1) Most are HD nowadays.
2) Always go for good optical zooms. Digital zooms reduce picture quality. Some cameras have "intelligent" zoom which is a mixture of optical and digital but corrected to give a good picture. These are IMO OK.
3) Longer life batteries are on the market for most of the cameras. The camera manufacturers supply at inflated prices but there are many outlets on the web. Buy from a reputable supplier.
4) Stay with the SD card. Reliable and replaceable. Go for 32 or 64 Gb and you will have all the memory you need for a football match. Once downloaded to your PC, re-format (in the camera) and use again.
5) If you need a viewfinder, you will have to go to the top of the range. (Panasonic 920 for example) I made a simple shield from card and black tape to cover the screen. I have never needed to use it as the screen brightness can be increased.
6) This years cameras have Wi-Fi control so you can control from your Smartphone.
Hello,
I need to buy a camcorder and find many, many choices, but not sure how many are real options.
What I'm trying to do:
I want to record soccer games. Generally the best way to do this is up high from a far enough distance back to capture most of at least the defensive side of the field (for my purposes).
What I know I need:
* HD, preferably if I understand correctly, 1920x1080, with 60FPS: I want the best possible image quality I can get, so this is critical.
* powerful optical and digital zooms. I don't need exactly how much I need per se, That way, if I really had to go far back to get for example the height I need, I can zoom in to get the coverage I need.
* battery that can record at least 105 minutes without going dead. I guess I can get another battery, so if I have to sacrifice to get the image quality I need, I will, but I would really prefer not to have to go that route.
* strongly prefer internal memory, though not a show stopper
* finally, I tried borrowing one and an interesting issue came up: on sunny days, I have a heck of a time seeing the LCD screen. I don't know if this is just life, or if some manufacturers have dealt with this, but it was a bit of a nuisance if I can avoid it.
* fun feature, but not necessary: the capacity to operate it remotely, specifically recording. I saw a camera that does this. Use: I can set it up prior to the game and then start recording later, rather than having to stick right by it.
Any suggestions would be great. Thank you!
Does that mean you prefer Panasonic to the 2 I've suggested? Or are you saying any of the 3 would all get it done? The one feature that stands out for the Sony is the 26.8 mm lens, which may be useful for getting a good wide view of the penalty area for some shots without having to grab more length-wise than I wanted.
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