any vid gurus hear? choose camcorder help.

[scottwild]

Hello fellow WAB members

I have been interested in making short films to do with wildlife for a while now.
I am looking for a good starter semi pro or an acceptable commercial camcorder. The video camera has to be able to have the facility to accept a microphone input and/or have really good audio recording qualities and possibly be able to work in low light. I realise that semi pro video cams are dear so i would be looking out for one second-hand

Has any one any experience to help me with any recommendations, what to avoid etc.

Your help guidance is much appreciated.

Scott

[SouthwestSnapper]

Ok what would you like to know? What exactly are you going to try to film first, we can start there.

PP

[nigel_b]

SD90

These threads usually got more meaningfull when questions are asked of the OP rather than by the OP.

Budget?

[DocBrown]

Hi Scott,

I also film wildlife and scenery as a hobby but would one day like to go pro. I generally don't rely on camera sound as camera microphones are really not that good - even on some pro cameras. Only use camera sound if you're making a vlog video with your own narration when you film. For wildlife you really need a seperate recorder. I use a Zoom H2 SD-card recorder with a 'deadcat' wind shield. It's easy to sync the audio with your video - you clap loudly and on the editing program just drag the audio track until the 'spikes' align up.
As for cameras - I use a Sony Digicam DCR TRV240E which uses tape. In the 12 years of regular use in all weathers it has never let me down. It isn't professional video quality but the build quality is solid. However I'm also looking to upgrade since standard DV always seems to be downgraded when uploading to Youtube where most of my videos end up. I was recently talking to wildlife film maker Stephen Devere and he said the Panasonic HDC TM700 (and lots of recent variations but with essentially the same 'engine') is a great quality semi-pro camera which can do 1080/50p video.
I'd would avoid cheap HD camcorders since rolling shutter and less than smooth video can make the footage look like it was shot on a mobile phone.

If you're going to film using HD camera then make sure your computer can handle the large video files generated. Ideally you would want a minimum of 4Gb RAM and a 1Gb graphics card and a fast processor but even then it might be a tad slow to render and edit. I tried editing HD footage shot on a Canon HV20 but my Dell Inspiron with 2Gb of RAM simply couldn't handle it.
Have a look at my youtube channel as I've uploaded some video of Short-eared Owls using my old Sony. TK42138's Channel - YouTube

Doc