I am going to be studying abroad next semester, and am arranging an independent study with my university in which I plan on making a short film that shows what it's like to study abroad for future students that are interested in the program.

I am trying to figure out what the best kind of camera I should get is, along with a method to send video back to my home campus through the internet. My teacher suggested shooting on Mini-DV and sending home the tapes, but I want to keep a copy of the tapes with me. Also, digitizing takes a while. I am thinking of getting a Hard Drive camera, but I have been reading it compresses the image quality, which could be an issue for a film. However, would it compress it enough that it would be better off for me to get mini-dv and digitize or would a hard drive camera work well off enough? I don't need absolutely amazing production values because this is ultimately a student film.

Then, if I go the hard drive route or I figure out a way to digitize while abroad, how could I send the video files through the internet back to my home university. I have been looking into sharing the files on xdrive.com, and sending them through Skype or AIM. However, I am unsure how reliable they are with large files and it appears that I won't really know until I have such footage already.

I am open to any and all suggestions because outside of a Television class I took last year, I am very new to browsing for camcorders and completely new to finding ways to send large video files through the internet. Sorry that the message is long, but there's a lot I really don't know and need relatively basic information. Thank you.

What is your budget and how much editing do you want to do? Are you making this film for the University or are you doing it for yourself? If it's for the University, then I would approach them to see if you could borrow a camcorder and any other bits and pieces (if they have a digital media department) rather than spending your own money.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

This is for myself for school credit. Ultimately I will be giving a copy of the video to the University for future students to watch though. Unfortunately, the television program at my school is very small so there is a very good chance that I will have to get my own camera. However, I'll see if I can contact administration because it never occurred to me that I might be able to get them to cover it. Either way though, I will still have to pick a camera and find a way to send the footage back.

Oh, and my budget is that I am trying to stay under $700 for the camera. I do plan on doing a lot of editing using Final Cut Pro when I get back from my trip.

By all means see if the University will cover some of your costs, if not the camcorder then tapes or accessories such as bags, batteries, tripod etc. I'm surprised they don't have a digital camcorder lying about in an AV room gathering dust, do you know any of the technicians at the University? From my college days I remember it was very useful getting to know some of them just in case you had a 'project' coming up and needed a specific piece of electronic equipment. If you intend to do editing when you get back my first suggestion would be buy a Mini DV camcorder, you'll find them much easier in the long run. But I see you are going to use FCP and apparently it can capture from a HDD camcorder direct with no problems, but check this out before you buy. My own personal choice would be Mini DV but then again I use Windows XP/Vista at present.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

http://www.videoforums.co.uk/camcord...html#post78363

This is a long post I wrote for another person in thus forum with a similar question so I'll just link you to it.