JMC

i'm shooting a vid but my camera is a piece of junk. anyone know a well priced, decent digital vid camera?

sxe fbm rider

https://www.navacron.com/shop/product...oducts_id=6141

BMXTRIX

I wouldn't recommend a digital 8 camcorder if you are just getting into all of it. Go with mini-DV which gives you a lot more choices and variety without getting stuck with a Sony proprietary format that is not very popular.

Budget and seriousness is everything, but I WOULD recommend a Sony as they tend to have very good optics and build quality up through their 3 chip models and now they offer HD models which will simply blow the doors off of any home video you have ever seen.

Of course, you need pretty deep pockets for the nicer stuff.

If going inexpensive, I would stick with a Sony and not worry to much about anything other than OPTICAL ZOOM and that it is DV format with a firewire in/out port.

mude

english?

BMXTRIX

Mude - What didn't you understand?

Camcorders use different types of video tapes. Most common are:
8mm, VHS-C, Digital 8-mm, and Mini-DV

There are several other less common formats including the type that write onto DVD recordables. But, the ones I listed are most common.

Of those, mini-DV is really the format of choice and the format of professionals. There are $300.00 mini-DV cameras and there are $5,000+ mini-DV cameras.

I would suggest something like a $500.00 Sony mini-DV camera.

bmichaelx

My question kinda fits in with this thread so ill just ask it here instead of starting another thread. Some of my friends and I are making a vid that we've been planning to make for a while now, but we just never taped that much before. Well, we started to tape about a month ago, we're using a camera that uses 8mm tapes(if that matters)and we are looking to buy some video editing software. We are on a low budget, so I was looking on-line and found this. [URL=https://about.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=5767098/search=ulead%20videostudio%208[/url]]

I'm not sure if its any good. I don'k know anything about software at all, but is that stuff good enough to edit a video, like add music and cut the parts. Is the quality even good enough?

As you can probably tell I have no idea what the hell im talking about. So please let me know if this is good, and if not what is good and not really expensive(over 150$). Thanks a lot!!

BMXTRIX

Your biggest issue is that you are shooting 8mm. That's an older analog format. Double check that it is not DIGITAL 8 and is just regular '8mm'. If it is just 8mm tape, then you need to focus on how you will be getting the video off the camera, and into the PC to be edited. Quality will immediately be brought down by doing this. Analog is not at all the preferred way to edit anymore as it is actually more expensive and lower quality to do it this way than to do everything digitally.

Digital 8mm or mini-DV with a firewire card in your computer allow for a digital transfer straight from the camera into your PC.

The video editing software you listed is VERY basic though. It may work alright and allow for you to trim video clips up and put them together with some really basic transitions and effects then lay in some background music. But, it isn't anything like Ulead's Media Studio.

PM me about video editing software that doesn't suck we can work something out.

100% - you need to worry a great deal about how you are getting this video INTO and OUT OF your computer!!!

bmichaelx

I double checked on the tapes that we're using and all it said on the tape was "8mm MP". It doesn't say "Digital" any where on the tapes that we're using. I might be able to use my friends software called "Adobe pro" or something. So that might be able to work.

Brian

Sounds like Hi8 to me. I used that in my Canon L1 years and years ago. The ULead software that you linked to isn't going to do it for you. Generally, if it's an easy to use consumer version, it won't do all the cool stuff you want to do. Also, you'll need a decent processor in your computer, a whopping big hard drive, and a DVD burner. Your question is much like the "$200 BMX question" - you have to be prepared for a lot of compromise, or spending a lot. You can't have it both ways.

BMXTRIX

That's definitely not true anymore.

1. Look at the CAMERA to find out what format it is recording in. It will say on the camera somewhere either '8 mm', 'Hi-8', or 'Digital-8'. If it says 'Digital-8' you are in REALLY good shape.

2. Digital-8 plus a firewire card = incredible video quality.

3. A DVD recorder is nice, but isn't required unless you are looking to send stuff out. DVD recorders aren't crazy expensive anymore anyways.

4. Your output, in the end, should ALWAYS be back to Digital-8 if that is the format you are shooting in.

5. No, digital-8 is not indicated on the tapes. That's why Sony came out with Digital-8, it works with their old tapes and happily plays back regular 8mm and hi-8 video with no problem. Backwards compatible and future high quality.

6. The original BMXTRIX videos were all shot with a regular (not Hi) 8mm camcorder and edited on a Pentium 133 computer in analog format. They weren't nearly what digital is and it was a headache, but I worked through it to put some decent looking stuff together. My 'good' videos were all shot on Digital-8 and Mini-DV and edited on a Pentium 3, 500mhz computer. Nothing killer at all.

Video is becoming easy to do, but digital REALLY helps. Otherwise, you will need an analog capture card of some type.

Like this:
https://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=P121-3024

Actually, that should be a really good product for you if you need to capture analog (8mm or Hi-8mm) footage.

Brian

I did my Hi8 editing with a Sony editor (with the cool jog/shuttle thingys) and dual Hi8 decks. Slow and expensive. When I first tried digital editing, it was with an AMD Thunderbird 1000 with a gig or RAM. No dropped frames, but the coding(?) had to be done overnight, it was that slow. I tried a few different software titles, but couldn't find anything that worked easily and allowed me to do exactly what I wanted, so I gave up. I've got a P4 dedicated to video that just sits idle, along with a Canon Mini DV camera. I stick to still photos now with a Canon DSLR, and that works for me.

bmichaelx

I looked again and I saw that it said HI8 on the camcorder. My friends computer is really, really nice. His dad works with computers and runs a networking buisness or something, any way he has a super nice computer that we are free to use. So having a nice enough computer is not a problem.

SpeedSterz

My dad got a Sharp Mini-DV camera free for doing 25 years service at marks and spencers, there a great little camera...and if you go on ebay you can get them for next to nothing!