Best, least expensive DV

[jumpyhu]

hi!

i'm working on grade b horror films and am barely making ends meet. unfortunately my VHS camcorder efforts are not paying off, the quality isn't satisfying.

SO, my question is... I have a high end PC workstation and would love to go firewire and all of that. What is a dependable yet very (relatively) inexpensive DV camera that you would recommend to me, maybe around $500? Don't know if that will get "broadcast quality" or not, but that's what I'm shooting for. I don't need bells or whistles, just quality of resolution and dependability. If it's more than that, fine, just give details. $1000 is way out of the question

Hu

Thanks for your help. By the way, check out my other disco zombie related post!

www.discozombies.com

[foxwood]

well I can still answer you, your probably going to want to spend areound $800 for miniDV, I know sony has a good cam for 7 somthing, I almost picked it up, until i came to some cash, its a good bet. So ya check at sony they will hook you up.

[TommyPollock]

Sorry, I can't give a name, but I'd like to give a tip.

I borrowed my brothers £700 (as of a year ago) DV, and to my dismay, it did not come with the capability to load video to the PC, only stills. So...

Look for:

INCLUDED ability (software etc) to load video onto a PC. There is nothing worse the finding out your £700 isn't enough, and another £50 is required to get the stuff onto the PC.

[foxwood]

They should all have firewire suport, you are going to have to buy a firewire cable, and that is about 40 us 20 brit.

[jumpyhu]

I'll look around for a sony with firewire.

[Lee]

And a Firewire PCI Card if you haven't already got one.

[jumpyhu]

I'm assuming something like this would be just fine, then.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... egory=3753

[Lee]

Yeah, that looks fine.

Good luck!

[spacevortex]

checkout
www.dealtime.co.uk or www.dealtime.com

its a bit like kelkoo but the listings are better pricing and good reviews

i got a sony tvr22 dv cam

they range from £502 to the rrp of £650

in the search you will find one store which i did not use selling the 22 with the extra upgrade kit for just under £600.

before i purchased mine i contacted sony to discuss pixels.

sony tvr22
800k pixels
640 pixels for photos

the
sony tvr 33
1mega pixels photo
800k photo


so no need for extra pixels on stills i bought the tvr22
0lux lighting loads of effects...
firewire connector
good battery life
analog to digital converter (nice)

you will find even cheaper dv cameras but i love mine.......
the only downsides ive discovered but dont really hinder what i do, are....

manual focus is through the touch screen (not a real problem)

and being a handy cam your right had is positioned near the inbuilt mic, but this only seems to amplifiy when in windy conditions.... but i fix an external mic to mine now...... apart from those slight niggles.... im very happy...

[U.S.Amateurfilmaker]

Try digital 8mm, it's not as expensive as a mini-dv camcorder, but can be transfered via firewire, and has great quality (at least mine does)

[ALove]

there is no difference in quality between Digital 8 and Mini DV, Mini DV tapes can just can hold more footage like 2 hours instead of one. i have a sony DCR-TRV 240 and i am very happy with it. i got it at bestbuy for about $550

[Adam]

There is a small difference in storage quality Digital 8 can store up to 520 horizontal lines miniDv 530.

[jumpyhu]

Thanks for the tips! I'll look at digital 8, since the extra 10 lines of resolution aren't going to be that big of a deal


hu