hi everyone whats the best camcorder for the use I intend

**fluff62** · 09-07-2011, 07:31 PM

Hi, what would be the best hd digital camcorder using memory card at not to steep a price I should buy and editing software that will give credits and simple pans etc, to make the following with.... I will soon be making videos for people who are at county shows such has wood carvers and vintage cars, and rabbits cattle. So I dont need hollywood special affects, just need to turn out a good decent looking documentary and put it on a dvd for these guys and girls, so would like to know whats the best at a reasonable price that as good lens and decent hd picture I could use. thanks for any help im disabled so please bear with me and give us a little help.

**Bpotter908** · 09-07-2011, 07:58 PM

I'd be happy to help you, Do you mind if I ask a few questions?

Are you planning to sell these DVDs?
Are the DVDs meant to advertise the county shows?

Also, May I ask how much you are willing to spend to achieve this? I could tell you to spend £900 but if your budget is £400 that would be pointless :P

**fluff62** · 09-07-2011, 08:19 PM

Hi sorry been having trouble online, I would not be making a dvd video of the entire shows, just people like a wood carver going about his craft, or a caged animals and their owners, i would be making a one hour hd video of these people and then sell it to them for a keeps sake or for them to use in their advertising, I would want to buy a second hand hd digital camera or digital hd camcorder to make these types of video, and then simple edit with some credits and panning ect, I would be buying off ebay, would need to have editing software

**fluff62** · 09-07-2011, 08:20 PM

I would HAVE AROUND £300 TO £400 MAX TO BUY SECONDHAND EQUIPTMENT OFF EBAY

**Bpotter908** · 09-07-2011, 08:49 PM

Ok, I'm going to say something now which might seem like I'm trying to shoot you down in flames but I'm just trying to high-light something you might not have spotted yet:

"i would be making a one hour hd video of these people and then sell it to them for a keeps sake or for them to use in their advertising"

In my not so professional opinion, when you are charging someone for a product, it needs to be at a certain standard, if I want to open a sandwich bar, there are certain items I need to make sure I have, Fresh bread, ingredients that taste nice, knives for slicing and buttering bread and the customer expects all of these things to exist when they walk into my sandwich bar.

When you are producing videos to sell to people, you need to make sure the basics are covered, for what you are planning to be doing I'm thinking of the following:

- DVD disks cases and covers
You'll need to buy in decent quality blank DVD disks around £16 for a spindle of 100, You'll then need some snazzy black cases for these disks to go inside, again, another £15 for a stack of 100 which is probably what you might want to start off with given your goal. Then you'll need to think about labels for the blank DVDs and for the cases themselves, printing them off and sticking them onto each DVD you wish to sell.

- HD Videos on DVD
I'm sorry to tell you this, but this is an impossibility. Whilst you "can" burn HD video onto blank DVD media your customers will ONLY be able to see it in full HD if they have a blu-ray player or a device which can play it back at full HD resolution, so why not record this in Standard definition instead?

HD does not = A better video
HD does not = Better quality
HD does = The pixel size is 1020 instead of 720

Instead of trying to buy a cheap high definition camcorder may I suggest you try looking at a standard definition camera instead that you could probably pick up on Ebay for not so much £££ ? I imagine that the quality of the camera itself will be better than the cheaper "HD" one.

- Audio Recording
I'm guessing you'll be wanting people to talk into the camera about their favorite vintage car?

You can bring the quality level of your videos up from 3/10 to 5/10 simply by improving the quality of spoken word sound and that means buying an external microphone to the camera.

Here is a link to a very well produced guide which you can read to find out from a pro why external microphones are needed
http://www.videoforums.co.uk/sound-r...planation.html

- Is this a business or a hobby
Are you trying to make money out of this, or do you see this as something you would love to do and are passionate about?
If this is a business I would say your minimum starting budget would be around £1600 at a rough ball park figure, but if this is a passion of yours and the "sale" of the DVDs is just to cover the costs of your hobby then there is definitely a second hand camera for you out there!

May I ask which box do you fit into?

Hobby / Business

Again, I'm not saying this to try and tear you down or deter you from your passions, I just want to make sure you have all the right information before you spend any of your hard earned cash.

**fluff62** · 09-07-2011, 09:01 PM

I know about the decent disks, and lables, and cases, and all that type of stuff, been in biz for 23 years, jus t dont know what camera/ camcorder to buy hence going on here, and I have a very good printer that prints direct onto suitable disks, I also know about bread butties being and ex head chef, so I know where your going on that one, and i would of course know I would want to record the spoken word, and I will want to record in standard def, and of course will be using a mic in hand, im hoping to make a living, so my question again the same, would be, could you tell me of some cameras that record in standard def that would be suitable for me, name some please, if not I will just have to buy one i think might be the one, in any case thanks