Worthy Camera under $999????

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 1:48 pm

Does anyone know of any worthy or good cameras that are under $999?

Also what does everyone think of this camera. If you know what are it's pros and cons? Thanks

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/control ... 107&is=REG

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 6:26 pm

This is a single chip camera, it is so-so in low light, but well lighted images are pretty good quality. There is a topic here on a three CCD camera which now is under $800 at B&H....
Reference here...
http://www.matthawkins.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2601

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 9:00 am

Worthy for what? General family movies, or pro looking filmmaking? I personally do not like much of the cheaper camcorders.

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 2:38 pm

pro looking filmmaking

Famous · Post by **Famous** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 12:21 am

Yeah I think that is a great price for that camara.
American Money or Canadian?
But I think that is perfect for anything you want to film.

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 1:48 am

Themovieman44 wrote:pro looking filmmaking

Sure, that camera may make you look like a pro, but the video won't. Well, actually I shouldn't say that. A lot can be acheived with color correction these days.

My next point: 3CCD. A 3CCD camera will be much better in the long run. You may not know this, but I'll say it anyway. Each CCD on a 3CCD camera is dedicated to one color: Red, Blue, and Green. On a single chip camera, all three colors are thrown together into one CCD. So which do you think will have better color? 3CCD.

Really, think about this. A 3CCD camera for a few hundred less than a single chip. Yes, I am aware that the 3CCD cam has 1/6" CCDs, and the single chip has a 1/4" CCD. Sure, the 3CCD cam is no GL2, but it's certaining not a ZR camera. Still, the three chip is better.

If it were me, I'd go for the three chip. I'm pretty sure most others will agree with me. 3CCD.

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 11:31 pm

okay thanks well the 3CCD that is on the link above i have been looking at for sometime now so we will see what happens

Twabi2 · Post by **Twabi2** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 12:12 am

i can't find any 3ccd cams... well, canon has 2, but they are way too exspensive!!
other manufacturers don't seem to produce that

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 12:21 am

Check out the link above posted by Raptor

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 8:23 am

There are hundreds of 3ccd camcorders out there. Unfortunately nearly all of them are professional models and will cost you many years of pocket change! I doubt you will find anything up to the standards you are looking for with your budget. Exceptional quality cameras will start at least at $2000. Start doing some car washes!

Twabi2 · Post by **Twabi2** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 10:46 am

Lol, i just bought a 1700Ã¢â€šÂ¬ laptop, so the next thing to buy is a new cam
A little question:
Why do the cheap camera look so silly? and only the exspensive ones look proffesional? Is this done so you can see the difference between home use and proffesional

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 5:29 pm

im not sure but thats kinda how it sounds.

U.S.Amateurfilmaker · Post by **U.S.Amateurfilmaker** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 2:43 am

Anyone mind telling me how you afford these cams while still buying effects suites, editing software, 3d animation software, equipment, etc? Or do you just spend your entire paycheck? (I'm refering to the 18 and under crowd here)

Well I would be too afraid to spend a fortune on an expensive cam, because sometimes if I have to be in the shot, or have to be doing something else during a shoot, I'm not letting a friend handle an expensive cam! Besides, I don't tend to have good luck with cameras.

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 5:56 pm

Well i am only 14 we just all save up our lunch money and any mind we can scronge up and save it.....

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Wed Feb 04, 2004 9:00 am

Seriously!!! Get out and do car washes!!! My friend's theater group earns around $2000 for a saturday of washing cars! Write up a little sign like: Blah blah blah: for student projects. People will go for it, or at least they do here!

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 1:52 pm

Well it is the middle of winter at the moment Epsilon, we can't do carwashes in the snow. Well hell we could but I would really perfer not to.

U.S.Amateurfilmaker · Post by **U.S.Amateurfilmaker** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:31 am

What I need is a job making a commercial for a business, then maybe I can afford and XL1s or something.

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:58 am

XL1s? No.

Plus, if you did get a gig doing such, these companies would be expecting broadcast quality, etc. which you couldn't provide. Unless, you rented a camera. That's be relaitvely cheap, then with the money you made, you could reimberse yourself for the rental, then get a brand new camera...

There's a thought.

U.S.Amateurfilmaker · Post by **U.S.Amateurfilmaker** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:46 am

No, I don't do footage-based commercials, only picture/stock footage based ones (which make up at least 1/4 of all commercials, at least around here (ie: car dealer commercials). And plus, 1/3 of the commercials I see look like they we shot on a $200 cam, have crappy color, and bad sound, yet still cost a fortune for the company. Go figure.

But I will consder the rental idea though.

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:32 am

BrownCowStudios wrote:XL1s? No.

Plus, if you did get a gig doing such, these companies would be expecting broadcast quality, etc. which you couldn't provide. Unless, you rented a camera. That's be relaitvely cheap, then with the money you made, you could reimberse yourself for the rental, then get a brand new camera...

There's a thought.

I'm telling you guys, you can do broadcast quality with a prosumer camera, do it all the time... The Weather Cahnnel, local Television. It's all in the prep... Apply the NTSC legal filter in premiere, then render to MPeg-2 at a fixed bitrate of 12000. I use the LSX Mpeg. NBC News is sending crews out on the democratic primaries shooting on Sony PD-150s, and BBC uses a lot of PD-150s ( Which is basically the guts of the vx2000/2100 with better audio and the capability to use DVCAM. MiniDV encoding to tape is the same as DVCPro/DVCamThe trick is all in the quality of the intial tape. Tuesday I sent a package I shot in the morning to TWC, and later that afternoon they called the local TV station I shoot as a stringer for ( using the vx2100 ) for a look live from one of their reporters. They couldn't arrange sat time quick enough, so TWC called me to se if I could pick up the tape, encode it and FTP it, like I do with my packages. We did an A?B edit to DVCPro tape, dubbed it to min-dv, I took it home, caped it to premier 6.0 and encoded it it... 1 min 20 sec was about 145 MB, but it was broadcast quality, 20 minutes on the T-1 to upload it and it was on the air.
The problem isnot that the gear is not capable of shooting broadcast quality footage, it is all in the lighting and set up of the shot. Hell until two weeks ago I was shooting on a JVC single chip MiniDv... and still was able to seel the footage. The big trick is to avoid the concept of 'I'll fix it in post' when it comes to braodcast, if you have to fix it in post ( other than NTSC legal colors) then you didn't shoot it right in the first place. Learn color temp and white balance, learn how to use zebra stripes if your cam has them ( now that I do have them, no idea how I lived without them!) and get away from shooting on auto... set everything manually and you will get better footage almost every time.

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:43 am

The man is right. Let us all take his words, and use them wisely.

Oh, and by the way, I was merely saying if you're going to get a new camera, don't get an XL1s...

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 8:17 am

All of you guys should try to get into a broadcast channel studio at least once and look around (for example, Fox). The camera systems they use are beautiful. Each studio camera and tripod cost around $200,000. And they use at least nine at a time during a news report. The field cameras they use are worth around $60,000 for each system.

Hmm, I hope they still do studio tours!

Twabi2 · Post by **Twabi2** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 5:26 pm

yeah right
our local channel is so bad, the red channel and the green/blue channel are seen apart

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:31 am

lmao, thats pretty bad lol

U.S.Amateurfilmaker · Post by **U.S.Amateurfilmaker** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 6:14 am

Can honestly say that I have never seen that in a broadcast.