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Gear / Technical Help => Photo / Video Recording => Topic started by: gearscout on November 22, 2009, 09:34:22 AM
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Greetings,
I heard from an friend that he's looking to buy a video camera to set up a food/wine blog. I would appreciate the advice of the knowledgeable people on this forum to help him out.
What's out there on a modest budget of around $750-$1,000?
I use an old PV-DV953...that at least has 3 chips. But the market has SO moved on since then! ;-)
Thanks!
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quite honestly panasonic lx3:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/573592-REG/Panasonic_DMC_LX3K_Lumix_DMC_LX3_Digital_Camera.html#specifications
has my interest. if he gets this and has some nice mics and a recorder, I honestly think he would be set for blog style work. Check out the post about the lx3. The camera is $500 new and something like a minidisc recorder and a sony ms-907 would work perfectly. Why spend a grand for just starting if you don't need to?
If you have more requirements, update us and my opinion may change.
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What about a Canon HV40? Selling for about $700-$750 new, shoots HD on tape so you have a hard copy, and has lots of manual settings.
Depending on what type of audio you want to do you can get a decent external mic. If you're doing mostly voice like interviews and speech reviews get a Rode VideoMic for $150 new and you're set.
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Thanks for the recommendations!
quite honestly panasonic lx3:
I like it. But EASY is what I'm thinking will work best for him. I don't think the LX3 takes an external mic. I could have fun with it, but I don't see him trying to sync audio tracks with video.
The FLIP cam is one option...cheap and easy, too.
More thoughts?
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What about a Canon HV40? Selling for about $700-$750 new, shoots HD on tape so you have a hard copy, and has lots of manual settings.
This is a possibility. Panasonic has the HDC-TM300K for around $1100, 3 sensors, I think. But I don't see any audio plugs on it, either. And that's moving right out of his range. The Rode Mic is a great suggestion, thanks!
Maybe I'm wrong, but if you're doing a blog, you want your audio to be excellent quality.
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"The FLIP cam is one option...cheap and easy, too. "
If that is an option, then the the Kodak zi8 is a much better choice -HD vidoe, up through 1080p, and, these are the clinchers:
1. External mic jack.
2. Manual audio control with meters. Yes, that's right, better audio hardware than most $1000+ camcorders.
$149 at Amazon. Also has (digital) inage stabilization and a macro mode.
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"The FLIP cam is one option...cheap and easy, too. "
If that is an option, then the the Kodak zi8 is a much better choice -HD vidoe, up through 1080p, and, these are the clinchers:
1. External mic jack.
2. Manual audio control with meters. Yes, that's right, better audio hardware than most $1000+ camcorders.
$149 at Amazon. Also has (digital) inage stabilization and a macro mode.
Very interesting! I had not heard of this device, but I'm definitely going to check it out for him. Having read a few of the reviews, I'm still wondering how the audio performs with various microphones. The unit can be equipped with 32GB of SD memory for $80-100 or much less in smaller card sizes.
Thanks for your input on this one!
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"I'm still wondering how the audio performs with various microphones."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX-raL4iQoY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDVMTfPye68
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"I'm still wondering how the audio performs with various microphones."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX-raL4iQoY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDVMTfPye68
Mark,
Thank you for the links. That makes it clear enough that a decent quality microphone will produce better sound...but also a bit obvious that the pre-amps in there are somewhat limited. That first Cardiod (? they didn't say) mic was actually worse than the in-camera one as far as quality, IMHO. But the inexpensive shotgun had pretty good results. I would have to experiment but I suspect a $35 Audio Technica tie clip mic would probably give good results. (Might have to get a more expensive model that had its own battery power.)
Thanks, again to everyone who replied!
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Check out a used Sony pdx10. It has 16x9 chips and can stream through usb port. Great deals on ebay as it is sd... but a great web cam imho.... and it is a pro cam.. I've intercut with my Ikegami dv7 with good results.