Sony Handycam

Capture hardware, software and techniques

Moderators: Admin, Moderator Team

Post Reply
User avatar
ct_bullet
Posting Freak
Posting Freak
Posts: 311
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 8:15 pm
Location: England
Contact:

Sony Handycam

Post by ct_bullet »

hi
i no some of you are upgrading from a handycam to massise XLs but for me this is excellent, i am currently on a crappy analogue cam and am getting really annoyed with the poor quality i'm churning out. So christmas is coming up and i dont want to be too demanding so heres something i'm looking at

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=sr&p ... tle=735649

so what do you guys think of this cam, also it says it runs on miniDv tapes, i thought minidv taped onto digital memory, i dont have much knowledge in this field, can anyone help?
movie fanatic

http://wolfvisionp.tripod.com/
User avatar
XhuntedoverlordX
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 185
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:04 pm
Location: Roanoke/Salem, Virginia

RE: Sony Handycam

Post by XhuntedoverlordX »

If i'm not mistaken Mini-Dv is tape, but it can be uploaded to a computer digitally. It has pretty nice quality, about 500 lines, compared to 525 on a television. The only real downside is that the tape is pretty expensive. I'm getting a similar camera, from Panasonic, sometime this week. Also if you use a firewire you don't lose any quality uploading to a computer which is a pretty nice feature. I think that a slightly less costly, but more constraining alternative than to keeping a lot of tapes might be to digitally store footage to your computer, burn that footage to a disc, and then you could re-use the tape. I don't know if that would work or not though.
User avatar
XhuntedoverlordX
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 185
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:04 pm
Location: Roanoke/Salem, Virginia

RE: Sony Handycam

Post by XhuntedoverlordX »

Oh, sorry I forgot to mention this. On an unrelated side note, it may be a good idea to buy an extra battery to use with it. It's quite annoying when a battery runs out when you're filming and then having to recharge it before you film again. Always have an extra fully-charged battery on hand, it really helps. And a tripod would also be a wise investment.
User avatar
ct_bullet
Posting Freak
Posting Freak
Posts: 311
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 8:15 pm
Location: England
Contact:

RE: Sony Handycam

Post by ct_bullet »

ceers dude, luckily i've already got a tripod, do you hapen to no how much the tapes and spare battery may cost
movie fanatic

http://wolfvisionp.tripod.com/
User avatar
XhuntedoverlordX
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 185
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:04 pm
Location: Roanoke/Salem, Virginia

RE: Sony Handycam

Post by XhuntedoverlordX »

Well, I just looked online at mini-dv tapes. I think that an average cost would be about $6-8 for 60 minutes of tape. As for the spare battery, i'm not exactly sure, but I don't think it would cost anymore than $40.
Raptor
Forum Veteran
Forum Veteran
Posts: 1027
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:47 am
Location: Altoona, PA, USA

RE: Sony Handycam

Post by Raptor »

You can buy tapes bulk on line in lots of 10 for about $3.50 per tape. Batteries will depend on the capacity, High capacity Sony tapes run $50 - $150 US. I just bought two. One real Sony NPF-570 (2200 mAh about 3 - 3.5 hrs run time ) was $60.00 at Wal- Mart. I ordered an off brand replacement on EBay for the np-f950 ( 5500 mAh I believe, about 6 hrs run time ) for like $27.00 US including shipping. Sounds good but I'll pass judgement on that battery in about 3 months if it still holds a charge LOL...
The UNDERGROUND
[url]http://theundergroundtv.com[/url]
Music television for unsigned bands
Post Reply