Video Cameras on Vacation?

[Apoc]

I've always been one of those people who looked at people filming their vacation and thought "wow, you're never going to look at that again." After seeing my coworkers very brief video from when we were in India (clickity click) I've thought maybe there's some merit in it. I love taking pictures but there's just some things that are better in video. I rock a dSLR but wifey has an Canon SD630 that does some pretty nice clips so I've always thought we've had it covered.

I'm not film maker, I don't necessarily buy into trends but I'm thinking making a movie for friends and family of our upcoming trip to Japan would be kinda cool. That said, do I really want to carry around a video camera in addition to a dSLR? I have one that's about 7 years old and works great for racing but I couldn't imagine carrying that. So that has me thinking that maybe I should pick up something small to carry around on our vacation. Were I to do that do I go solid state, HDD or MiniDV? Am I just looking to get more electronic crap for no real reason? Am I going to hate having to carry it around?

Thoughts?

[Evan]

there are smaller ones than that, id recommend something like this
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Sports-Camcorder-Memory-Optical/dp/B000E0G000">http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Sports-Ca ... B000E0G000</a><!-- m --> or this
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/c6.html">http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/c6.html</a><!-- m -->

the biggest problem with video is that it usually looks like ass unless you have a tripod.

[white_2kgt]

If you plan on doing heavy editing of the video files then stay away from the MPEG cameras, like HDD, SolidState and miniDVD. DV is still best for that. If you forsee yourself just taking video and burning it right to a DVD then any will be fine. Also another thing to consider miniDV tapes are cheap and you can buy them just about anywhere in the event you run out of space.

I take my camera with me everywhere we go, I usually go through a 60 minute tape every week with the baby, more if we actually go somewhere. I have a bag that I can keep my DSLR+glass and video camera + filters and an external mic, yea it's heavy but we have a stroller now .

[Apoc]

there are smaller ones than that, id recommend something like this
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Sports-Camcorder-Memory-Optical/dp/B000E0G000">http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Sports-Ca ... B000E0G000</a><!-- m --> or this
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/c6.html">http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/c6.html</a><!-- m -->

Those style generally get pretty poor reviews as far as image quality.

I don't even know what brands are good these days.

[Feersty]

I assume portability is pretty high priority for you?

[John]

When are you going to Japan?

[Apoc]

Yes and late February, respectively.

[Apoc]

If you plan on doing heavy editing of the video files then stay away from the MPEG cameras, like HDD, SolidState and miniDVD. DV is still best for that.

Can you expand on the reasons why?

That Sanyo is $400!? I would consider something like that if it was $100 but not for the price of a "real" camera.

[.paul]

I have that camera.

well i bought it when I was in japan, a little higer end.

you want to go miniDV. with HDD, you will run out of space fliming in HD, and then need a computer to offload everything. the offload time of an HDD to copmuter is the SAME time has a miniDV. you can carry miniDVs, and have dual storage essentially.. the miniDV and a hard drive. I think on a miniDV you can get 2 hours of 1080i/720p.

as far as editing is concerned, obviously that is done on the computer, and between HDD and miniDV the quality will be the same. also just like with film, you can never take enough pictures or video, so be weary of the HDDs and how fast you will run out of space.

that is truley the best way to go if you are going to be filimin in HD

[.paul]

Also, when in Japan, do not assume you will be able to get the good stuff w/o knowing japanese. When in tokyo, everyone speaks/understands english.. well most of them do, but a lot of them will not speak it to you.

I was lucky to have my bud there who spoke japanese. Chris you will NOT be able to take enough video & pictures, soak it up, let me know where you are going, maybe I can have my friend meet up and take you to some of the wonderful temples and towns he took me. nothing like having an insider there.

also make sure to get the JR pass before you go

[white_2kgt]

If you plan on doing heavy editing of the video files then stay away from the MPEG cameras, like HDD, SolidState and miniDVD. DV is still best for that.

Can you expand on the reasons why?

That Sanyo is $400!? I would consider something like that if it was $100 but not for the price of a "real" camera.

The HDD and miniDVD's use AVCHD codec to encode the video, which basically blows. Most people have to have 2 copies of their video to get an kind of editing done, one in a lower res and then the high-res, then after editing to a swap out of the video, this, quite frankly is a pain in the ass and sucks. miniDV's on the other hand use HDV format, still requires a pretty beefy computer to edit the raw HDV format but much easier, also there is less loss in HDV vs AVCHD.

I think on a miniDV you can get 2 hours of 1080i/720p.

miniDV's get 1hr. Oh and you don't have to buy HD-DV tapes, they are pretty much the exact same thing as miniDV's except 10x more expensive. My camera will do 1080p @24fps, pretty sweet if you take the time to do the extra steps required for pulldown removal.

[Apoc]

I'm still not convinced I'm going to take a video cam with me. It's going to be annoying to work three cameras between 2 people but the AVIs that my wife's digicam takes doesn't work natively in Sony Vegas. We'll probably just end up using hers to take clips where pictures won't do justice, I just don't want to get in a situation where I feel like I'm not documenting the trip as well as I should be.

We have the JR rail pass and will have our own personal (japanese speaking) guide 1 day in Tokyo and 1 day in Kyoyo. I took a semester of Japanese in college and have started brushing up on it. I'm nowhere near fluent but with the help fo Rosette Stone I hope to have enough to manage.

Here's our itenerary...

Tokyo
Tokyo
Tokyo
Tokyo
Kyoto
Kyoto
Kyoto
Kyoto
Koya
Osaka
Hakone
Hakone
Tokyo

[.paul]

I found that the biggest problem was not really finding the places to see, but eating out, and getting the good stuff sucks since they do not have pictures on their menu

the go around sushi, you can not go wrong in.

[Maengelito]

When in tokyo, everyone speaks/understands english.. well most of them do, but a lot of them will not speak it to you.

i was actually surprised at how many people there did not speak english. and i'm not just talkin about shop merchants because of course they're gonna bilk you out of your money, but like waitresses, policemen, the hotel clerk, none of them were able to speak english to me.

[.paul]

When in tokyo, everyone speaks/understands english.. well most of them do, but a lot of them will not speak it to you.

i was actually surprised at how many people there did not speak english. and i'm not just talkin about shop merchants because of course they're gonna bilk you out of your money, but like waitresses, policemen, the hotel clerk, none of them were able to speak english to me.

from my friend who has lived there for 3 years now, he told me they choose not to. Most of them learned it, and just have no interest in doing so.

cops there are such a joke though, they are so nice

[Jeff]

I got a Panasonic PV-GS85 tonight. Its DV and SD card for photos. Its a REALLY basic cam, not the cheapest CC has, but surely not the best of even the DV verity. It was rated 6.6 on C-net by the editor and 9 out of 10 from the 5 customer reviews. It was open box, so I got a really good deal. $200 for the cam, a 2 year accidental warranty, a tripod, DV tapes, a 2g SD card, and a bag for it all. I thought that was pretty damn good seeing as the cam itself was $300 alone. The downside...it takes SHITTY still pictures. That price was with my trade in...my Sony Cybershot I bought last year. So now I really don't have any way to take still photos.

Pros- SD card for pictures...even though they are shitty, built in light, true 16:9 aspect. 32X zoom, really easy to use and simple, I like how large it is I feel like I can hold on to it.

Cons- Poor photo quality, no bling features, night mode is a joke, non-branded lens ("panasonic" lens).


My real questions -
Is there such a thing as a cheaper DV cam that takes good stills...or are video cams just that?

Is this one decent enough for random car videos, family, and homemade porn?

[Mike]

no, there are no video cameras that take good stills.

[Jeff]

why is that? Something to do with how the light processor (or whatever the thing that reads the image is called) looks at what it receives? I mean, these pictures it takes are like a camera-phone or worse. I don't even know what you would use it for...

Assuming the video quality is ok (haven't looked at it on a big screen yet) should I keep this camera and buy another still cam?

Whats a happy medium between a basic point and shoot (what I had) and a DSLR?

[Mike]

yes, they have very bad image sensors.

a happy medium would be something like the canon sx100 (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_sx100is.asp">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/C ... x100is.asp</a><!-- m -->) or the s5 (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_s5is.asp">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/C ... n_s5is.asp</a><!-- m -->)

[Jeff]

I suppose it goes the other way as well? No still camera takes good movies? To be honest, the video quality is not that good on this thing when I play it though the composite cables to the TV. Maybe thats just the fact that is is a LCD projection TV getting a low quality signal...and the video was filmed in low light.