Could you recommend cheap dogital cam?

[George Necola]

Yo slutz, I look for a digital video cam, for some interview/rock n roll documentation.

So soundquality/built in mic should be ok, lense should see something if ut's a bit darker then daylight..

300$ to 500$.


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[Mordae]

Zoom Q3HD

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[Goliath|Audio]

Used Canon T1i with a 50mm f1.8 fixed zoom lens.

[abechap024]

Go for the Spy pen cams on ebay. Sketch. Major Sketch. Those secret settings on a guitar session? Done.

[jeremy.c.]

Originally Posted by George Necola

Yo slutz, I look for a digital video cam, for some interview/rock n roll documentation.

So soundquality/built in mic should be ok, lense should see something if ut's a bit darker then daylight..

300$ to 500$.


Sent from my Desire HD using Gearslutz.com App

I've been peeping the Sony HDR-CX160 and it looks like a beast for the price plus it has mic input.

[ilovemusic]

Originally Posted by abechap024

Go for the Spy pen cams on ebay. Sketch. Major Sketch. Those secret settings on a guitar session? Done.

That's horrible.

[Mark D.]

In Europe, Sanyo Xacti VPC-PD1 (in America it's called a VPC-PD2), well under $200 US dollars / Euros.
I like that this is 3x opitical zoom. Simplicity, and rarely found, true stereo microphones on the outside.
The Zoom HD mentioned above likely has better sound, but is twice the price, without 3x optical zoom.

Digital Camera | Full HD Camera | VPC-PD1 | Xacti SANYO

[George Necola]

Originally Posted by jeremy.c.

I've been peeping the Sony HDR-CX160 and it looks like a beast for the price plus it has mic input.

yes.. that's the one that I saw too..

thanx for the Sanyo recomondation.. will go ahead and test one of them.

thank you!

[Mark D.]

Glad if I could help. The Sanyo sits between the vast majority of higher
priced cameras with 3x or more zoom, but one mono mic and the newer
stereo video recorders from Zoom & a few others with no optical Zoom.
That's smaller than most of them and usually costs half or less in price.

[Jules]

Why not just get a clip to hold your phone steady and use that?

[VitaEtMusica]

Originally Posted by Goliath|Audio

Used Canon T1i with a 50mm f1.8 fixed zoom lens.

Splurge and get the T2i with the same lens for $800. Best bang for the buck period. Saying bang for the buck cheapens how good this camera is... just go look on vimeo and youtube and see what people are doing with it.

Best of both worlds (photo/video) for that price.

[Yago]

Originally Posted by VitaEtMusica

Splurge and get the T2i with the same lens for $800. Best bang for the buck period. Saying bang for the buck cheapens how good this camera is... just go look on vimeo and youtube and see what people are doing with it.

Best of both worlds (photo/video) for that price.

Yes , I liked the T2i so much I bought one !
Only complaint I could have is the shallow buffer depth when shooting raw continuous .
Damn good camera though .


Wonder what George decided on ?

[jeremy.c.]

T2i is nearly worthless for what he wants though. Limited to 12 minute shooting time, built in mic sucks terribly, and its manual focus so he's got to be jocking that focus constantly.
I own it, shoot a lot of video with it and for my documentary it's been nothing short of a complete pain in the ass. I would recommend it for someone who knows what they're getting into, but for the guy that wants to spend $500 its not going to happen. He'll spend an addl $150 alone on reliable class 10 cards just to be able to shoot 120 minutes of footage. These things overheat too and shut off...
Oh yeah and while I'm griping about it, you need to spend $500 on a monitor to attach to it or a decent viewfinder because pulling focus on that tiny screen is damn near impossible. It takes $2000 to make this thing a functional camcorder. Great as it is, it's very limited for the person that needs to quickly document rock stuff on the go.

[Yago]

I've never shot vid with my T2i , so I have never met those limitations .
Didn't know about the auto focus , always thought it did work on vid !
Will have a "play" with the camera at weekend might have a look at the video .

[jeremy.c.]

Originally Posted by Yago

I've never shot vid with my T2i , so I have never met those limitations .
Didn't know about the auto focus , always thought it did work on vid !
Will have a "play" with the camera at weekend might have a look at the video .

The video is awesome in quality, no doubt about it. It will auto focus when you hold the button halfway down, but once it's recording you're on your own! So if your subject doesn't move and you don't move the camera in the field of vision you'll be fine. If you're doing some serious shooting though you'll need a viewfinder and a focus wheel and a shoulder mount and all of that will cost you as much as the camera did. On top of that the audio is miserable and the mic input doesn't offer much (never got it to work well with my Beyer shotgun mic either) so I use a Zoom H4n and then have the nightmare of syncing it up later.
Needless to say I'm going to get a better solution, probably the Panasonic TMC-HD900 for better portability. That's still about $350-400 over George's range though, but offers the best for audio/mic and low light shooting at 1080p. I just don't have the coin to step up to the $2k-3K range where I need to be (probably because I just bought new monitors)...

[George Necola]

Originally Posted by Yago

Yes , I liked the T2i so much I bought one !
Only complaint I could have is the shallow buffer depth when shooting raw continuous .
Damn good camera though .


Wonder what George decided on ?

Sony HDR-CX160 is my favourite.. but plans have changed a bit and I wait till December, because a new series of products will come out (have a friend in the Sony marketing department).

[Yago]

The magic lantern firmware upgrade does address the audio agc problems , not sure about the AF in vid .

Hope it works out George , nice to have friends in the know