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General discussion

Mini DV Component or new Camera to buy

May 8, 2011 11:46AM PDT

Hi, I am looking to do one of two things. I currently have a Panasonic PV-GS32 MiniDV camera. It works well enough but I'm not a fan of pulling the video down from the camera to my pc. Too time consuming.

Discussion is locked

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If you are
May 9, 2011 6:19AM PDT

"not a fan of pulling the video down from the camera to my pc" what is your expectation of the process flow from other storage media? The assumption is that getting the video to the computer is for editing.

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reply
May 9, 2011 9:03AM PDT

I understand its real time. I only have a laptop at this point so setting it down and letting the tape run isn't what I really want to do. I only have a couple tapes with content so I could get it done and then be done. I have real plans for quick videos (30 sec - 2/3 minutes) so dealing with pulling tape isn't what I really want to do. I would rather have flash storage where I am dealing with video files already.

I haven't really found anything in terms of cameras at this point. I have looked at cnet reviews/newegg/tiger direct but there is just so much out there.

Here is what I want...

A digital camcorder with good optical zoom, flash storage (built in + expansion card slots if possible). I guess saying I want 720p with H.264 was a bad method of description. I would like something that does 720p at least. The file saving type is flexible. Video will be used in our church via projectors and will also be saved to be run off youtube or something linked to our website.

My budget right now is $300 or less. I have found cameras on the places I listed above for that price that seemed okay, but I want to do all I can before a purchase is made.

Can you answer this...Are the "FlipCam" style camcorders any good? I have seen some video from different ones and wasn't impressed. Are there good ones out there or can they be lumped together in the "not so good" category?

Thanks

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I guess I am thick - sorry...
May 9, 2011 10:21AM PDT

You said: " I have real plans for quick videos (30 sec - 2/3 minutes) so dealing with pulling tape isn't what I really want to do."
My thickness: So... you are capturing "30 sec - 2/3 minutes" of video that needs to be transfered to the computer and that takes too long - even in real time?

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hopefully helps
May 9, 2011 2:14PM PDT

1. Basically, I don't want to deal with tape. I want to record and when I finish, I have a file ready to pull to my laptop in seconds ready to work with.

2. Long term storage (if needed) will be disc or online backups.

3. Yeah, I don't need anything pro level. These videos will just get the message across about events, fun bits for our website, etc. I currently have a camera with video as a feature which works fine for my wife taking shots of our son, but it won't for me.

4. One big thing is, what do the numbers mean on the imaging chip. I am assuming that is the 1/6 that my Panasonic has. What is "better" in that category? If I find something with 1/5 or 1/8, I am assuming that the 8 means its better than the 6, correct? I did notice some of these flip type are 1/2 which makes sense to not be as good. Thanks for helping me weed this out.

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okie dokie...
May 9, 2011 10:56PM PDT

1) Good luck with that.

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Response
May 9, 2011 11:20PM PDT

I have a Lenovo G560 with a Core i5 quad core processor, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. Intel Graphics. It handles things well enough. I definitely won't be doing anything large with this laptop. Doing short videos shouldn't be a problem with it. I have cut up videos and pieced them together without issue. I did a 5 minute video with Premiere once and it had playback issues with the resulting video.

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great!
May 10, 2011 2:26AM PDT

I presume the 5 minute video you edited with Premiere was captured by the PV-GS32. If so, heads-up: If your computer had issues playing back edited standard definition video (that is all the GS32 captures), then any high definition video will likely perform worse. Hopefully, it was not the current computer (CPU and RAM seem just fine).

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response
May 10, 2011 6:27AM PDT

No, it was a countdown loop I made with a large batch of images (basically a digital juice loop that needed put together). I did pull some video from this camera once with a desktop that actually had lower stats than my laptop and it worked without a problem. I was trying something for the first time so there were some kinks in the process.

Thanks for the advice and help on this process. I appreciate it. Now I just need to find the right camera. I'll look around for what friends have too and see how they like theirs. And, some in person shopping will take place at the stores to test some out.

Thanks again!