Any cheapish decentish miniDV cams about the place

penistree · #1 (**permalink**) 03-01-2005, 10:27 PM

Im not looking to spend a fortune on amini dv cam, but are the any reasonable priced ones about the place?

bgarthp · #2 (**permalink**) 03-02-2005, 05:40 PM

whats your budget?

what features do you need?

Google for "miniDV camcorder" or something and there'll be loads of info.

penistree · #3 (**permalink**) 03-02-2005, 10:02 PM

oh sick you're a booger. Me too. Can you reccomend a cam for surf photography? Thats what it will be used for?
I was hoping to stay around $1000 mark AUS?

bgarthp · #4 (**permalink**) 03-03-2005, 01:07 PM

AU$1000 is about £410
I just bought a Panasonic NV-GS 75, for about £430, iI haven't used it properly yet, but I bought it for filming surf, from land, and from the water. I'm going to test it out properly this weekend, so I'll let you know what it's like.
There's loads of cheaper models that'll do the job, generally I'd stick with miniDV, ignore digital zoom but try and get one with a big optical zoom.

bear in mind that for filming surf you'll need half-decent tripod, an extra battery pack or two and probably a telephoto converter lens for land-filming and maybe a decent bag to put it all in.
Also water housings cost a lot (look at this thread), and you might want a wide-angle converter too.

So the costs soon add up, but it's really good fun, and it can make even crap surf more enjoyable.

penistree · #5 (**permalink**) 03-06-2005, 11:13 AM

cheers that would be good if you could.
I've been looking at this model: mv700?
http://www.canon.com.au/products/cam...eo/mv700i.html
any good.

bgarthp · #6 (**permalink**) 03-07-2005, 12:20 AM

The surf was junk this weekend so I didn't get to try it out properly, I did find that because it's loads smaller than my old Sony it's harder to hold still, so a tripod is a must. Picture quality seems good, although I didn't shoot much at all so I can't really compare yet.

The Canon 700i looks ok, it's got a big optical zoom, that's useful, and AV-In is always good for transferring analogue footage or using bullet-camera housing things (like the lipstick-cam stuff on Tension3 and possibly the Lil' Todd helmet cam' stuff on Tension Diaries).

See if you can have a play with one in a shop or borrow one, and see if anyone knows about low-light performance, as it's often an issue when filming early/evening/overcast sessions.

bgarthp · #7 (**permalink**) 03-07-2005, 01:09 AM

Another note on the NV-GS 75: I've just captured a bit of footage and realised that the DV port is located underneath the flip-out LCD screen, so you have to have it playing on the LCD when you capture, which is annoying when the battery runs out a few seconds in!

I'll have to read the manual and see if I can turn it off, I'm running out of power points.

penistree · #8 (**permalink**) 03-07-2005, 09:48 PM

Thanks mate. I've also been looking at the Panasonic NV-GS35. I think its the model below yours. Not sure how that looks, but just attracted by the 30x optical zoom.
At the moment im leaning towards the cannon, but im not sure at all yet

penistree · #9 (**permalink**) 03-16-2005, 12:09 AM

I was talking to a videographer and he too reckons the Panasonic GS75 is a good deal. I reckon I will grab it too.
Have you had another chance to test it out and is the 10x zoom alright for the surf filming

bgarthp · #10 (**permalink**) 03-16-2005, 12:40 AM

the surf has been gash recently, but I'm planning on going tomorrow morning, might get a nice wedgey session, onshore, but I'll finally get to test it out properly.

Might try out my new DIY housing too.

I did try out a bit of time-lapse stuff the other day and the colours and detail impressed me. And I've been shooting a few bands, and the premiere of my dvd the other night, and it does OK in low-light too, so I'm pleased with it so far.

The zoom is OK for any break where you can get reasonably close, but I think I'll invest in a 2x telephoto converter soon for shooting some of the more remote reefs around here.

I'll post any new developments tomorrow.