Hi all Im new here and just starting out with my own video edidting studio equipment.

I trained using final cut pro, but I am starting with adobe premier pro .

I have a budget of about £500 maybe a little more to purchase a HD digital camera, which is the best? There are a few out there but I have no idea which one I should buy.

Please help.

susie

i wasn't aware you could now get a high def camera for under £500. Could you post some links please? Soemthing at that price might make a nice second camera for long shots.

Also if you let us know which one's you've seen I might be able to make some commets on suitability - if you let us know the type of stuff you'll looking to record and edit.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

To be honest I don't think you could find an HD camera for 500 quid. Not even used.

I havent seen many just a couple on ebay: - (ps sorry if Im reading them wrong I am just a beginer lol)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...7299&rd=1&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JVC-EVERIO-GZ-...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/High-Definitio...QQcmdZViewItem

the one I was looking at was :-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Canon-HV10...QQcmdZViewItem

what do you's think? am I looking at the wrong things?

susie

or should I be looking at saving some money and looking more along the lines of :-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-HDR-FX1-P...QQcmdZViewItem

The little canon looks cool. You need to sit down and decide exactly what you are going to do with the camera though. Do you really just intend doing point and shoot stuff? If so one of the newer little palm sized high def camcordere will do. Don't pay any attention to still functionality though and ensure it records to Mini DV at full 1080i res.

If you want to have some manual control then you might get some on those but do have a look and a play with Sony FX1 you mentioned. I have that camera and I reckon it's excellent.

However, as a 'pro' camera the FX1 falls just a little short. Don't get me wrong the image is great. It's the audio. It will not accept balanced XLR inputs so if you intend 'good' audio you've got some further ££$$'s to find to get an XLR adaptor (Beechtek?) and a (halfway) decent microphone. I've seen that a lot of poeple choose soemthing like the Sennheiser ME66/K6 combo which is a mic of quality on par with that camera.

Also, if you go all 'high def' on us you need equipment able to edit it as well. This means a resoanbly high end box and editting s/w able to do high def.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

" Don't pay any attention to still functionality though and ensure it records to Mini DV at full 1080i res."

Technically no HDV camcorders do, as the HDV format is recorded in 4:3 then scaled to 16:9 upon playback.

In my opinion: If you intend on doing some semi-pro work ever but still want a camera that wouldn't look out of place in a holiday resort then the Sony HC1 is an ok choice, or the slightly more stylish (Although less usable) HC3. As the sony HDV handycams have the Ai shoes for External Mics/lights/flash guns and plenty of attatchable lenses and filters.

The Canon is nice, as it offers 60/50Hz, a feature that is ignored on the majority of Sony Cameras, regardless of 'class'. However i feel the zoom control on most Canon camcorders is pants and in a stupid location.

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It's not about what camera you use or how much it cost.

It's about what you shoot,
how you shot it,
and how you edit it :P

I was only referring to vertical res here. Of course they are all 1440 rather than 1920. At least one of the cameras linked recorded at only 720 lines (or something similar). Technically high def, like all those "HD Ready" TVs is see in the shops, but basically not worth touching - even with someone else's proverbial barge pole.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

As mentioned above do make sure you have the appropriate s ware / h ware to edit HDV.

Also, perhpas you should ask yourself why you want HDV, do you actually need it?

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I have one prejudice - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

I wouldn't go as far as to say 720p isn't worth touching, I'd just say it's not worth the price they charge for it.

You have to be careful about how you deinterlace 1080i though, pixel adaptive deinterlacing looks perfect, weaving is ok if you dont mind the half framerate look, however, a lot of the crappy TV sets show each field on its own, making it 540p, less resolution than PAL damn!

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It's not about what camera you use or how much it cost.

It's about what you shoot,
how you shot it,
and how you edit it :P