I need an experienced opinion on what video camera to get...?




sileightyc


I work for a martial arts studio that has been offered a high end video camera...we just have to find one. We film a lot of tricking, which is martial arts mixed with gymnastics...so lots of really fast action. We will also be filming in house commercials, videos of demonstrations and testing for the website and tons of other things. I've read reviews and how-tos, but i just need an opinion from someone that has experience with multiple companies/types of cameras.
Note:

I don't know how long I have to wait to select the best answer but I think it's fair to say you got it, thank you so much!



Answer
I'm not sure what you're budget is, but I will give you my recommendations (I hope you don't mind if I don't use complete sentences. I have so much to say :)
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1) RED Scarlet. $3,000. The best camera under $17,499. Why such an odd number? Well I'd say a lot higher, except RED has another camera that's $17,500, the RED One. And that's cheap beyond belief for what it can do. Back to the SCARLET: Shoots in "Ultra High Definition". Shoots RAW, uncompressed 3K footage (that's about 90% more than typical HD--don't trust my math; just a rough estimate). The Scarlet has considerably more pixels that Sony's Premiere camera, the F35, which goes for $250,000 (that's no estimate). So, in short, its a $3,000 camera better than a $250,000 Sony. It's not available yet, but its worth the wait!!! Coming in 2009.

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SONY EX1 . $6,000. Best camera under $10,000 right now (cause Scarlet's not out yet)
PROS: True HD. Full 1920x1080. No other camera does that yet. Yet. How? The EX1 doesn't use miniDV tapes, it uses solid state memory, which is far less compressed than miniDV. Better resolution than its competition, even the Panasonic HVX200, which is also solid state. Excellent defintion. Professional tools with a professional quality lens and iris control.
Larger image sensor= narrow depth of field= really cool for artsy filmmakers cause it looks like film

CONS: Solid state media is expensive. And it doesn't hold much video. A Sony SxS media card is like $800 each. It's also not a RED camera.


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Panasonic HVX200A. $5,200

PROS: Solid state media= tapeless= better than miniDV, though not as good as the EX1.
A favorite for indie filmmakers. Great manual controls!
CONS: Not as good as the EX1:
It uses P2 cards to hold its media, which dont shoot true HD. It actually uppresses its footage to achieve the 1920x1080. Can you distinguish it from true HD side by side? Probably not. Still, in some cases, its more problematic.
Smaller Image sensor. It has 1/3" CCDs as opposed to the EX1's 1/2" ones= larger depth of field.

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JVC HD110 $4000

PROS: It was used on several indie features.
It has interchangeable lenses, which is kinda nice.
pretty good picture for an HDV camera (HD miniDV)
CONS: It is an HDV camera (miniDV)=more compression than tapeless cameras.
Has no 1080i or 1080p mode, which is the highest output of HD. It does have the lower resolution 720p mode. Though lower resolution, I find I use 720p more often then 1080i.
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Canon XH-A1 $3,300
PROS: Well rounded. Excellent choice for formal shooting like for wedding videography, news broadcast, etc, though not the best for fictional productions
Pro tools. Great interlaced video.

CONS: no 24p (24p makes your video look like film)= not good for movies, short stories, etc. Also, only shoots Interlaced. No Progressive Mode at 60 frames per second, which filmmakers really like.

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Canon HV30 $770

NOT A PRO CAMERA, but a very good consumer camera. For a consumer camera, it has great:
-resolution
-color saturation .....in general, it has good picture quality

CONS: Lacks decent manual controls. All controls are hidden in the menu. There is a manual focus dial, but it's pretty useless.
no Pro audio connections. Well afterall, its a consumer camera.... it does have a mini-stereo imput for some microphones, which is decent.


If you want a pro camera, but don't care if it's HD or not, you can get a good deal on standard definition camears:

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Panasonic DVX100B $2,500
Great great camera! It used to be an indie filmmaker favorite. Very similar to the HVX200, without HD of course. Great manual controls. Excellent 24p mode....

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Canon XL2 $3,000
A great standard def pro camera with 24p too. It also has interchangeable lenses.



Well, I think I covered all price ranges. In conclusion, if you have the money, and the time to wait for its release in early 2009, go for the Scarlet...It will change digital cinema, forever... (sounded kinda cheesy...). The Scarlet, however, does require a bit more camera know-how, and it utilizes an entirely different codec that may be more difficult to edit, not to mention the file sizes. If you have a Mac with Final Cut Pro, you are in excellent shape. If you have a powerful PC with a powerful program like Avid, you are still in good shape. But keep in mind that the Scarlet has one catch: It's a pro camera, therefore will have professional post production demands. If you can't wait, the Sony EX1 is a fine camera in its own right, arguably the top in its class. If you don't care about the benefits of a pro camera, the Canon HV30 is a great inexpensive option for those on a budget. Or, if you don't care about seeing every pimple on your subjects' faces, you can get an awesome pro standard definition camera for an awesome price-- I love the DVX100B!!!!I apologize if you don't like my use of incomplete sentences.....
Well, good luck!!!

What is a professional HD camera to film skateboard?




Yvon Serov


The camera itself can be 3-5 grand price range. I was considering the hpx-170 but i heard that the p2 is a pain in the ass.i am looking to get into the industry and need a good camera to film professionally with.Also if you have any more insight on p2 cards i would really appreciate it.


Answer
There is no reason that "the p2 is a pain in the ***" unless the person who was using it did not know what they were doing, assumed incorrectly on how to deal with the video the camcorder captures or did not have appropriate hardware and software to support it. The P2 card is merely storage - that happens to be in a PCMCIA slot-card format.

The Panasonic HPX-170 has a 72mm lens filter diameter and 1/3", 3CCD imaging chip system. The low light behavior will be quite good (similar to my Sony HDR-FX1). As I recall, the HPX-170 record low compression, DVCPro HD format video to the P2 card. This is WAY better than AVCHD... Importing the video to a computer can happen two ways.
1) Copy the video files from the P2 card to the computer, Transcode the files to a format the video editor can deal with. Most higher-end editors can deal directly with the video files. Several cannot without extra downloads.
2) Connect the camcorder's firewire port to the computer's firewire port. Import the same way miniDV tape is imported. USB-to-firewire connectors don't work. Firewire-to-firewire connectors DO work and Thunderbolt-to-firewire adapters DO work.
3) Use the USB connector to copy files to the computer, then transcode. This is the least preferable of the video transfer processes.

If your editing platform does not have a PCMCIA slot or firewire connector (or Thunderbolt adapter), then there will be issues - but this is not the P2 card's fault. This is not researching the requirements of high definition low compression video editing.

The P2 cards can be expensive. And you really want to have a couple spare available.

You did not tell us what you will be editing on (computer hardware) or with (editing applications) so we don't know if you'll run into issues... Personally, given the relative affordability, for the the budget you list, I'd be looking at a HDR-FX1 or FX1000 (and add a XLR adapter - juicedLink or BeachTek). MiniDV tape continues to be the more readily available, affordable, storage alternative...

Flash memory is great and all, but what are your archival plans? Have you invested in a Network Attached Storage System? And HDV is generally more "video editor friendly". Since you need a firewire port on the computer anyway, digital tape is not a bad way to go.




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