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General discussion

Need help Choosing a Camcorder

Mar 17, 2005 9:04AM PST

Hi. Need some help to choose the right camcorder for a business my girlfriend is starting. She is going to be filming video for a web site. It will be mostly 2 people sitting and talking to each other but once in a while we may do some more action like them moving around but not much because this is a english educational video and mostly we just need footage of people having conversation. One of the people working with us recommended the Canon GL2. The price range does matter but we are looking for new cameras off ebay. The prices they have on Cnet don't really apply to us since most of the stores they compare with are way more expensive then ebay. Another camera a different person recommend was the Sony DCR-VX2100. We will also be purchasing lighting equiptment and a microphone so those features are not as important to us(but still do matter). Thanks for the help and let me know if you need more info.

Mike

Discussion is locked

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Skip the work.
Mar 17, 2005 11:18AM PST

I did some work like that and skipped using the camcorder and inside used a laptop with a newer USB 2.0 camera. That way I skipped all the fun of moving the video from the camcorder.

Bob

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That really didn't help at all
Mar 20, 2005 12:46AM PST

Still need help to choose a camcorder. Webcam is not what we are looking to do the video quality is to low. We need a professional or semi pro camera for the quality of video. This video project is just a start to what we are doing. We need a camera that is going to work for a lot of different stuff. Looking for something around $2000 to $3000 from ebay so that means it could be $3000 -5000 on cnets site.

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Worked for us. Here's why.
Mar 20, 2005 12:50AM PST

We used the newer USB 2.0 camera that has more resolution than your average camcorder. You asked for ideas and if ideas are not what you want or you don't want people to share their solutions, then I wonder how you will fare.

About the many thousand dollar Pro-DV camcorder. You will likely not like this advice either, but when we needed one, we rented it for just a few hundred bucks. This allowed us to test out a few models.

What I'm writing here is that if you want input, you will never pan replies.

Bob

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webcam is not for us
Mar 20, 2005 1:37AM PST

We already looked into renting a camcorder it is $300 for 2 days. Not interested in paying that much and having nothing in return. That means after about 8 rentals we could have bought it instead. I have 1 of the higher Resolution USB 2.0 web Cameras and my friend has a sony DCRVX1000. The Sony is way better then my webcam. Even if I use my Nikon 5 MP digital Camera as a webcam it doesn't compare to the sony. On top of everything else we intend to use the video camera for other video production. I doubt we will be able to carry around a web cam attached to a laptop when we shoot a documentary or vacation. I have seen the shakey video that will produce. Anyways we are not worried about the cost being so low. We have enough money budgeted to cover the video cameras that we want so we can do the job right. If we were just looking to go the cheap way I would have suggested cameras in the hundreds of $ range. We justified the costs to ourselfs which is all that really matters. I realise that maybe a webcam can work for your business but it doesn't mean that it will work for everyone elses too.

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We didn't use a webcam.
Mar 20, 2005 2:00AM PST

We used a newer USB 2.0 camera. It saved use hundreds of hours in DV transfer.

" I doubt we will be able to carry around a web cam attached to a laptop when we shoot a documentary or vacation. "

That was not in your first post. That detail means you need to try out a few cameras and pick the one you like. The rental of such can save you from a big mistake.

You write that you would have nothing to show from such a rental. In fact you would. You would have test driven the model and know if it's for you.

The camera is not a webcam and is only used when it makes sense.

Bob