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Question

Cheap HD camcorder with A/V input 2 use with old 1960 camera

Dec 20, 2013 8:43PM PST

So far from my google searches it appears it does not exist, but I'm currently looking for any HD camcorder under $500 (preferably under $300) that records to an SD card and that has an A/V analog input. I had some old Mini-DV digital camcorders (JVC and Samsung) that had this feature and they worked great for recording from an ancient 1960's era TV studio camera (with a big ol' vacuum tube in it) that really gave me an amazing vintage video look that I can't replicate perfectly with digital editing software. It also has beautiful Canon optics and good audio inputs. But it does not record video itself (it's just a stand alone camera) and uses composite analog outputs to interface with external video recorders. In the past I used my Mini-DV camcorders for this but the problem is that the transports on those camcorders have all failed. As such the attraction to the SD format is quite simply the lack of moving parts.

So why HD? Before anyone gives a long technical speech about why I'm an idiot and that I need to just get a DVR, first I don't need HD quality for the analog Inputs and I need something portable. I do however care about having at least a somewhat decent HD quality when I'm doing regular video work (not using the A/V inputs) using the camera's HD capabilities. In that regard I'm not expecting anything special. Honestly I'd just be thrilled to find ANY low-cost digital video camera (even non-HD) that had an analog A/V input and a 3.5" mic input (for shotgun and lavier mics) as well BUT that recorded video to an SD card. That would make editing and portability of video files MUCH easier. This way I also wouldn't have to lug around extension cords and a cumbersome DVR recorder that I'd rather not unhook from my home entertainment system.

Any help on this would be appreciated as I'm sure A LOT of budget-minded amateur film makers (who use pixel vision or vintage analog video cameras like mine) would be thrilled.

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
OK. Share what you found to date.
Dec 21, 2013 8:28AM PST

I took a quick look and came up empty.

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Answer
Analogue to USB
Dec 21, 2013 2:21PM PST

Would an Analogue to USB connector work for you? Then record on to a SD card in your PC. I guess most camcorders that use SD cards are digital from the start but my old Canon HV20 had analogue to digital "pass through" facilities.

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Interesting....
Dec 23, 2013 7:39AM PST

That is something that I've not considered. I actually do believe that I have an analog to digital USB converter that my brother sent to me on a birthday but that I never used as I was infatuated with purely digital video at the time. It may not be great quality, but I need to test it out to be sure in order to see if it suits what would already be a fairly low-fi applicaton. However....I might start looking into the price ranges of quality analog to digital video converters. But I'm just fearing that they'll be nearly as much as buying a prosumer level HD video camera. Nevertheless, barring any other answers, I'll look into this as I do have several laptops computers that would work for this purpose and that I hadn't considered.

Then all I would need is a decent low cost HD camcorder with a 3.5" mic input for my shotgun mic (for the love of God, why don't manufacturers make all their camcorder onboard mics shotgun mics??????).
That would be for the normal video projects that I usually do that involve mostly short film projects for anthropological research work and short art-film projects involving nature and animals that I use as a foreground to the ambient music that I write. Granted it's probably a genre that's overdone....but it's a beautiful and fulfilling art to me that I love watching from other such ambient art film/music artists. Happy