look and any way you want it to work this also goes for manual controls in cameras, also if you dont have a interchangeable lens camera then usually the better the glass the higher quality it will look, size is also a factor (so is zoom but thats not vary important) remember that manual focus will make your videos look even better
brand: there are a lot of brand including sony, canon, panasonic,jvc (these are the most commen)
sony: best for the price
canon: best for the quality (can be expensive!) also has a lot of manual controls in consumer models such as the vixia hfs100 which i owned at one point
panasonic:cheaper, pretty nice, not as reliable
jvc: unreliable i wouldn't trust it
Inputs: another factor between consumer and prosumer is its inputs such as audio inputs which if your lucky a consumer will have a mini jack (3.5 mm) port (look for it its important) while a prosumer will have a adjustable audio level status which usually comes in the form of xlr ports and will have lots of manual controls like gain conrol and side channeling as well as stereo forms and adjustable to mono. which really the audio is half your movie so dont take it unseriously.
perference. do YOU like a large camera, do YOU like manual controls does it matter to you, is it in your budget, what do you really want it for? you need to ask yourself this to decide if its right for you
Other side notes
video dslrs conquer a lot of prosumer territory while still being much less money like large sensors and interchangeable lenses but can lack in audio but with the money you saved you can buy a h4n and have extremely high quality audio (that setup is indie film worthy) the canon t2i (550d) is the highest quality camera for the price out there
The canon vixia line is a very nice CONSUMER cam i had it i needed more controls that i needed for my videos which my t2i provided
hvx200 is a good camera and is highly rated and worth what they are saying and it has what a prosumer needs but if you want a cam like that get a xh a1 they are extremely nice and around the same price, but as i said VIDEO quality will be equivalent to our worse than the 800 dollar t2i but you can always get external mics for even cheaper and it will be better audio
camera lenses are expensve because the glass is hard to make and it is very high quality and VERY important
any other questions shoot me an email at pgrimmjr123@gmail.com i would be happy to help\
-Peter
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