Hello everyone,
Im having a really annoying problem. I have a DCR-DVD301 Sony camcorder that I am trying to use for stop animation.. I sadly came to the realization when i first plugged it in that it does not have firewire capabilities.. thus, no good program like premiere can even see the camera online. I am using pinnacle to have USB access. The only programs that see the camera like this are AnimatorDV simple+ and windows movie maker. When I grab images with Animator DV, no matter if my subject is completely still and my camera doesnt move a millimeter, each pic is different. the noise completely changes and looks like shit.
I tried one thing just for kicks, i took an actual image through the camera with the snap photo button, then i grabbed that image with animator dv, and its much much better quality! only problem is to do this i actually have to record this image onto a mini dvd!! plus it takes twice as long. This is what i was trying to avoid in the first place! Is there any way i can retain that quality and not have this ridiculous noise change in every image? Better yet, is there anyway AT ALL to get either a plugin for premiere or something that allows me to go from usb to firewire? Im completely newbie with camcorders. Im a photography major.
I just dont understand if that noise change is the camcorder or animator dv? the snapped images are much clearer so i know the camera has the ability to give me that quality. PLEASE HELP !!!!

The noise problem could well be caused by poor lighting or if you can set the exposure on the camcorder to manual then it wouldn't change between takes. I used a program in the past called Stop Motion Animator Pro, I don't know if it's still available but try a search on Google to see if it is.

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

Out of my league here - maybe Nikosony or someone will keep me correct.

Your camcorder captures to a mini dvd disc which, IMO, starts you out limited with some things.

Specs said video capture near miniDV quality and still shot mix quality is 1152X864 which is a pretty good still quality.

For your animation application can't you capture your stills written to disc in quantity and then transfer from the mini disc to your hard drive? Aren't the stills grabbed or shot or captured as jpegs like any other still digital camera?

I think your Sony also supports still capture via MemoryStick.

Course since I don't know about animation if I was doing it I would probably just use a digital still camera to start with.

Okay - probably shouldn't have taken space and time with this one but I am trying to learn while hopefully contributing.

Hey guys thanks for the responses. Its not the manual focus because I have it set to manual. Its not the lighting either because I have 3 lights specifically pointed at my subject. I dont want to go to disc because I was trying to simply get a live feed in so that I wouldnt have to actually record anything other then images directly onto my harddrive. However, I have somewhat fixed a bit of the noise and image crapness. It seems that if I record an actual movie file of me moving my subject and pulling my hand back over and over again, I can take this file into even VLC player and take snapshots from it whenever my hand goes out of the picture. The quality for some reason is much better, the only problem is I dont have any onionskinning that i can have fun with.. oh well.. Thanks again for the responses.. if anyone finds a better solution however please share!