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Question

Something to film hidden camera pranks

Aug 24, 2013 2:58AM PDT

Hi, I would like to film some pranks in public such as these examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIrvpn3k9A4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijQ01lsWBc

I will most likely have a friend film for me, or maybe hide the camera somewhere unattended. So something with autofocus would be good. Most of the time my victims shouldn't know that they are being filmed during the prank, so the camera might need to be set up a good distance from the action. I don't need movie quality video, just quality that looks good enough to be viewed on Youtube. In other words, video quality that is a step up from smart phone video quality. Lastly, I might want to do some night time shooting, so I need something that is good for low light. My budget is about $500.

The Panasonic HC-V720 is the main one I've been looking at for $449 on Amazon. The video quality seems to be okay, adequate optical zoom, and good low light performance.

I have also been looking at the Canon EOS Rebel T2i (It's the same one that the second video link uses). It's a little bit more expensive, but I could always buy it used. I would buy the 18-55mm lens with it.

It seems that DSLRs offer superior video quality, but would novices like my friends and myself be able to achieve better quality than if we just went with a camcorder?

I'm open to suggestions other than these two choices. If you think for my purposes, I could go with a cheaper camera let me know. I have also been considering Sony HDR-CX380 and the GoPro hero 3 black edition.

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