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What camcorder is good for me?

What's a good HD camcorder to get for filming skateboarding?

  • What's a good HD camcorder to get for filming skateboarding? Looking for an HD camcorder for around $500 (obviously the cheaper the better). Not really into HDVs or DSLRs or GoPro (got all GoPro answers last time). Just like the normal handycam look would suffice. Any information on the features that would make a good camcorder for skateboarding would be appreciated. e.g. What fps is recommended...( so I can do sweet slowmo's).

  • Answer:

    You roller skating. lots of action and you expect a HD camcorder to cover it? LOL Getting a HD camcorder is taking a step backward in Video Quality. HD camcorders Interpolate the video, which means of every 25 frames of video, 4 or 5 frames are taken by the lens assembly, the other frames in between these are filled in by the camcorder inner circuitry, thus giving you not true video. MiniDV tape camcorders give every frame of every shot and usually cost less. http://simplevideoediting.com/learn/part1_camcorder_choices.htm http://simplevideoediting.com/learn/part2_connect_camcorder.htm Consumer level HD camcorders have 4 problems. 1) Blurry, fuzzy, out of focus areas closely around people in videos taken by consumer level HD camcorders. 2) Any movement, even a wave or lifting an arm, while in front of a recording consumer level HD camcorder, results in screen ghosts and artifacts being left on the video track, following the movement. Makes for bad video, sports videos are unwatchable. 3) These Consumer level HD camcorders all have a habit of the transferred to computer files are something you need to convert, thus losing your HD quality, to work with your editing software. 4) Mandatory maximum record times - 1 hour, 30 minutes, 8 minutes, 3 minutes – four different times advertised as maximum record time for some consumer level HD camcorders. No event I have ever been to is that short. Either take multiple camcorders or pack up with out getting the end of the event on video. MiniDV is currently the most popular format for consumer digital camcorders. MiniDV camcorders are typically more affordable than their HDD and DVD counterparts. Each MiniDV tape will typically hold an hour of footage at normal recording speed and quality. MiniDV tapes are available for purchase at not only electronic and camera stores, but also at drugs stores and grocery stores, making them easy to find while your on vacation. There are literally hundreds of MiniDV camcorders available; both in standard and high-definition. And add the fact that to get a HD camcorder that could produce better video quality footage, one would have to spend in excess of $3500 for that camcorder that could produce higher quality video. http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/camcorders/consumer_camcorders/zr960

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here is the basic problem of action sports versus consumer HD cameras. The codecs used in most consumer HD cameras are AVCHD or an H.264 derivative. these achieve their super compression by throwing out 7 out of every 8 frames in sequence. on playback the missing frames are rebuilt by interpolation, a process that usually fails where there is movement. at under $50,000 USD there is only 2 work-arounds. the most common approach is to use miniDV in the widescreen mode. the WS makes it "look like" HD. unlike other codecs, miniDV does not discard any frames, and in fact uses an interlaced field recording to double the effective frame rate. this results in ultra-smooth slo-mo when edited. Canon recently sold its ZR960 miniDV for under $300 USD but it is hard to find. Panasonic and Sony make professional versions of miniDV for about $2000 USD. and a lot of enthusiasts go for used Sony DCR VX series cameras, old but still effective. the other option, which results in actual HD video is to go for HDV cameras. HDV uses the MPEG2 codec which is motion and edit friendly because its group-of-frames is not fixed at 8. HDV cameras are more expensive yet, expect to pay $3000 to $6000 depending on grade.

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